Nose of whaling harpoon

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

51543

Title

Nose of whaling harpoon

Description

An early 20th century iron nose of an explosive whaling harpoon. The nose has a circular end, is hollow in the centre, and tapers to four small flanges.

Location

Queensferry Museum

Copyright

The City of Edinburgh Council Museums and Galleries

Edinburgh was a primary player in the Antarctic whaling trade, with Leith-based Christian Salvesen at one time being the largest whaling company in the world. Curiously, we have little to reflect this industry in our collections. This object, the nose of an explosive harpoon, is one of the few related objects we do have, and it belongs to our Queensferry Museum collections. It was probably used in the early to mid-20th century in the seas around Antarctica.

Whales provided the materials needed for a remarkable range of everyday products in the late 19th century, with demand fuelled by the Industrial Revolution. Whale meat was eaten, and baleen was used in ladies’ clothing. Blubber and sperm oil were used for domestic and street lighting, as well as in soap, varnish, paint and as an industrial lubricant.

The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw huge technological advances in whaling, increasing safety for the whalers and allowing for larger and more bountiful catches. The efficiency of the equipment meant that many species of whale were hunted to near extinction. As a result, the industry quickly went into decline and ended in Scotland entirely in 1963. Few of the whale populations have recovered.

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Related subjects

Animals > Mammals > Whales

Places > Edinburgh areas > South Queensferry

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

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