![Harpoon cannon-IMG 3915](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Harpoon_cannon-IMG_3915.jpg)
A harpoon cannon is a
whaling
Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution.
It was practiced as an organized industry ...
implement developed in the late 19th century and most used in the 20th century. It would be mounted on the
bow of a
whale catcher
A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales.
Terminology
The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, J ...
, where it could be easily aimed with a wide field of view at the target. Powered by
black powder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Th ...
and later,
smokeless powder
Finnish smokeless powderSmokeless powder is a type of propellant used in firearms and artillery that produces less smoke and less fouling when fired compared to gunpowder ("black powder"). The combustion products are mainly gaseous, compared to a ...
, it would generally fire a large steel
harpoon
A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument and tool used in fishing, whaling, seal hunting, sealing, and other marine hunting to catch and injure large fish or marine mammals such as seals and whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the t ...
, either solid steel (cold harpoon) or fitted with an exploding black powder, or later, penthrite (
PETN
Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), also known as PENT, PENTA, (ПЕНТА, primarily in Russian) TEN, corpent, or penthrite (or, rarely and primarily in German, as nitropenta), is an explosive material. It is the nitrate ester of pentaerythri ...
) grenade.
Harpoon cannons are still used today in whaling nations, but usually guns of a smaller
caliber
In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge (firearms) , bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the f ...
with the exception of
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
, which hunts large whales regularly.
History
Early engineers attempted to develop gun-fired harpoons to improve the hit rate from hand-thrown harpoons, generally with little success, as the guns were not very accurate, especially when fired from small moving whaleboats. Another problem appeared when the quarry were
baleen whales
Baleen whales (systematic name Mysticeti), also known as whalebone whales, are a parvorder of carnivorous marine mammals of the infraorder Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises) which use keratinaceous baleen plates (or "whalebone") in their ...
, which tended to sink when killed. The idea was modernized and perfected by
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
Svend Foyn. He developed a swiveling steel
cannon
A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...
, mounted to the bow deck of his steel and steam whaling ship, improving accuracy, and lastly, attaching an exploding steel head to the harpoon, filled with 500g of black powder. While by no means instantaneous, the whale's death would be faster than before, and there would be greater ease in keeping the whale attached to the harpoon line. Modern guns with improved grenades were significantly improved during the 20th century, and currently, the most advanced technologies can kill a whale virtually instantly.
Design
![Shooting the Harpoon at a Whale - J](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Shooting_the_Harpoon_at_a_Whale_-_J.H._Clark.png)
Early cannons were
muzzle-loading
A muzzleloader is any firearm into which the projectile and the propellant charge is loaded from the muzzle of the gun (i.e., from the forward, open end of the gun's barrel). This is distinct from the modern (higher tech and harder to make) design ...
, but were replaced later with
breech-loading
A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition (cartridge or shell) via the rear (breech) end of its barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, which loads ammunition via the front ( muzzle).
Modern firearms are generally breech ...
models. These are used in modern whaling, with the exception of many Norwegian cannons which utilize an improved muzzle-loading design, with a breech firing system. In the early 20th century, almost all cannons were similar to the Kongsberg 90 mm design. With a trigger mounted on the back of a steel handle which would lever a thin rod up to the firing device in the horizontally sliding breechblock. To load, the rear cover plate would be rotated, exposing the back of the rectangular breechblock. The breechblock would be opened by rotating a handle on the top of the breech, and the spent cartridge case removed, to be reloaded with powder and wadding. A new cartridge would be prepared and slid up into the firing chamber, the breechblock would be closed by rotating the handle counterclockwise, the rear cover would be rotated back to cover the rear chamber, a harpoon would be prepared, inserted into the muzzle, and tied on. Then another rotating handle on the side of the breechblock would be pulled back to cock the firing pin. This handle was directly adjacent to the firing trigger on the block. The gun was solid steel, and had a glycerin recoil cylinder mounted under the barrel. The inner barrel and breech would bounce back on the recoil, while the handle and swivel in the deck would be mounted on a stationary outer cylinder.
Today
Iceland uses 90 mm cannons built by
Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk
Kongsberg Gruppen is an international technology group headquartered in Norway, that supplies high-technology systems to customers in the merchant marine, defence, aerospace, offshore oil and gas industries, and renewable and utilities industri ...
(KV) in the
fin whale
The fin whale (''Balaenoptera physalus''), also known as finback whale or common rorqual and formerly known as herring whale or razorback whale, is a cetacean belonging to the parvorder of baleen whales. It is the second-longest species of cet ...
hunt by Hvalur HF. It also uses 50 mm cannons built by KV in the
minke whale
The minke whale (), or lesser rorqual, is a species complex of baleen whale. The two species of minke whale are the common (or northern) minke whale and the Antarctic (or southern) minke whale. The minke whale was first described by the Danish n ...
hunt.
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
uses 50 mm KV cannons in the minke whale hunt, as well as muzzle-loading 60 mm Henriksen cannons.
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
uses 50 mm KV cannons in the hunt for minke,
bowhead, fin, and
humpback whale
The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hump ...
s.
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
uses 75 mm cannons, built by Miroku Manufacturing in its
pelagic
The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or wa ...
whaling in the North Pacific and
Antarctic
The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...
research hunts.
All of the above countries utilize Norwegian-designed PETN grenades to improve the humaneness of the kill, with the exception of Japan, which uses domestically manufactured grenades, which have proved less effective at guaranteeing an instant kill. (40% instant death rate in Japan vs. 80% in Norway).
{{Commonscat
Cannon
Norwegian inventions
Harpoons