Guns for Whales

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Wildalaska

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This lovely lady in the pic is Alice, who is holding her grandmother's Whaling Darting Gun as is still being used by Native Alaskans up in the Arctic. We just rebuilt this for her and estimate its age at 70 years. Its approximately 10 feet long, weighs about 40 pounds

HARPOONWITHEXP2.jpg


Functionally it works as follows:

The receiver (darker brass colour) is tied to the wood shaft with some type of sinew. The receiver is threaded to hold the barrel (right under Alices hand) and it (the receiver) contains a springloaded striker that is activated by a push trigger. The barrel holds a "dart" or "bomb" (you can see the pointy tip sticking out of the barrel). A harpoon is attached to the barrel and the shaft.

The whaler first takes the bomb. He unscrews the point and fills the body with black powder. A collar seals the body, it is drilled to permit a fuse to be inserted and has a nipple where a percussion cap is fit. The pointed head contains a brass striker that is held in place with (believe it or not) a toothpick.

The whaler next unscrews the barrel from the receiver and inserts an 8 guage brass shell primed with a shotgun primer and filled with black powder under a wad. The barrel is then screwed on and the bomb inserted. A rope is tied to the harpoon (you can see the eyelet) and the harpoon tip fixed in a straight position with again, a tooth pick.

Now the whaler, who may be in a skin boat chasing a 50 foot whale, spots his prey. As the boat draws close, the rope is tied to a float. The striker is cocked and the trigger connected. Now hes real close....the stands in the front of the boat and shoves the Gun with all his stregnth at the whale, driving the harpoon deep. As the harpoon tip hits the whale, the trigger also hits and trips the striker, which fires the 8 gauge blank shell and shoots the dart deep into the whale. As the dart leaves the barrel, inertia breaks the toothpick in the head, causing the striker to hit the percussion cap, lighting the fuse inside the dart body. The whaler jerks the shaft back, pulling the harpoon off but leaving the head (which is now cocked into a horizontal position and is stuck) in the whale. A few seconds later, as the fuse burns into the black powder, the dart blows up, killing the whale.

Takes more guts than I have

WildnowyouknowAlaska​
 
Every time I think the world is beginning to be understandable somebody springs one of these Rube Goldberg contraptions on me and I realize that things are not as simple as they seem. :o

Wild, if you can fix a spear like that I think you could build custom Higgs bosons if you wanted to.
 
I would think if that was all there was about for whales vs the deck mounted harpoon gun with the bomb shell tips there would be more whales about.
 
I thought the Aleutians were allowed to actually use firearms, like y'know more traditional, to harvest their whales; are these fancy harpoons still made and common, or is this the sort of thing that they used commonly in the 50's and now they all just break out the Remchester?
 
Wow that is some serious firepower! I never knew that the whalers used to use an improvised bomb.
 
I would think if that was all there was about for whales vs the deck mounted harpoon gun with the bomb shell tips there would be more whales about.
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This is tradional, not industrial whaling.

I thought the Aleutians were allowed to actually use firearms, like y'know more traditional, to harvest their whales; are these fancy harpoons still made and common, or is this the sort of thing that they used commonly in the 50's and now they all just break out the Remchester?
Click to expand...

The Aleuts don't whale. These darting guns are used by the Inupiaqs on the North Slope. They also use a 25 pound brass shoulder gun that fires the darts. Most whaling crews use one of both of these methods, some use more modern darting guns with Penthrite grenades from Scandanavia. The shoulder and darting guns have been used since at least the turn of the 20th century IIRC.

WildihuntsardineswithatoothpicandmustardAlaska
 
WA, thanks for a great read.

BTW, my dad's up in Fairbanks today. I understand the high is supposed to be between 35 and 40 below. Makes his Chicago home and his Canadian vacation home seem balmy!
 
I can see it now......everyone on the excursion boat is ooooohing and aaaaaaahing at the whales, snapping pictures, and trying to communicate with natures smartest sea creature.....suddenly Alice whips out the ol' harpoon gun and tags a big one! Alex Baldwin and Barbara Streisand are stunned to learn there were no metal detectors on the ship.....:p .....legislation will soon follow to rid the world of Alice's deadly weapon.
 
Although they have not done so for a while, the Makahs here in Washington state won the treaty right to hunt gray whales several years ago. If I recall correctly, they have taken two. Their method of hunting is to use a traditional harpoon or two, thrown by hand, and then, to minimize suffering or chance of escape of the whale, they shoot it with a Barrett .50 rifle. I cannot recall how many shots they had to fire to kill the whale.
 
yeah, at first i had a flash back from the Crocidile Dundee movie when Mic was hiding behind a dead kangaroo shooting and the people who thought the kangaroo was shooting... I was wondering how a whale would shoot a gun, they got no thumbs, or fingers... Those whalers don't mess around, a lot of them die... no kidding.. I just saw something on the history channel about it. That is a lot better setup then what I saw. Back in the day, that was on of the most deadly professions, if u wanna call it that.
 
What? You have a problem with home invasions by Killer Whales?!???!
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And you don't? But even if you don't now, you might later. Get ready while you can.

I wonder what would be effective for mutant zombie cetaceans?
 
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