Spear and harpoon for whales

The harpoon and bleed spear consist of iron spikes attached to a long wooden handle with a rope which could be used to retrieve them. During the Middle Ages, whale hunting was a fundamental part of the economy of Basque coastal towns, as often reflected in their coats of arms. In the sixteenth century, the supply of whales began to run short and from 1530 to the eighteenth century the whaling ships travelled to Newfoundland on the other side of the Atlantic. The last whale was caught in 1901 in Orio.

The harpoon is arrow-shaped, with the result that once it had been driven into the animal it was difficult to shake off. This model was used until the eighteenth century, when another variant began to be used. This had a spring which when retracted when the harpoon was inserted, opening the wings further and making it even less likely to fall out accidentally.

The bleed spear, as its name suggests, had the opposite function: once the harpoon had been driven into the whale and the catch was assured, this type of spear was thrown over and over again to cause a large number of wounds that would bleed and weaken the animal, thus aiding its capture.

Both pieces were deposited in the San Telmo Museum in 1916, donated by the “Humanitarian Society of Maritime Rescue of Guipúzcoa”, founded in 1879.

Bibliography:

Martín Bermejo, Iñaki. Arrantza eta itsasoa Euskal Herrian = La pêche et la mer en Euskal Herria = La pesca y el mar en Euskal Herria. Revista internacional de los estudios vascos. 47,1 (2002), 198-200.

Arrinda Albisu, Anastasio. Euskal Herria eta arrantza. [Donostia-San Sebastián] : Donostia Aurrezki Kutxa = Caja de Ahorros Municipal, 1977. 261.

Azpiazu, José Antonio. Balleneros vascos en el Cantábrico. Donostia : Ttarttalo, 2000. 172.

Azkarate, Agustín ; Hernández, José Antonio ; Núñez, Julio. Balleneros vascos del siglo XVI : (Chateau Bay, Labrador, Canadá) : estudio arqueológico y contexto histórico. Vitoria-Gasteiz : Servicio Central de Publicaciones del Gobierno Vasco, 1992.261.

Inventory numbers: STM-009485-001, STM-009486-001