Standard Whale Boat
Bernard Hart
mid-19th century
Medium/TechniqueWood
Dimensions57.15 cm (22 1/2 in.)
Credit LineGift of John Templeman Coolidge
Accession number32.169
On View
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Hart constructed this model after a late-nineteenth or early-twentieth century whaleboat then on view at the Dartmouth Historical Society in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Whaling vessels typically carried four to six such boats, each manned by four oarsmen, an officer (or boat header), and a harpooner (or boat steerer). It was in these small boats that the actual pursuit and capture of a whale took place. This model is well equipped and ready for the chase.
ProvenanceLent by J. Templeman Coolidge / February 27, 1929about 1780
About 1780–90
1836
about 1740
about 1810 (rigging about 1840)
about 1730
1881