[Sca-cooks] Sperm Whales

[Decker, Terry D.]

According to my notes:

There is archeological evidence of prehistoric Northern European whaling
activity.

Small whales were hunted in northern waters during the Middle Ages.  The
modern pilot whale drives of the Faroe Islanders is one of the last remnants
of the Medieval practice.

Reference:  Bloch, D. 1996. Whaling in the Faroe Islands, 1584-1994: An
Overview. Pp. 49-61 In: P. Holm, D.J. Starkey and J.Th. ThÛr (eds) The North
Atlantic Fisheries, 1100-1976 - National Perspectives on a Common Resource.
Studia Atlantica, 1.

It should be noted that the Aleut and Inuit hunt small whales from umiaks.
It is a traditional practice probably with prehistoric origins.

The Basques were whaling at Red Bay, Labrador around 1560 (1540?) and there
were about a dozen whaling ports along the coast. According to Basque
tradition, there was a whaling station in Newfoundland around 1372.
(Archeology 46:5, National Geographic July 1985, 1999 Conference of the
Association for the History of the Northern Seas)
http://www.swgc.mun.ca/ahns/
http://www.swgc.mun.ca/ahns/AHNS99.html

An excavation of Erik the Red's farm in Greenland produced the ruins of a
cowbarn unearthed a whale scapula being used as a stall divider.  The last
occupancy was estimated to be around 1350.
http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/greenland/index.html

"And if on a fish day or in Lent there be whale-flesh (craspois), you ought
to use it as you use bacon on a meat day." Le Menagier de Paris

Menagier suggests slicing whale raw and cooking it in water "like bacon" and
serving it with peas.

Whaling from Hull begins in 1594.  --
http://www.hullcc.gov.uk/hull_tapestry/shipping.html


Bear




>
> There is evidence of whales being hunted and eated in period. Do we
> have any idea when the sperm whales were first hunted for this
> spermaceti? Or perhaps in period these whales were considered edible
> and were hunted for food as well as for this oil?
>
> How were whales hunted in period? I guess going after them in
> a longship
> type vessel isn't any more hair-raising than in a whaleboat, but not
> something I would willingly do. (actually, for more reasons than the
> just the hazard). Perhaps the whales were more common, and came in
> closer
> to shore such that you didn't need a large ship to act as a home base.
>
> Stefan li Rous
> stefan at texas.net
End of Sca-cooks Digest