Antarctica Picture | Antarctica Cruise | Facts | History | Boots | Store | Clothes | Whales | Books | Video | Schools | Forum | Site Map | FIDS / OAE's
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Antarctica Picture | Antarctica Cruise | Facts | History | Boots | Store | Clothes | Whales | Books | Video | Schools | Forum | Site Map | FIDS / OAE's
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Right whale
bringing the head and whalebone aboard
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Right
whales were valued for the large amounts of blubber and oil that
they yielded and also for the baleen plates or "whalebone
". This is not bone at all, but made from a protein
substance called keratin like
other mammalian structures such as hair, skin, nail and
horn.
For a while at least, before being replaced with spring steel and later on plastic materials, the whale bone was very valuable and would be separated with the head to be brought on board the ship to be stripped and cleaned as soon as possible. If the whalebone was not obtained from the whale quickly, it would start to take on a characteristic unpleasant smell that could never really be got rid of. Picture from an old postcard |
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The whaling gallery is a collection of images from a whole range of sources. It is intended to inform and illustrate a now (thankfully) vanished occupation and way of life that for the men so engaged was hard and often dangerous. It is intended for historical interest rather than a commentary on the ethics of whaling.
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 Shackleton 2002 
DVD
DVD
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