Loading a Harpoon Gun with Black Powder

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I came across this item of interest yesterday when doing a little bit of research on line about whaling. This is a brief excerp from a book originally written in 1916 by a man named Roy Chapman Andrews. Chapman made quite a name for himself as an explorer for the American Museum of Natural History, taking part in expeditions to the Gobi desert discovering previously unknown dinosaurs. But earlier he shipped out on an old whaling ship and wrote a book about his experiences. The title of the book is Whale Hunting with Camera and Gun.

Here is the description of how the big bow mounted harpoon gun was loaded:

"The charge is 300 to 375 drams of very coarse Black Powder which is...rammed home from the muzzle; then come wads of oakum, hard rubber or cork, after which the harpoon...is hammered solidly into place".

There are 256 drams in a pound, so we talking about a charge of around 1.17 pounds to 1.46 pounds.

Oakum was tarred fiber often made from old rope. It was used as caulking between the planks of wooden ships.

[Dick Dastardly]

No problem with KDs for that gun.  Spendy to shoot tho.  Probably wouldn't use Swiss.

DD-DLoS

[Adirondack Jack]

Driftwood, oakum IS rope caulking impregnated with tar.  It's still used quite often  (I've got a box of it here), just not in our  "clorox bottle" or "epoxy embalmed" boats.   It is still the best method of caulking a "real" boat    I learned how to caulk a planked boat from a gristled old man down in the islands. He'd been making his living at it for 60 years and had a waiting list of boats needing his services.

I can well imagine oakum would make a nice seal in a gun tube when rammed home with a hefty rammer.

[Deadeye Dick]

Lordy, think of the smoke and stink when that one went off. Heee Yaaa!

[Doctor Bill]

Definitely a crowd-pleaser to finish up a stage with.  Could be a little slow to stage though.   

[Dick Dastardly]

Were I to be makin' my livin' in the cold North Atlantic huntin' big fish, I'd want all the oomph I cud get in my iron spear gun.  I suspect that's exactly whut was done.  That pointed barb of iron had to hang on to that fish till they cud kill it.  No point in havin' a live whale thrashin' around in the boat. . .

Anyway, it's interesting that the loading of that canon evolved into a virtual science.  The old fishermen dang near hunted 'em big fist to extinction.  They were very good at what they did.

Now, when it comes to huntin' muskies, I prefer a 1/4 stick of DuPont Spinner with a short fuse. . . .

DD-DLoS

[Noz]

Talk about making an RO/TO choke. I personally like to have a light breeze coming from behind and over my right shoulder when I shoot. With the harpoon mounted on the front of the vessel and the vessel in full pursuit of the whale, you would have to have the wind in your face when the gun fired.  I can't see that as a pleasant experience for anyone including the whale.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Well, if you are running before the wind you would have the wind at your back, it would feel almost dead calm on board, and if you were on a reach it would be to your side. But I think that particular ship had an auxilliary steam engine, so she could probably motor into any point of the wind.

[The Elderly Kid]

When the harpoon gun came along, the harpoon had an explosive head as well. Unlike the "Moby Dick" days when the harpoon merely hooked the whale and you had to finish it with a lance, death was nearly instantaneous and there was no "Nantucket sleigh ride."
Incidentally, Roy Chapman Andrews found the first dinosaur eggs at the Flaming Cliffs in Outer Mongolia during his great paleontological expedition of the '20s. Then decades of war and Cold War closed the area to exploration, which is only now being resumed. Andrews was a pioneer and proved that a modern, motorized expedition could penetrate areas thought accessible only by mule or camel. He was also a great showman, and along with Frank Buck and a few others of the era, served as an inspiration for Indiana Jones.