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A richly illustrated sketchbook that documents the techniques, equipment, and daily life of traditional whaling through detailed plates and diagrams. Sequential images and captions depict fitting out, sail handling, whaleboats, harpooning and lancing, the struggle of the chase, cutting-in and rendering blubber, shipboard trades and tools, and shore activities such as gams and recruiting. A foreword frames the material by contrasting the romantic image of sail whaling with mechanized modern whaling, while the artwork emphasizes technical accuracy, danger, and the labor and culture of the whalemen.
Whalebone, which once brought a higher price than the oil of the bone whales, has little or no commercial value now.
The sketch shows the upper part of the head of a Bowhead whale, with the whalebone attached.
In larger specimens the slabs of “bone” reached twelve feet or more in length.