"The whaling harpoon, or 'iron' as it was called by the men who used it, was little more than a huge fishhook. Its purpose was to fasten and hold the "fish" until it could be killed by the hand lance or gun-fired explosive lance."

"Since the beginning of its recorded history in the Western World, the whale fishery – as the industry was known by its practitioners – used some form of the 'double-flue' harpoon to fasten to its prey. This was an arrow-headed iron that made a large entry wound. As likely as not, this type of harpoon would "draw" or leave through the same opening it created on fastening, allowing the whale to get away. The problem vexed the whalemen sorely but they were a conservative lot and did not easily try new methods."

"Sometime during the first quarter of the nineteenth century, some American blacksmiths offered "single-flue" harpoons, which were basically the old arrow-headed device with one if its two barbs removed. The theory of the new iron was that being asymmetrical in shape, it would tend to twist when back pressure was brought to bear and the single barb might bite into undisturbed flesh and hold. In some areas this improved device was given a modest and reasonably successful try."

"In 1848, the single most important advance in harpoon technology was developed by Lewis Temple, an African-American whalecraft maker of New Bedford. Temple invented the first successful toggle harpoon head. It was based on an age-old principle used by Inuit marine-mammal fishermen whereby a harpoon head made of bone or ivory was made to toggle around a loop in the whale line itself. 'Temple’s gig" as it was called, toggled around a sturdy pivot pin held in place between the metal 'cheeks' of the harpoon. Pressure caused it to turn ninety degrees to the entry wound and almost assuredly hold. The 'toggle-head' was an almost instant success. It replaced the old-fashioned fixed-head harpoons almost entirely. A look at the inventory for the New Bedford whaling bark Sunbeam illustrates the new harpoon’s dominance, but it does appear that whaling vessels continued to take along a small handful of double- and single-flue harpoons just for old time’s sake. In 1878 Sunbeam carried four single-flue harpoons, seven double-flue harpoons, and a hundred an sixty-two toggle irons."

"Between the 1840’s and 1880’s an avalanche of patents for harpoons and related devices were registered by enterprising Americans. Except for prototypes, most of these were probably never built. Only a few are known to have been used successfully."

"–– adapted from 'The Development of the Harpoon in the American Whale Fishery' and 'Whaling Tools in the Nantucket Whaling Museum,' Robert Hellman"

	Double-flue
	Single-flue
	Toggle-head
	Other

"[The Other]"pages contain a variety of gun irons for the large species as well as grommet and other irons for hunting small cetaceans. Note, too, the emergence of explosive harpoons that lead to the massive weapons used in 20th-century industrial whaling, resulting in the near extinction of whales hunted in that era for animal feed, oil for lubrication, dog food, cosmetics and other products".