arturo22’s Blog

Its amazing how much stuff they have to carry on these ships in order to go whaling from harpoons to little whaling boats to stuff like cutting tackle. There is just so many things going on the ship. So imagine Ishmael he doesn’t know anything about a whaling ship all he knows about are the merchant ships. And whaling ships and merchant ships could not be more different. It is going to be interesting watching how Ishmael copes with all these new things. These whaling ships were not joking around they were prepared and ready for almost anything. 

I also think that the people who went whaling had to be crazy, and especially the harpooners. Its just craziness to row a tiny boat to a whale and then stab it and then go on that “Nantucket sleighride,” which could end up in your death. A whale with its incredible strength and in a rage would devastate that little boat, you wouldn’t stand a chance. The rest of the process is very efficient and well thought, its as if the ship is a factory. The whale gets skinned, the sperm gets released, and the giant whale gets made into a product ready to be sold.