The Promenade's Whaling Industry

History

Origins

The Promenade was originally settled for the purpose of protecting the eastern road to the Coquet Heights. Environmental obstacles such as landslides, swamps, and dense primordial forests made it a harrowing journey for early Anharans, and in many ways it remains so. However, as one of the capitals of an original noble house, The Promenade inevitably outgrew its local food sources and its economy based around inns and rest-stops. It therefore turned to the sea, which had been spitting out beached whales upon the shore every so often, providing vast amounts of food and other resources to locals lucky enough to come across them. Thus, early Promineres took matters into their own hands, and rather than relying upon luck, set up towers from which they could spot the streams of surfacing whales.

_{An Ancient Whale-Watching Tower}
Early whaling was a haphazard and dangerous event in those early days. Upon spotting a whale's stream, the lookout would ring a bell, and citizens would come running to Oldlaunch. There they would take to the sea in whatever shoddily-made boats they had available. These were generally no better than broad rafts, upon which one could stand to attempt to spear a whale, while perhaps a partner or two rowed. Coastal Whales were dangerous beasts in the early days of the city, as creatures near the shore had not yet learned to fear humans, and the losses suffered by the city's nascent population required a formalization of the whaling system.

Expansion

"Early Promineres saw the sea as an enemy. It made the low-lying land into salty marshes useless for farming, it swamped the fishers' small craft, and the waves tore away attempts to expand the city. To kill whales was not only crucial for the city's survival, but a way to strike back at an all-encompassing ocean trying to swallow the town." - Isobard Quickquill, Whale Whale Whale, What Have We Here?

Whaling became a distraction from the agricultural and economic troubles plaguing the city in its early days, and would grow to be The Promenade's salvation. These creatures, which seemed to thrive in depths of the sea outside of the sight of a mortal man, and grew to such extraordinary sizes despite their coastal proximity, represented the dangers and mysteries of the ocean to the early Promineres. Whaling became both an economic activity as well as a sport, allowing the city to fight back against its greatest enemy, the sea.
To better facilitate this battle, what used to be a community-wide event, in which men would drop everything and scramble for their flatboats, was organized. Now, each neighborhood of the city fielded its own dedicated whaling fleet, made up of armadas of flatboats kept prepared by full-time crew. These local fleets were one of the earliest means for building a community identity, and gave rise to the distinct loyalties within neighborhoods, which would feed the eventual gang industry. Each area had their own crews out to sea, actively hunting whales, as well as a reserve group on the expanding docks of the Seaside in order to respond to sightings closer to home.

"From here launched the first whale ship of the Eastdock fleet, manned by fifty of our best to hold back the tide itself." - Plaque in the Firewater neighborhood

As the fleets became more efficient, so to did the whaling industry as a whole. Myriad uses were discovered for whale products, and every part of the creature was used. Whale bones were found to be incredibly sturdy, and the oldest foundations of the Seaside were augmented by these bones, still visible today if one knows where to look. The meat lasted a long time when salt was applied, the blubber could be melted down into oil for anything from lacquering to lanterns to a condiment. With all these uses came specialization, and neighborhoods began to develop centralized industries to optimize their production, further delineating regional differences within The Promenade.

Peak

Around the time of The Crossing Over, whaling was at its peak, and ships were bringing in as many as two dozen whales a day from as far east as Caerseat and as far west as Elmwood. Coastal whales at this point in the city's history were comparably smaller than their older counterparts, with the largest caught around the peak being 80 feet in length, but most averaging around 60 feet and 120,000lbs.
Industry was in full force during the Peak, and the Longshoremen's Guild was born. This group was originally organized to coordinate wages and living standards for those who worked in the docks, particularly around Butchers' Row, the Gallows, the Tryworks, and Brinepool. The Guild also worked to combat gangs in the area, which were much smaller in size than their modern descendants, but much more frequent in number. Butchers' Row alone had over a dozen gangs of varying sizes, all trying to extort the workers at the expense of the Guild.
The industries of the city provided respectable housing, living wages, and an environment generally safe from the gang warfare already taking place in the Westdock. However, this was not to last, and began to wind down around 250AM.

Decline

Beginning in about 50AM, whalers began to bring in fewer and fewer catches, and coastal whales were all but extinct within fifteen years. Up until then, whaling had been a staple of The Promenade's culture and economy for centuries, and the downturn hit the Seaside particularly hard. The Westdock had fallen into a state of gang-run poverty ever since the formalization of the whaling industry, and that discord spread to the Eastdock quickly after the decline began. Brutal gang fights saw Westerners try to expand against the smaller Eastern gangs, which coalesced into an alliance against the West, to the chagrin of the Guild, which was fighting for the survival of the industry.
While violence was ongoing a new party entered the fray, with the Landside's merchants, who had grown rich off the backs of labor, trying to find a solution to the downturn. Entering into agreement with a number of the largest gangs, assorted companies such as Pike & Sons Co. began buying out local neighborhood fleets and constructing the first whaling motherships. These vessels were massive, and they needed to be to sustain a crew for weeks at sea, as well as haul the larger deep sea whales. The Toothed Whale, Clawed Whale, and the massive Murk's Maid were hoped-for catches, and would have been too large and far away to return to the Promenade.

"I was jolted from my bed, papers and books raining down amongst me, as something struck the reinforced hull of the ship. I could hear beams splintering and the shouting of men, and I knew I was finally about to see my first deep-water leviathan." - Isobard Quickquill, Whale Whale Whale, What Have We Here?

The size and weight of these beasts beg the question, why not butcher them at sea and prepare the products on the return journey? The companies tried just that around 87AM, with disastrous results. After attempting to install tryworks aboard the whaling vessels, the Longshoremen's Guild protested. First, the Castworks refused to construct any, despite pressure from the Redmarks, the locally dominant gang, who had been paid off by House Pike. Following this refusal, and some violence between the Redmarks and the smelters, the whaling companies simply imported some trypots and attempted to refit the ships with them. The Guild seized these massive iron cauldrons, and the bricks used for their surrounding furnaces, and piled them at the exit to the Landside's canal system. Thus, blocking the outflow and beginning to flood the Landside, the whaling companies relented.
While this saved the specialized neighborhoods, the victory was short term. The protest spelled the end of any hope for recovery for the Seaside, and while the efficiency of long distance whaling has increased with the birth of whaling stations, The Promenade sees little chance of recovering the economic prosperity seen during the height of the Peak. Instead, innovative measures have been taken up by the newest whaling company, Deepquest Whaling. Founded to search for opportunities missed by the stagnant management of the Guild or Pike & Sons, Deepquest has began exporting jobs hunting Bearded Whales to Whaling Colonies along the coast of the Boreal North. Here, the rugged terrain and proxy-wars between House Pike and Deepquest offer new economic opportunities for those who can survive.

Opposition

"My appreciation for the magical defensive training which we were forced to receive at The Library of Somae never ceases to increase. I have no doubt the Order of Astrae keep their eye on these Murk-worshippers, no matter how much they claim to just be defenders of nature." - Isobard Quickquill, Whale Whale Whale, What Have We Here?

Opposition to the whaling industry comes largely from the neighborhood of Murkhead, home to a community of self-described environmental activists, disgusted by the end of the Coastal Whale population. However, it is thought by locals that some, if not all, of the neighborhood are worshipers of Murk, the member of the Obscure Ones who is said to dwell at the deepest level of the ocean, and rule those creatures whom the light does not touch. The success of these activists vary. They gain occasional aid from wealthy patrons from the Landside, but more often than not resort to protests and attacks which interrupt the tenuous economic situation in the Seaside.

Equipment

Whaling Tools

Flensing

While flensing is technically removing blubber, it is used to refer to the entire process of breaking down the whale body within the Gallows. First, the whales are hoisted off the ships by massive cranes (the eponymous gallows) and suspended above the dock, where they are bled. Then, lowered to the ground, they are set upon by flensing crews and have their flesh removed in massive chunks. For larger whales, flensers often have to carve stairs of flesh into the bodies or use spiked boots and scaffolding to climb across them. The art of flensing is a dangerous one, and sharp tools combined with blood-soaked docks make for lethal accidents.

Boarding Knife & Sheath

Reserved for senior members of a flensing crew, the Boarding Knife was a 5 foot, or more, long double-edged sword. This device was used for a number of tasks, but primarily puncturing the flesh for a Blubber Hook, slicing large pieces of flesh into smaller, more easily transportable ones, or as the weapon-of-choice for members of the Longshoremen's Guild.

Bone Spade

The Bone Spade is used to remove baleen from the mouth of the whale, which in less enlightened eras was thought to be bone. This device comes in two varieties, round or flat, the former being the larger and thicker option, but both objectively functioning in the same manner. The sizes of these spade heads were a maximum of half a foot wide and three-fourths a foot long. The Bone Spade is made of a lighter iron, so as to allow for malleability and reducing breakage when carving along the jaw bone.

Cutting Spade

The Cutting Spade is about 3 feet in length, with a 5 inch blade, and is the most important implement in the flensing process. It is used to cut the blanket pieces, the long, thick, and wide pieces of flesh and blubber from the sides of the whale, as it sits on the deck of the Gallows.

Gaff & Blubber Pike

Gaffs and Blubber Pikes were both used to drag large pieces of blubber around the decks of the Gallows. It was crucial to quickly get the blubber out of the way of the flensers, and onto transport to the Tryworks. The blood-soaked decks of the Gallows act as a natural lubricant for sliding blubber about, another reason to get this part of the job out of the way before the cleaners come through.

Head Spade

The Head Spade is a spade with a specialized implement for removing the head of the whale, although it may be used for other parts of the whale as the need dictates. The beheading process is done by chopping through the vertebrae at the base of the skull, which is crucial for harvesting baleen or whalewax. The Head Spade is the heaviest implement, and is about 4 feet in length. It may be used either through thrusting in the fashion of a spear, or chopping as with an axe.

Scraper

The Scraper was a smaller tool, about a foot long. It consisted of a wooden shaft and an odd-looking implement on the end, an oblong metal device protruding from one side of a metal shaft, fitted over the end of the wooden one. The Scraper is used for removing the last bits of flesh from the whale bones before they were shipped to the Boneyards to dry, end-to-end, in large yards.

Hunting

Boat Spade

The Boat Spade, or Fluke Lance, was used for the most dangerous task in whale hunting, spading the flukes. Flukes are the two flippers on the end of the whale's tail, and severing these tendons effectively immobilized the creature. This was an incredibly risky task, and could result in the floundering of the boat if not done properly, and was thus only performed on whales which seemed to be too resistant, random, or otherwise unlikely to stay tethered by the boat's harpoons.

Hand Lance

The Hand Lance is used after the whale has been securely harpooned, and fastened to the pursuing boat. The harpooner switches positions with the lancer, who had been steering the craft until this point. The Lancer then uses the Hand Lance to thrust at the arteries near the head. It is crucial that the transition between the harpooner and lancer be quick, as damaging the artery prevents diving. A successful lancing is immediately evident through the blowhole of the whale emitting blood rather than water, known as chimneying.
The head of the lance alone was 5 or 6 feet, and the tip was shaped like a leaf, sharpened on all sides to allow for easy thrusting and removal. Often, but not always, these featured two grooves running the length of the head so as to allow blood to escape past the embedded head.

Toggle-Headed Harpoon

The Toggle-Headed Harpoon was the first to be thrown at the whale, and generally two were thrown, as it was essential to have multiple lines attaching the whale to the pursuing boat. This tip in particular was crucial for the fastening shots, as its eponymous toggle allows the flexible tip to swivel rather than break as the whale thrashes about.

Trying

Trying, done in the Tryworks, is the act of boiling blubber in large pots called trypots, turning it into whale oil. This is a very dangerous act, with some pots being large enough to submerge multiple men, and it is crucial to keep distance from the splashing and bubbling oil.

Bailer

The Bailer is an iron bucket on the end of a wooden shaft, of about 7 feet, used for bailing oil from trypots to storage barrels. The long handle was to prevent burns from splashing or bubbling oil, and were often marked with the number and types of whales it had been used on.

Blubber Fork

Blubber Forks are used to lift the pieces of blubber into the Trypots. This was a strenuous task, harmful to the back and potentially delivering burns, thus requiring a long shafted tool, so Blubber Forks are at minimum 3 feet in length for smaller trypots.

Chopper

Another tool for increasing the surface area of blubber, the Chopper is about 3 feet long at the least. At the end, it consists of essentially two mincing knives in a V-shape.

Mincing Knife

The Mincing Knife is a 3 foot device, the blade of which is about 2 feet by 3 inches. It is used to slice blubber into thin strips, quite precisely as to not cut through the connecting skin and make a messy pile of sheaves, the terms for these small slices as they resemble pieces of paper. This was done to increase surface area for more effective melting upon the sheaves arrival in the Tryworks.

Skimmer

The Skimmer is essentially a perforated frying pan on a long handle, which could be up to 20 feet in length and require multiple users depending on the size of the trypots, so as to prevent burns from splashing or bubbling oil. It was used to remove the floating remnants, mostly skin and gristle, from the surface of the boiling oil. These, called fritters, were then recycled into the fires under the pots to use as fuel.

Ships

Whaling is done by a fleet, which consists of a number of different types of ships, in varying degrees of ownership. In the modern Promenade, whaling fleets are under the control of a few companies, and often contract out the smaller vessels, especially those used in a pursuit. Whaling motherships are the most important vessels in a fleet, and are meant to carry the small boats used by the contractors. These smaller vessels are referred to as flatboats, but are not the same as the flatboats commonly associated with the Underdeck, though they come from the same tradition. These flatboats are more akin to rowboats, and crewed by three or four men from The Promenade, who move out to the fleet every few months on a contractual basis. The contract sailors make up the bulk of the crew.
While the motherships never return to port, they are resupplied continuously by two or more supply ships, depending upon the type of whaling expedition. If operating near the Serpent Sea in the north, they often pick up supplies from small Anharan whaling outposts along the coast of the Boreal North. In addition to the mothership, supply vessels, and small craft, there are around a dozen whaling barges. These ships are crewed by up to 500 rowers, as well as triple-masted, as they need to rapidly return to The Promenade with their catches. These vessels were the subject of the protests against blubber production at sea, and have reinforced decks to transport large whales back to the city rather than render them while on voyage, as originally desired by the companies.
The conditions on these ships are miserable, resulting in high alcoholism and an exclusive culture surrounding whalers, especially those who make multiple voyages. Whalers face exploitation by both The Promenade's gangs as well as naval press-gangs from Dogshead who seek to impress experienced whalers into mercenary fleets, making them a highly defensive group. (See Whaling Songs)

Products

The following is a list of the common uses of whale products.

Blubber

Blubber itself forms an effective food, and is the main ingredient in Snow Slices, a dish of either cooked, raw, or pickled blubber. While the health benefits of Snow Slices are well known, Promineres suffer from fewer heart problems than most, it has an ill effect on pregnant women, as children born to a woman who has consumed blubber are normally in poor health.

Oil

Whale oil is a particularly odorous liquid, but has many uses which outweigh the inconvenience. Whale oil is used in streetlamps in the Seaside and a few other lower-class neighborhoods of nearby cities. Oil also makes an excellent lubricant for milling machinery, as well as a varnish, paint, or putty. The environment of The Promenade and its surrounding land makes whale oil popular with travelers as well, as applying it to the feet after traipsing through the marshy landscape connecting the Coquet Heights to the Vestral Downs is crucial for preventing gangrene. Congealed oil can also be used as a soap or margarine.

Bone

Whale bones are a very common building material in the Seaside, particularly in older neighborhoods and the Boneyard. Besides construction, whale bones are also polished and whittled down into pieces of jewelry, produced by Boneyard artisans or those who have since moved to Tidepool in the Landside. In Tidepool, artists also use whale bone as a medium for drawings, as it can be sketched upon rather easily.

Baleen

Baleen is a product from only a few types of whale, importantly excluding the most common deep-sea whale, the Toothed Whale. Stored in the mouth, and previously thought to be a bone, baleen is a flexible yet hard material, with various types of whales producing baleen of varying levels of coarseness. Some make excellent upholstery stuffing, chimney sweeping brushes, surgical implements, umbrellas, whips, fishing rods, brushes, nets, sword handles, and parts of hats or dresses, among other things.

Whalewax

Whalewax is harvested from the heads of Coastal Whales and a few types of deeper sea whales, and is a straw-colored substance which can be harvested by simply bailing it with a bucket from the head to a cask. Whalewax is, however, a congealed substance formed when the liquid from the whale's head comes into contact with the air. While the wax itself is excellent for candles or cosmetic creams and lipstick, its most important use is in liquid form. As the liquid burns smokeless, it is crucial for the many lighthouses around Anhara. To liquify the wax, it is chilled in barrels during the winter, placed into a woolen sack, and pressed until it emits liquid. Besides lighthouses, it is also used for streetlights in the Landside or wealthy neighborhoods of nearby cities, as opposed to the more odorous whale oil used in lower-class lamps.

Meat

Whale meat is a very lower-class food, particularly in The Promenade, where residents of most parts of the Landside scoff at it as common. For the poor, however, it is a very versatile foodstuff and can be used in all sizes and methods of cooking. Whale meat cooked in a pot with water, served with potatoes and bread, is an excellent stew. Tail meat, a different cut than the rest, is often consumed raw with sauce, or pounded flat. Meat can also be served thinly sliced and salted, boiled with greens in a pot, served as a steak, or corned. While generally healthy, especially when boiled, excessive whale meat or any blubber consumption is known to have a negative effect on pregnant mothers, generally believed to be due to the evil energy of Murk.

Seaside

Open full size

Neighborhoods of the Seaside

Promenade Whaling Routes

Open full size