Whaling Ship Tobacco Pipes

On a recent trip to NYC and Long Island, I had a chance to stop briefly at the

Whaling Museum at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. 'Lots of goodies here:

A fully equipped whale boat with mast, all the "whale craft gear," and other

equipment, oars etc. There are whale jaws, vertebrae, and other gear and lore.

For a pipe smoker, a point of interest is the typical whaling ship sailor's

sea chest, the only space for private possessions of the working crew other

than the captain and officers. Each man had a few clothes, like three shirts

if he was lucky, one pair of shoes, and other sparse gear. The whole thing, made of

wood, is the size of a large picnic cooler. (That's about what I had as an enlisted

man on a U.S. Navy minesweeper during the Vietnam War.) Among the whaling

ship sailor's gear was one tobacco pipe, well used, and a cloth bag of tobacco,

about 2 ounces. The pipe either was simulated by, or looked just like, a Missouri

Meerschaum hardwood pipe. Whaling under sail (as opposed to steam and

internal combustion power) ended in about 1912 (roughly), other than some

whaling by some native peoples. Anyway, there was the pipe, well-represented,

one of the few obvious life pleasures in among the hardest of professions.

Apparently the fire hazard of smoking was trumped by the social acceptance of the habit.

Aboard sailing ships, I think smoking was an accepted way of using the little personal time

sailors had. I'm not sure where smoking was allowed on sailing ships, but I feel that is

recorded, as were most of the shipboard rules, somewhere. Aboard a U.S. Navy minesweeper

in the late 1960's, early 1970's, on an all-wood ship were there were sometimes chest-high

inner-tube like bladders of fuel oil chained to the deck, and all of the other flammables, we

were awakened by the call: "Reveille, now reveille, all hands heave out and trice up. The smoking

lamp is lit in all authorized spaces. Now reveille." The fact that smoking was part of your wake-up

call illustrates how deeply ingrained the habit was in seagoing culture.

locopony, I haven't sampled whale, but it is almost pure fat, and renders down into

pure oil that burns with almost no black smoke (compare that to kerosene with long

wisps of black smoke unless the wick is trimmed just right). The whaling industry for

about a century was a major source of luxury oil and other products, whale bone for

women's corsets and other lightweight framed items, fragrances, etc. I think the

oil would be like the most expensive melted lard, very pure.

trailspike48, I should research this, but what you say makes sense. Whales are mammals,

like people, and the "meat," that is muscle, is different from the fat tissue, or blubber in

whales. Anyone who hasn't done so would enjoy a whale watching cruise. Seeing those

animals in action, and hearing that powerful roar of their breath through their blow hole

is unforgettable. I've seen grays and humpbacks off the U.S. East Coast. It troubled me

that after about a year at sea on a minesweeper, in the Pacific and the South China Sea,

I did not see one whale. My dad, during world war two, also on a minesweeper, saw

whales regularly. I think/hope they've come back. Whale watching is always a roll of

the dice; you can spend all day and see nothing. The grand prize is seeing a whale breech,

dive out of the water full length; I've never seen that. The gray whales are so fast, it's

hard to get close, but the humpbacks linger and I saw a mom with its calf.