![]() ![]() All of these documents and objects shed light on the enormous catches as well as the wide range of commercial and household goods that were made from the whales that were killed. It ranges from logbooks and photographs to personal accounts of experiences. The cannon from 1889 is part of the extensive collection of material that has been assembled at the German Maritime Museum on the subject of whaling. For the first time, they allowed the capture of numerous different whale species - including much larger and heavier ones than those previously hunted with hand-held harpoons or harpoon guns.Īs part of the exhibition, the harpoon is intended to stimulate discussion about whaling The relevant technical standards had already been set in the 1870s by Norwegian whaling captain and inventor Svend Foyn (1809-1894). In our exhibition, the harpoon gun marks the beginning of modern whaling, its industrialization, and with it the overexploitation of whale stocks resulting from the use of harpoon guns, steam-powered whaling ships, and ramps on factory ships. A total of 65 tons of whale fat was produced during the voyage, which seemed to give reason to hope for an expansion of industrial whaling in the 20th century. Between July 4 and July 15, 1899, five humpback whales, one fin whale and one minke whale were killed with the ELMA's harpoon gun. The harpoon gun was part of the expedition's broad research mission and the key not only to whaling in the Wilhelmine era, but also to the eventual establishment of industrial whaling in Germany. Claims of this nature were highly contested until Norwegian territorial sovereignty over Bear Island was recognized in 1920. ![]() This was the second voyage with which the German government sought to take possession of the island. The destination of the voyage, which took place a year later and departed from the Wencke shipyard in Bremerhaven, was Bear Island north of Spitsbergen. This harpoon gun, built in 1889 by the Bofors company in Christiana (Oslo), was acquired by the German Sea Fishery Association in 1898 to equip the ship ELMA for a sea voyage to the Arctic Ocean as part of a general overhaul. This marked a step towards industrial whaling. The new exhibition at the German Maritime Museum shows a harpoon gun that was used for whaling during an Arctic expedition.
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