Excerpts, including illustrations, from an 1839 text describing how whalers captured and killed the sperm whale.

The available pages of this text describe large whaling ships and the small whaleboats launched from them, which were used to hunt sperm whales in the 1830s. The illustrations depict the dangers faced by crew members sent out in small whaleboats to harpoon whales.

Citation Information
“The natural history of the sperm whale,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/30071d8f8ed1b2a66f4bbb615f15eaf5.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of The New York Public Library.

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For this source, consider:

  • the author's point of view
  • the author's purpose
  • historical context
  • audience