It was known as “head oil” or “head matter” as it was found in the heads of sperm whales where its true anatomical function is still debated. Unlike any other whale oil apart from sperm whale body oil and the material found in the head of the bottlenose whale ( Hyperoodon ampulatus) spermaceti is a liquid wax. About half of the crude sperm oil obtained by American vessels at the height of the fishery was exported to other countries. A byproduct of the sperm oil refining process was high quality soap. Great quantities of sperm oil went into public and private lighting as well as lighthouses. It burns very clearly and brightly and without smoke or odor. Another feature is its superb qualities of illumination. One in particular is that it retains its lubricating qualities in extreme temperatures making it ideal for light, rapid machinery. It has particular qualities separating it from almost any other type of oil. Oil from sperm whale blubber otherwise known as body oil is of a light straw color. The primary products of the Yankee whale fishery were sperm oil, spermaceti, whale oil and whalebone and occasionally ambergris if any were discovered. That whales had to die to provide these things is a fact of seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century life.“ Oil was needed for light and lubrication baleen was needed for skirt hoops and corset stays. it is only through the lens of hindsight that the whaleman’s job becomes malicious or cruel. In Men and Whales, Richard Ellis writes that, until the beginning of the twentieth-century, whaling was considered an admirable occupation. Original verse from the journal of Henry Smith kept aboard the bark Marcella of New Bedford, 1840-1841, Benjamin Ellis, master. “Success to the old Marcella may she speedily return to her original haven abundantly laden with the riches of the ocean.” Whaling harpoon how to#The answers to why so many people went whaling are many and varied but the underlying principle is that whale products had a strong commercial value if one knew how to exploit it. Few individuals got rich whaling and most of those were owners and agents. In the Yankee whale fishery injuries and death were common to almost every voyage. Whaling was an exceptionally dangerous business both physically and economically. Why Hunted? “Abundantly laden with the riches of the ocean”: Why whales were hunted
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