Whaling by Early Settlers on Long Island
by Valentine Gladstein
Today we visited the East Hampton Town Marine Museum. Curated by the East Hampton Historical Society, the museum tells the story of how the ocean has shaped the Long Island community. On the ground floor there is an extensive exhibit of early whaling relics, and these offer visitors an up-close look at some of the tools of the trade used by early settlers to Long Island.. For these early settlers the ocean was a crucial lifeline, providing trade routs and a source of food. Once they learned to hunt whales witht the help of the local Native Americans, the settlers used whaling to supplement their income. At the time, whales were fairly abundant, and the profits from a single whale could be enormous. Once whaling became widespread in the area, the settlers had a reliable and lucrative commodity to trade for much needed supplies.
Whaling was a community enterprise; finding, killing, and breaking down a whale was a labor intensive operation and brought in enough profit to support many workers. Children were recruited to watch for whales from the shore and to run and inform the town when one was sighted. The whalers would drop their field tools and run to the shore, drag their surfboat down the beach, and take off rowing after the whale. They would harpoon the whale and tie the harpoon line to the boat. The distressed whale would try to flee, pulling the whaleboat along behind it. While on their “nantucket sleighride” the whalers could do little more than pour water on the harpoon line to keep it from chafing and catching fire and hang on for dear life while they waited for the whale to tire out. When the whale finally came to a rest they would come up to it and use a sharp lance to kill the animal. They would pull the animal back to town and haul it up on the beach, and the work of collecting the valuable part of the whale could begin.
Dismembering a whale needs to happen quickly, as the carcass soon begins to rot and decompose. Many townspeople would come and help with the work of cutting through the whale’s thick skin and up to a foot of blubber. The skin would be saved, the blubber chopped and melted down to make oil, and the whale’s bones would be saved for carving scrimshaw and luxury goods. The profit from a single whale could be enough to buy and furnish three farms, but the long island settlers were not content, and gained a reputation for using barrels with false bottoms to make the volume of oil they brought to market appear greater than it was.
Setting: East Hampton, September 5 1711
by Robert Charde
It’s been a long day in the fields. Your canoe glides effortlessly through the cool water as the evening grows closer to that magical golden sunset of late summer. Arriving home and storing all your collected efforts you are embraced by the warm, wispy arms of dinner, gently floating from the hearth to greet you before you set foot inside. The hunger that you had been ignoring creeps to the forefront of your mind, making you all the more anxious to sit down at your table.
Your wife brings pots from the kitchen and you can feel the warmth of the fire place drift into the room and take its seat at the table. The air has cooled in the fading light and a gentle summer breeze has wrapped itself loosely around the house, occasionally working its way into the open windows. Still, you certainly do not envy the woolen skirts, aprons, and dresses in which your wife spends her day in front of that fire and the few beads of perspiration on her brow as she takes a seat next to you make you all the more sure of that. The wool, however, is far less susceptible to catching fire and you conclude that between being overly warm and being engulfed in flame you would gladly don the required dress.
You thank God for your bounty, enjoy a hearty dinner, and allow the food to settle into your stomach. Shortly, there is a knock at the door. It is your friends and neighbors the Shaws. You invite them in for pleasant conversation and companionship and you all sit by the candlelit table. By this time the sun is casting its last few rays from under the horizon. Your wife brings out cider for the guests and you discuss your farms and prospects. In talking about the expected crop yields and potential talks with the native populations your wife offers to show your guests a trick she learned as a young girl. She takes the hand of Mr. Shaw and begins to spin the yarn of his past. “You have an earth hand, you are patient and steadfast. Your life line has a great deal of notches in it, were you in great danger, close to death, in your youth?”. Mr. Shaw relates the anecdote of falling off of his horse as a young man and being spared by the grace of God, but only just barely. Eventually your wife makes predictions for everyone to the great entertainment of the guests and as the hour draws late the party collectively decides to retire to their respective homes. As you and your wife prepare for bed she suddenly turns to you with a look of great concern, “I did not mention it earlier so as not to raise undue alarm, but, there was something troubling about the hand of Mr. Shaw. According to his palm he is not long for this world.” Cue twilight zone theme music. It is, however, also quite late and as the expression will someday go, early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy and wealthy and wise. With that you climb into bed and extinguish your candle as your eyelids grow heavy and sleep drifts upon you like a gently fog.
East Hampton Blog post
by Riley O’Connor
We visited the East Hampton Maritime Museum today located in East Hampton. It is run and curated by the East Hampton Historical Society which also runs other museums in the area. The first floor has an extensive photograph exhibit based on the 1986 book “Men’s Lives” by Peter Matthiessen. It depicts the hard work and toil the baymen and surfmen of the East Hampton area go through.
The life of a baymen is extremely interesting. The fields and bays of East Hampton is located between the Atlantic Ocean and Gardiners Bay. For hundreds of years, eight families have worked on these waters, catching anything they can. Marine life such as bluefish, cod, lobsters, clams, oysters, and bass. One of the fishing methods they practice is called haul-seining. The crew of five launches a small boat off the shore with a large net and sets that net off shore in a half-curcle pattern. The net then gets hauled back to the shore using winches. The part of the net that catches the fish is called the bunt which is a heavy mesh bag in the back-center of the net. The crew will do this several times a day, keeping the large fish and throwing back the smaller ones. The fish that are kept (usually bass) are then brought to markets and then shipped around the world. The money is shared equally between the members of the crew.
The baymen live very interesting lives, living in a very close-knit community surrounded by resorts and the rich and famous that have homes in East Hampton. The children grow up on the water, cleaning nets, scalloping, clamming, and building a relationship with what will be his fellow crewmen. Most men marry the daughters of other fishermen. The family is close though, with everyone helping and pitting in what they can to the family. The baymen have a hard life, working hard during the season and struggling to make ends meet during the off season when they are repairing their gear.
I found this exhibit extremely interesting. Even as someone who enjoys fishing, I don’t think I could live the life of a bayman. Through this exhibit I really felt the absolute spirit these families have for their job and their community.