There She Blows!

The Essex has been at sea for over three months and you are off the coast of Argentina when the lookout cries “there she blows”.

He means that he has spotted a whale’s spout – the spray of moist, warm air released from the whale’s blowhole when it surfaces to breathe.

You hope it’s a sperm whale – experienced whalers can tell different whale species by the size and shape of their spout.

SPERM WHALE This is the largest toothed whale. It grows up to 59 feet (18m) long. It has a single blowhole that spouts forward and to the left.

Click to compare with other whales

CAPTAIN'S LOG
Right, the captain’s log book records different whale species and how many barrels of oil they produce. Vertical sketches show escaped whales and horizontal ones show those that are killed.

TRACK OF THE ESSEX
The Essex set sail on 12th August, 1819, and stops in the Azores and Cape Verde Islands. The ship sights sperm whales off the Argentinian coast and makes her first ‘kill’. The Essex rounds Cape Horn in 1820 and sails up the west coast of South America and into the Pacific.

Based on the book, You Wouldn't Want to Sail on a 19th-Century Whaling Ship!
Copyright 2004 - the Salariya Book Company