Whaling  Contents  Source  Whalesite

Following Robert E. Hellman's death his collection ceased to be a physical entity as its components were dispersed among several cultural institutions and individuals.

In its place is now a virtual collection made available to the public through the Nantucket Historical Assocation.

While this virtual collection is beautiful presentation of more than 500 separate items, its navigation is somewhat cumbersome. The pages here are meant to facilitate navigation of the whalecraft sections of the Hellman Collection.

The paragraphs below are from the collection's introduction.

"The Robert Hellman Whaling and Whalecraft Collection is a virtual exhibition of whaling artifacts collected by Robert Hellman over a period of six decades. Items from the collection, now dispersed, are presently in the collections of various cultural institutions and museums – most notably the Nantucket Whaling Museum – and individuals. This website is a presentation and record of the former collection."

"The focus of the collection was the American whaling industry of the 19th century, in particular the harpoons, lances, spades, and other gear used to hunt and process whales known by its makers as whalecraft." ^*

"They could have been shoeing horses part of the day but when they were making tools for the whale hunt, they were making "whalecraft," and the harpoons they made were called ‘irons’."

      — Robert Hellman, on whaling blacksmiths of Nantucket

"In the 21st century, the word craft endows anything it attaches to with esteemed value. Whalecraft was crafted for hunting and processing whales, as valued in the 19th century for their oil and other 'byproducts' as they are today for the majesty that Herman Melville captured so profoundly in Moby-Dick."

"Whalecraft was the focus of the collection. It is organized into these categories: harpoons, which were used for catching whales; lances, which were used for killing them; whaling guns, which were designed for both purposes; 'cutting in and trying out,' tools for flensing the whale and processing it in the tryworks on board the ship."

"Bob’s descriptions of the whalecraft in his collection manifest an attention to detail that derives from, among other things, his training as a herpetologist. His documentation of the whalecraft in the collection is included unabridged for its value to the study of the development of the tools of the whale hunt and as a record of the material evidence of weapons employed against the natural environment in the service of industry and our 'creature comforts.'"

• Whaling Harpoons


• Whaling Lances


• Whaling Guns


• Cutting-in & Trying Out


• Whaleship & Whaleboat Artifacts

Whaling  Contents  Source  Whalesite