Norwegian whaling - Baleen whale - Whales and Whaling pictures 44

This is a picture from the late 1800's to early 1900's judging from the steam - powered catcher boat. During this era, "industrial whaling" was starting to become successful. Industrial whaling is the name given to the era where the capture and processing of whales became much more mechanized and efficient. Initially it started due to the invention of the explosive harpoon fired from a cannon mounted in the bow of the catcher boat.

The catcher boats were steam powered and so could catch up with the fast swimming baleen whales, something that was not possible with man-powered old style whale boats.

Despite these advances, the early steam-powered catchers were slow, slower than the whales they were trying to catch, so the simple overtake by speed method didn't work. Instead, the boats would hang around and "ambush" a surfacing whale with the extra burst of speed helping the catch though the whale could escape by swimming away.