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Photographs > Stereographs
> Conclusion
 As
the whale fishery began to decline in the years that followed the Civil War, the
Shutes sought tomemorialize and pay homage to the dying industry. In March 1868
they created an elaborate diorama of a whaling ship, several whaling boats, whales,
and seascape.
The model of the whaling ship, which the
Shutes named The Ulysses S. Grant, extended approximately 6 feet in length and
was built meticulously to scale. The only artistic tool or implement that Charles
H. Shute used in the ambitious project seems to have been a common pocket knife.
But father and son insisted on accuracy of detail: rope, block and sail, oars,
spades, and harpoons. The one matter which the Shutes did concede as somewhat
unrealistic was the close proximity with which they depicted the actual ship to
the whales, this was due to the obvious spatial limitations of the photographic
medium. By adjusting the diorama into twelve chronological
scenes, they succeeded in realistically telling the story of how the whale fishery
had been conducted since at least the 1820's and earlier. The twelve stereoscopic
scenes begin with the image of a school of whales. The following numbered images
in the series depict the chase and harpoon strike. One image depicts a stoven
boat, the struck whale furiously capsizing one of the whaling boats. The series
goes on to depict the death of the whale, the hooking onto the whale for the purpose
of "cutting in" and the raising of a piece of the flesh and blubber.
The series ends with an image of the tryworks, the boiling out and collection
of the whale oil. A selection of non-stereoscopic views
from the series follows.
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School
of Whales.
Three whaleboats are lowered to the sea. | Chasing
Whales.
The whaleboats approach the sperm whales and the harpooner prepares
to strike. | Striking.
This image lost from the collection. | |
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Fast.
Whalers make certain that their lines are firmly attached to the quarry.
| Stoven
Boat.
One of the enraged sperm whales attacks the whaleboat and capsizes it.
| Flurry or Dying.
The sperm whale
in its moment of death. The other whales appear to have escaped. |
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Hooking
on to Whale, for "Cutting In."
The lifeless whale is brought to
the ship | Raising a Piece.
The blubber is raised to the ship's deck. | Blanket
Piece.
The blubber is cut into smaller, more manageable pieces. |
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Taking in
the Junk.
The whalers gather the most valuable commodity: the spermaceti organ
in the whale's head.
| Bailing
the Case.
The whalers extract the fine sperm oil from the head of the whale. | Boiling
out the Whale.
The blubber is boiled in the tryworks and the oil is ladled
into the cooper's barrels. | |
