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26-593: Up until the mid‑20th century Imbituba was an important home of Brazilian whalers since 1796, when the southernmost whaling station in Brazil was established there to prey on right whales . Today, the rebuilt whaling station is a historic site and museum managed by the internationally acclaimed Brazilian Right Whale Project ( Projeto Baleia Franca ), based in nearby Itapirubá at the National Right Whale Conservation Center. The Project has worked for

52-434: A brick furnace called the tryworks . Spermaceti was especially valuable, and as sperm whaling voyages were several years long, the whaling ships were equipped for all eventualities. There have also been vessels which combined chasing and processing, such as the bottlenose whalers of the late 19th and early 20th century, and catcher/factory ships of the modern era. The crews of whaling vessels fought small skirmishes for

78-404: A cage secured to the top of the mast. In cases of poor visibility, a crow was released, and the navigator plotted a course corresponding to the bird's flight path because the bird invariably headed " as the crow flies " towards the nearest land. However, other naval scholars have found no evidence of the masthead crow cage and suggest the name was coined because Scoresby's lookout platform resembled

104-400: A crow's nest in a tree. Since the crow's nest is a point far away from the ship's center of mass , rotational movement of the ship is amplified and could lead to severe seasickness , even in accustomed sailors. Therefore, being sent to the crow's nest was also considered a punishment. In classic railroad trains , the box-like structure above the caboose , the cupola , was also called

130-457: A long time and left the whale to thrash around in its death throes. These harpoons inject air into the carcass to keep the heavier rorqual whales hunted today from sinking. However, the harpoon-cannon is still criticized for its cruelty as not all whales are killed instantly; death can take from minutes to an hour. Japan is currently the only country that engages in whaling in the Antarctic, which

156-440: A raised vantage point and better visibility continued to be well understood. Theon of Smyrna wrote that by climbing the mast of a ship, one could see land that is invisible to those on deck. The first recorded appearance of the term was in 1807, used to describe Scoresby Sr.'s barrel crows nest platform. According to a popular naval legend, the term derives from the practice of Viking sailors, who carried crows or ravens in

182-458: A whaler and also an Arctic explorer. However, Scoresby Sr. may simply have made an improvement on existing designs. Crow's nests appear in Egyptian reliefs as early as 1200 BC and on eighth to seventh century BC representations of Phoenician , Etruscan , and Boiotian ships. The crow’s nest disappears completely from depictions of ships after the seventh century, although the relationship between

208-481: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling : the catching or processing of whales . The term whaler is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japan , still dedicates a single factory ship for the industry. The vessels used by aboriginal whaling communities are much smaller and are used for various purposes over

234-421: Is no longer the primary commercial product of whaling. Whaling is now done for whale meat for the relatively small culinary market. (Norwegian whalers account for about 20% of whales caught and Japanese whalers for about 60%.) Harpoon cannons , fired from harpoon ships with displacement in the hundreds of tons, are now universally used for commercial whaling operations. These motorized ships are able to keep up with

260-686: Is now under the protection of the International Whaling Commission as the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary . The area formerly saw large scale commercial whaling operations by numerous countries before the moratorium. The three Japanese harpoon ships of the ICR serve a factory ship that processes the catch on board and preserves it on site in refrigerators, allowing the long endurance whaling missions. These whaling operations, which are claimed by Japan to be for research purposes, sell

286-487: Is the Pequod from the novel Moby-Dick . Crow%27s nest A crow's nest is a structure in the upper part of the main mast of a ship or a structure that is used as a lookout point. On ships, this position ensured the widest field of view for lookouts to spot approaching hazards, other ships, or land by using the naked eye or optical devices such as telescopes or binoculars . It should not be confused with

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312-547: The Nisshin Maru of Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) is the only whaling factory ship in operation. As compared to whaling before and during the 19th century, which was executed with handheld harpoons thrown from oar-powered whaleboats (depicted most famously in Herman Melville's Moby Dick ) , whaling since the 1900s has been quite different. Whale oil , which fossil-fuel based alternatives has supplanted,

338-476: The Norwegian and later British Royal Navies requisitioned a number of whalers for use in a variety of functions such as minesweeping , search and rescue , and anti-submarine warfare . Ten Allied vessels categorized as whalers were lost in the war. Since the 1982 moratorium on commercial whaling, few countries still operate whalers, with Norway , Iceland , and Japan among those still operating them. Of those,

364-428: The top , the platform in the upper part of each lower mast of a square-rigged sailing ship . The form of crow's nest used by the ancient Greeks and Romans was the carchesium ( Ancient Greek : καρχήσιον , karkhḗsion ), named after a supposed similarity to a kind of ritual wine goblet. According to William Scoresby Jr. , the crow's nest was invented in the 19th century by his father, William Scoresby Sr. ,

390-506: The whaling industry in Nantucket and New Bedford . Whaleships carried multiple whaleboats , open rowing boats used to chase and harpoon the whale. The whaleship would keep watch from the crowsnest , so it could sail to the signal and lash the dead whale alongside. Then the work of flensing (butchering) began, to separate the whale into its valuable components. The blubber was rendered into whale oil using two or three try-pots set in

416-552: The Port of Imbituba and transform it into one of Brazil's most prominent ports such as the Port of Santos . As part of this initiative, the government also plans on upgrading routes that lead to the port itself such as roads and railroads , as well as integrating the various transport modes. The Santa Catarina investments put the port as first priority of the city, which some see as unfortunate as tourism should also be given adequate priority due to

442-500: The carcasses could be processed, or to its factory ship anchored in a sheltered bay or inlet. With the later development of the slipway at the ship's stern , whale catchers were able to transfer their catch to factory ships operating in the open sea. Previous to that was the whaleship of the 16th to early 20th centuries, driven first by sail and then by steam. The most famous example is the fictional Pequod in Moby-Dick , based on

468-619: The control of the Spitsbergen whale fishery between 1613 and 1638. The Dutch were the first Europeans to visit Svalbard, and this gave a head start to whaling in the Dutch Republic . In the late 18th and early 19th century, the owners of whalers frequently armed their vessels with cannons to enable the vessels to protect themselves against pirates, and in wartime, privateers . Weapons were also carried on vessels visiting Pacific islands for food, water, and wood in order to defend themselves from

494-473: The course of the year. The whale catcher was developed during the Steam-powered vesselage , and then driven by diesel engines throughout much of the twentieth century. It was designed with a harpoon gun mounted at its bow and was fast enough to chase and catch rorquals such as the fin whale . At first, whale catchers either brought the whales they killed to a whaling station , a settlement ashore where

520-470: The crow's nest. It served for observation of the whole train when in motion. In hunting , a crow's nest is a blind-like structure where a hunter or a pair of hunters commit themselves to stalking game. A crow's nest is not a normal type of purchasable blind, but an improvised position, built by using locally discovered natural flora (tree branches, moss, snow (during winter) or sand (during summer), etc.). A crow's nest works in most environments and provides

546-510: The meat from these operations on the market, allowed under the current moratorium to defer research costs. They are highly controversial, and are challenged by anti-whaling parties as being merely a disguise for commercial whaling. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has clashed with the Japanese whalers in the Antarctic in confrontations that have led to international media attention and diplomatic incidents. The most famous fictional whaling ship

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572-647: The opportunity arise. In July 1793 the British armed whaleship Liverpool , of 20 guns, captured the French whaleship Chardon . However, the French crew succeeded in retaking their vessel. Also that year, an armed British whaleship captured the French whaleship Hébé in Walvis Bay . During the War of 1812 , the U.S. Navy captured two British whaleships, Atlantic and Seringapatam , and used them as warships. During World War II ,

598-569: The recovery of this endangered whale species since 1982. Right whales visit Imbituba, Itapirubá and Ibiraquera/Ribanceira beaches in winter and spring to mate, give birth and nurse their calves. Thanks to the work of the Right Whale Project, this region has become a federal Environmental Protection Area currently under implementation. The Port of Imbituba is currently the only privately operated port in Brazil. As part of Brazil's plan to modernize its port infrastructure, it plans to invest in

624-483: The regional potential of activities like ecotourism and visits to historical sites. Imbituba is now one of the homes for WCT worldwide surfing championships. Imbituba has stocks in the Brazilian capital market, Bovespa ; the codes of the stocks are imbi4 and imbi3 . 28°14′S 48°40′W  /  28.233°S 48.667°W  / -28.233; -48.667 This Santa Catarina , Brazil location article

650-411: The sleeker and fast-swimming rorquals such as the fin whale , that would have been impossible for the muscle-powered rowboats to chase, and allow whaling to be done more safely for the crews. The use of grenade-tipped harpoons has greatly improved the effectiveness of whaling, allowing whales to be killed often instantaneously as compared to the previous method in which whales bled to death, which took

676-708: The sometimes hostile inhabitants. At the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, British privateers captured several French whalers, among them Necker and Deux Amis , and Anne . Dutch privateers captured Port de Paix and Penn . At the time, many French whalers transferred to the American flag, the United States being neutral in the Anglo-French war. Some whaleships also carried letters of marque that authorized them to take enemy vessels should

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