What Was the Oil Used For?

The boom in whaling occurred due to the rising demand for spermaceti oil in America. Spermaceti oil was prized and worshiped for its efficiency. A candle crafted from spermaceti oil was one that could burn for days, leaving no smoke trail. With the mass production of spermaceti candles, Americans no longer had to worry about opening the windows in their homes when they lit a candle. In addition to this, whale oil was used in different applications as a wax. However, it is the composition of spermaceti oil that makes it so rare. NASA uses spermaceti oil in a multitude of projects up to date. This is an interesting conspiracy since whaling was officially banned in 1986. Rumor has it that NASA stored thousands of gallons of spermaceti oil somewhere for their own use explicitly. This, of course, revokes any rumors stating that NASA still hunts whales today. But why would NASA depend on such a rudimentary product in their missions? The answer lies in the composition of the whale oil itself. Spermaceti oil in particular doesn't freeze in subzero temperatures. This makes spermaceti oil extremely useful when it comes to lubricating a new space shuttle. Unfortunately for NASA, scientists have still been unable to synthesize spermaceti oil, making what's left in their reserves all that they've got.





Sources
Treehugger.com. N.p., 13 Oct. 2008. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. 
     <http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/ 
     whale-oil-as-space-lubricant-better-than-anything-we-can-create.html>. 

The Island of "Bonapete"

On "Friday February 21th 1902", the Charles W. Morgan visited the island of "Bonapete". Nevertheless, if you try to research the island, you will quickly discover that this island does not exist (at least by the name given). Usually when islands are given in this logbook, the ship simply spotted the landmass on their voyage out upon the horizon. The non existent Island of "Bonapete", on the contrary, was actually visited by the Morgan. In mid afternoon, the Morgan "stoods Breast of Middle harbors", signifying this island was some sort of port. The Morgan was then greeted from the "one canoe [that] came of to us latter part [of the day]". The map below shows the approximate path of the Morgan around the time they visited "Bonapete". Point A was the location of the ship four days before, point B their location three days after, and point C the island of Saipan spotted by the vessel a week after their visit to "Bonapete". I hypothesize that the Morgan visited what is now known as the Federated States of Micronesia during their voyage. "Bonapete" might have been the local's name for the Island.

Determining Latitude and Longitude

One of the questions that I wondered while transcribing was how did they determine the Latitude and Longitude. They used a sextant to determine latitude and a chronometer to find the longitude. The sextant was invented in 1731. Using a sextant is pretty complicated. To use it you need to do some calculating, refer to tables, and you ned have some knowledge of the sky and earth. To find the latitude, you need to measure the angle between the horizon and the sun at its highest point, usually about noon. Then you refer to the table, and it will tell you what latitude the sun should be over that day.
















Every hour the earth rotates 15 degrees. Therefore using a chronometer, greek roots chronos which means time and met which means measure, you can find your longitude. After referring to your tables, you could do some simple math and determine what your longitude is at that time of day. Then using the rate at which the earth is spinning and the rate at which you are travelling it is not terribly difficult to figure out what longitude you are at.

















Check out this link for some more information on ancient navigation and sailing techniques.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/secrets-of-ancient-navigators.html

Check out this one for more information on finding latitude and longitude.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/navigate/escapenav.html

Now it makes sense that they seem to skip so many Latitudes and Longitudes in the Logbook. If they do not use the sextant at noon then they cannot get an accurate reading and also it is a lot of work for  Thomas Scullen Master so if he had other things to do that day then he might not have been able to get around to it.
 

Different Types of Whaling Ships, and the common Whaleboat.

             Ships
Ships had three masts which each had a topmast and top gallant, and was square rigged. A ship could have as many as 37 people on board and could carry 4-5 whale boats with 2 extra. Each ship would have 6 men per whaleboat along with the cook, steward, cooper, blacksmith or carpenter.
           Brig
Brigs had two masts that were square rigged.
            Schooner
The Schooner was the Smallest ship which would have 2 masts with fore and aft rigging. Schooners would be able to go on shorter voyages, but were cheap to outfit, and so were economically profitable.
            Bark
Barks also had 3 masts, front 2 square rigged, back one was fore and aft rigged. Barks required fewer crew to handle sails as men went out in whaleboats after whales, so less crew needed and could have cheaper voyages.
          Whaleboat
Whale boats were 30 feet long, 6 feet wide approximately, and were light but strong with both ends pointed. They were equipped with long oars, up to 22 feet long, and had mast and sails with a rudder. They were made with a easy design so that they weren't hard to repair and could be crewed by six men
Each whaleboat carried 2 harpoons ready for use with 2-3 spares, and 2 wooden tubs with 900 feet of coiled hemp rope. The crew had to be sure it would uncoil nicely without any knots, otherwise the rope could get caught and could kill or main crew members. They would also have a Piggen for bailing, or wetting rope as it ran out so it didn't burn. They would also hold a Compass, lantern-keg with flint, steel, box of tinder, lantern, candles bread, tobacco, pipes, anchor buoys, had a dragging float to tire out the whale. A waif ( a long poled flag used to locate a floating carcass from a distance and to identify it for other whale ships) and a fluke spade to cut a hole in the whale tail and tow it back to the ship

The End of an Era

There is much associated with the decline and end of the Golden Age of Whaling but the main cause was the up and coming new inventions and lack of new technology for whaling. One of these main causes was the finding of petroleum in 1859 which took over the day to day uses of whale oil. This, however, was not the only cause for Americans and people all over the world were still finding new uses for the whale oil ever day. The end of the era was not a result of one issue or invention but a combination of many. Another cause was the American Civil War which took the focus away from whaling and on fighting the war itself. Within the Civil War, there was the blockade of southern ports which led to many whale-ships being unused and thus converted to help the war effort. The fear of  many disasters to whalers and their property in the Arctic was also a concern that caused many to stop whaling. The large decline in the whale stocks also led to end. Finally, the tip of the iceberg for the end of the Golden Age was the development of new whaling technology in both America and in Norway. This may seem hard to believe but with the great development in new technology allowing whales to be captured more efficiently, most whale populations were near extinction and no new whales were being found. The combination of all of these factors led to the ultimate demise of whaling in a America and thus the end of an era.

Source: "William Lloyd Garrison Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2014. <http://www.biography.com/people/william-lloyd-garrison-9307251>.

Conversion of Coordinates

In the logbook itself, latitude and longitude are measured with decimals (i.e. 120.34 degrees North). However, Google maps - the program which we will be using to actually plot these coordinates to form a comprehensive route that the ship took - uses coordinates measured in degrees, minutes, and seconds. To do this, one must understand the method used to convert between the two forms of coordinate notation.

For instance, the angle 28° 30'15" (the symbol ' denoting minutes and " denoting seconds) is equal to 28.504167 degrees.

To convert from 28° 30'15"", the equation used is 28+(30*1/60)+(15*1/60*1/60). Each minute is 1/60 of a degree, and each second is 1/60 of a minute, or 1/60 of 1/60 of a degree. 

In order to convert in the opposite direction (minutes and seconds to decimals), we take the decimal alone:0.504167, and multiply it by 60: 0.504167 * 60 = 30.25. We then take the decimal of this number (0.25) and multiply it by 60 as well: 0.25 * 60 = 15. As a result we are left with 28° 30'15"

41° 46' N and 140° 44' E: Hakodate Harbour, Hokkaido

On this voyage the C. W. Morgan spent ten days at Hakodate harbor in Japan where they painted and cleaned the ship. Hakodate harbor was the first harbor built on Hokkaido, and was opened to foreign trade in 1854. Hakodate harbor has a humid subtropical climate but is close to an oceanic climate, and a humid continental climate and as a result winters are cold and summers are warm. As whalers traveled to northern Japan and Siberia for whaling the Japanese found it harder to supply the boats, and return stranded sailors. Japanese officials would take stranded sailors into custody until they could be sent home. Many died from harsh condition and lack of food and water and some were even accused of being spies due to attempts to escape custody.

Source: "Hakodate, Hokkaido." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 Oct. 2014. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.