1760 Homann Heirs Illustration of Whaling around Spitzbergen

This is a most fascinating c. 1760 Homann Heirs chart illustrating the Arctic whale fishery in the vicinity of Spitsbergen and Greenland. The image emerged at the peak of 18th-century whaling just as Arctic whale populations began to decline due to over-harvesting.

A Closer Look

The chart is divided into four sections:

At the top center is a visual description of whaling in the vicinity of Spitzbergen. The illustration details the process and work of whaling in the Arctic, with 7-man teams crammed into small rowboats attempting to capture, kill, and harvest the whales. The illustration is alphanumerically keyed to an extensive textual description of various whaling roles occupying boxes on both the right and left.

The second image details five types of whales, whaling implements, a 'SeeKrabbe,' and what is almost certainly a Puffin. Each is annotated with additional details, much of which is a fascinating read, for example,

The tail extends 3 to 4 fathoms in width. It strikes powerfully when it is in a stormy mood, and also when it is beached, during which the crew must be very careful not to be struck and shattered into a thousand pieces. The tail and fins are marbled, and the skin of the rest of the body is blackish and smooth, while the belly is white.

These images are drawn from the writings of whalers Friderich Martens (1635 - 1699) (Spitzbergische oder Groenlandische Reise-Beschreibung, gethan im Jahre 1671, published in 1675) and Cornelius Gisbert Zorgdrager (c. 1660 - 1720) (Beschreibung des Grönländischen Walfischfang, published in 1750).

The third image, at the bottom left, illustrates how whalers must enter the treacherous ice flows to harvest whales.

Since whales like to hide under the ice fields and floes, the ships must also sail into the ice. However, the floes pile up during a storm (A) in such a way that they stand like mountains. Thus (B), a ship is often crushed or even sunk under the water, while the men must flee onto the ice fields (C). The ice extends into the sea as far as the eye can see (D). The white bear stands on a dead whale alongside the seabirds, feeding from it.

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A piece of ice that is 4 to 10 miles long is called a field. Ice chunks smaller than 4 miles are called floes; even smaller ones are called ice chips or loose ice. If a whale seeks refuge under the large ice fields, it must soon come back up to breathe, and before the hunt can proceed successfully near the floes and ice chips, there are many holes where the whale can release its breath to the surface.

The fourth illustration, in the lower right, is unique to this view and depicts the Svalbard tryworks - the land-based station and processes for rendering whale fat. The caption, in translation, reads,

When the whale blubber has been brought to the tryworks in quarters, the cut-up pieces of blubber from Greenland (a) are placed into the copper cauldron (b) and stirred while boiling (c) until, after 2 hours of cooking, the fat can be scooped out with ladles. The fat is then poured over a canal into a trough fitted with a grate (d), where two other water-filled troughs run and cool the fat. From the latter, the cooper fills it into barrels (e). One whale provides 45-50 such quarters of oil.

Svalbard Whaling

In the 1700s, whaling around Spitsbergen (Svalbard Archipelago) was a major industry driven by Dutch and British whalers. Spitsbergen's waters were rich in bowhead whales, whose blubber was ideal for valuable whale oil used for lamps and lubricants, while baleen (whalebone) was used to make corsets and umbrellas. Whaling ships ventured en masse into the Arctic each summer, setting up temporary whaling stations on spits of land or large ice flows to process the catch. The lucrative industry was highly competitive, more than once leading to conflicts and even wars. As the century progressed, increased hunting pressure led to a decline in whale populations around Spitsbergen, forcing whalers to venture further into the Arctic. This period was crucial in shaping the whaling economy, though it also marked the beginning of the global depletion of whale populations.

Publication History and Census

This chart was issued by Homann Heirs c. 1760. Examples online are rarely digitized, and the image is scarce, having been a separate issue not included in any standard atlases. It is one of two whale engravings issued by Homann Heirs, both of which have very similar titles. Dating this is difficult. Library holdings date this piece anywhere from 1716 to 1760, but most are in error. It cannot date to before 1750 when the source work mentioned in the title, Cornelius Gisbert Zorgdrager's Beschreibung des Grönländischen Walfischfang, was published. Scarce both on the market and in institutional collections.