harpooner
The harpooner is a job aboard a whaler .
history
Before the invention of the harpoon cannon by the Norwegian Svend Foyn around 1864, the harpooner was one of the belt guests in the small fishing boats or sloops , which were an important accessory of the whaling ship. With a powerful throw of the harpoon , a kind of spear with a rope attached to the end, at the fleeing whale , it was the task of the harpooner to attach the fishing boat to the whale by ensuring that the harpoon was in the body of the Wales got stuck. Now the fishing boat could be pulled to the whale by means of the rope and the helmsman of the fishing boat, who was also the helmsman or captain on board the whaling ship, could cut the main artery of the whale with the help of a lance with a long knife blade at the end and so kill the whale.
In more modern times, after the invention of the harpoon cannon, the term harpooner describes the person on board the whaler who both kills the whale with the harpoon cannon and attaches it to the ship.
