50 Foot Whale Named Binary Washes Ashore - Read Description
Colonists’ first form of whaling was called drift whaling: simply finding and utilizing all the dead whales that would randomly but regularly wash ashore.
A few winters ago I read a book called ‘Leviathan, The History of Whaling in America’ and the first chapter was all about drift whaling. Great read. Some excerpts below.
‘The clearest sign yet that drift whaling had become an important occupation in the colonies was the rise of government oversight…[and] nowhere were authorities more active than in Massachusetts & Long Island.”
“Fights over who owned drift whales were frequent enough that towns would create laws and wards…in 1644, Southampton [NY] court ordered the town be divided into four wards…when a whale was found, each ward was required to send 2 people to do the honors of cutting it up…the cutters took double their share of blubber to compensate for ‘their payne’, and the remainder was divided equally among the other inhabitants”
“To ensure that no drift whale went unclaimed, courts even established an early warning system…after every storm…[people] were selected to view if there be any whales cast up…and if those viewers failed to carry out this responsibility, they would be fined ten shillings or whipped.” Some towns established finder’s fees to encourage reporting.
Anyways, this particular whale was a 49 foot long humpback known to researchers since the 1980’s. She raised at least 9 calves over the years, often migrating back/forth from New England and the West Indies. Cause of death is unknown.
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