Harpoons

A dull, wet day.

The rain never really stopped so in order to get out and do some walking to build up my strength we went to the McManus Gallery in the city centre. There are so many things to see, though I wasn't up to much more than wandering around the main floor with the displays showing the history of Dundee.

Apart from Jam, Jute and Journalism, Dundee was known as a whaling centre. The need of the local jute industry for whale oil supported a large whaling industry. Dundee Island in the Antarctic takes its name from the Dundee whaling expedition, which discovered it in 1892. Whaling ceased in 1912 and shipbuilding ceased in 1981. The last connection with whaling in Dundee reportedly ended in 1922 when a trading ketch owned by Robert Kinnes & Sons, which had been first set up as a trading company for the Tay Whale Fishing Company, was lost in the Cumberland Sound.

The photo shows two very powerful harpoons - which surely must have caused the whales immense pain. No doubt the whalers were brave men, who faced enormous dangers in the Arctic waters. However, most countries have banned whaling although Japan, Norway and Iceland persist with the trade.

We are fortunate to have Museums and Galleries where we can take time and explore our past and contemporary surroundings.