Why hunt whales?

Pilot whales were important to islanders’ survival, providhetland ming many useful products. Subsistence whaling was unpredictable, because the place and time whales came was a matter of chance, and this meant the community had to work together, at short notice.

Oil was one of three products of the whale, along with the meat and bones. People in all the islands used the oil for light and waterproofing, and in the Hebrides some took it as a health tonic.

When whales came, there was frantic work herding them to a beach, killing and hauling them ashore, then processing. Whoever spotted them ran to the houses, shouting the exciting news that spread like wildfire, and everyone in the district stopped their work to join the hunt. People loaded boulders into the boats, to be used as missiles, and crews took weapons with them - mostly sharp farm tools. They rowed beyond the whales and arranged the boats into a crescent, with a reserve line further out. Folk in the boats shouted and hurled rocks to disorient the animals, and, as soon as the animals beached, those on the beach attacked whales with whatever they had.

This wasn’t commercial hunting, and people didn’t use special tools to kill whales, just everyday farm implements like this ditching spade from Orkney, with its sharpened edge.

Proceeds were shared amongst the hunters’ families; in later years landlords took a share, meaning less for ordinary folk. Everything was used – meat, oil, bones. Britain’s islanders liked eating whalemeat. Hebrideans preserved the flesh by rubbing it in kelp ashes, and as an observer in 1629 saw, the meat “being dried in the smoke they eat it like bacon”. The people in those islands in the 1690s relished whale, and “by experience find them to be very nourishing food”. People melted the blubber to make oil for lamps, lubrication, and softening leather. Bones were valued; a jawbone made a grain scoop, ribs became skids to haul boats up on a beach, and skulls made boat props.

For thousands of years island homes were lit with oil lamps. Whale oil was the brightest and least smoky, and by the 18th century iron lamps like this one from Orkney were used throughout the Western and Northern Isles

In the 18th century Western and Northern Islanders stopped eating whales because they adopted genteel ideas from outside, and started to think it was somehow inappropriate to eat whale flesh – even though their ancestors had done so for centuries. By the 1750s Shetlanders and Hebrideans still ate them, but generally when famine drove them to do it. Later, when islanders could afford imported paraffin, they didn’t need the oil either, and whaling stopped in the 1910s, with Shetland holding on the longest.

Oil was one of three products of the whale, along with the meat and bones. People in all the islands used the oil for light and waterproofing, and in the Hebrides some took it as a health tonic.

Find out more: Follow the links to find out about the Between Islands project, Shetland’s new online exhibition, ‘Fair Game.

Related Posts

Shining a light on Ann Harriet Pottinger this International Women's Day

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2024 we shine a light on Ann Harriet Pottinger, née Hunter, one of many unsung, hard-working ...

Read more

New book of Shetland Fine Lace Knitting launched

A new publication, ‘Shetland Fine Lace Knitting – Recreating patterns from the past’ by Shetland Museum’s textiles curator, ...

Read more

Profound new exhibition, Polar North, captures the fragility of the Arctic landscape

A profound new exhibition which captures the fragile and shifting beauty of the Arctic landscape opens this Sunday 10 March at Da ...

Read more

Shetland Museum and Archives launches series of ‘Thursday Lates’ heritage talks

Evenings celebrating Shetland’s rich culture and heritage will begin next month as Shetland Museum and Archives launches its ...

Read more

Be My Valentine

It’s that time of year, Valentine’s Day, the 14th of February. In the Shetland Archives Catalogue references to Valentines are ...

Read more

Old style islands courtships

We’re warming ourselves up to the idea of Valentine’s Day. Some might say Shetlanders are not renowned for being romantics and ...

Read more

Shetland Museum celebrates Lerwick Up Helly Aa 2024

The Shetland Museum & Archives was full of activity last week as we celebrated Lerwick Up Helly Aa with a series of fiery events and ...

Read more

The Eyjarskeggjar

The images of Up Helly Aa go like this – the burning longship, arms and armour, and bearded men. The present Jarl Richard Moar has ...

Read more

A Fragment of Viking-Norse Life

One of the results of years of peat-cutting in Shetland is that occasionally interesting objects are revealed. So it was the case in ...

Read more

Shetland Amenity Trust’s heritage sites open for this year’s Up Helly Aa

The fiery season will soon be back and Shetland Amenity Trust is putting together a series of events as well as offering extended ...

Read more

Shetland's War Memorial - constructed by William Horne

Shetland’s War Memorial on Hillhead is now one hundred years old, and was rededicated with a ceremony on 6 January. The memorial ...

Read more

Christmas in Shetland - 1923

1923, like many of the years between the wars, was not a good one. The Shetland Times year end report spoke of a poor herring fishing, ...

Read more

Research project commissioned to encourage locals to grow more aets!

Shetland Amenity Trust has commissioned a research project with two local straw makers to understand more about the growing of ...

Read more

‘Logical Confusion’, a retrospective exhibition of Mike McDonnell opens at the Shetland Museum

An ambitious new exhibition dedicated to the artistry of well-known local artist Mike McDonnell opened this weekend at the Shetland ...

Read more

New poetry book - ‘Love in Human Herts’

‘Love in Human Herts’, a new publication celebrating Vagaland’s finest poetry has been launched today by the Shetland Amenity ...

Read more