![]() ![]() Ashley states that this change took place between 17. The shafts of these early irons ended in a shoulder with a small spike at the base, rather than the familiar socket, which was used to fasten the iron to a pole.īy the mid-1700's the use of drugs was largely abandoned in favor of fastening the whaleboat to the whale by means of a "tow iron." In his book The Yankee Whaler, Clifford W. The early irons had a smaller head than the later irons because they had to withstand only the force necessary to pull the drug through thewater, not the force of a heavy whaleboat. ![]() Sometimes harpoons attached to drugs were called log harpoons. The drug, or drogue, was either a block of wood about two feet square, or crossed planks, or some other type of float fastened to the iron by a short warp not over seventy-five fathoms in length. It is shaped like an arrow before: it hath two sharp beards, they are sharp at the edge, and have a broad back, like unto a hatchet that is sharp before and blunt behind, or on the back, so that it may not cut with its back, for else it would tear out, and all your labour would be lost.Įarly colonial American harpoons were used to fasten a "drug" to the whale to slow and tire it. The two fue design was described by Frederic Marten, writing of a voyage in 1671 as follows: ![]() Dow, Whale Ships and Whaling: A Pictorial History of Whaling during Three Centuries (Salem, Mass.: Marine Research Society, 1925), p.60. This early engraving, 1611, clearly shows the two flue harpoon, also.įrom Hans Egede, Beschryving van Oud-Groenland, as re-engraved for "Churchill's Voyages" (1745) and reproduced in George F. The seal of the Basque town of Biarritz in 1351 shows a whaling scene in which a harpoon clearly has a two flue head. Two flue irons have been used for taking whales and large fish for more than a thousand years. Two Flue Irons Whalecraft Whaling Whalesite ![]()
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