Over the weekend, we went on a whale watch. We were fortunate and got to see two separate pods. Here is one of them in action:
In anticipation of the trip, the boys had borrowed a book from the library which featured a cut away drawing explaining the various parts of a sailing ship in the early 19th century. The views were similar to the picture below (with added callouts which identified the areas of the ship and included detailed explanations).
Life was certainly much harder then. Whaling vessels would be at sea for months at a time. Without refrigeration, the whalers would have to depend on dry stores of hard bread and stale cheese. These were often infested with maggots and weevils. The casks of water would be stored in the hold and often contaminated with slime.
Why would these sailors endure such hardships? Because the economy depended on it. Whale oil provided much needed fuel. Whaling riches powered the New England economy and built prosperous towns like New Bedford and Nantucket.
Despite the wealth that was created in those long ago days, technology advanced and we soon found other ways to replace the raw materials once provided by whales.
It's important to remember that life will not remain static. It seems like the pace of change is accelerating. Whole industries have risen from nothing and been destroyed in just a few years. Within my lifetime, I've seen television evolve to allow for the BetaMax which was displaced by VHS which brought on the rise of Blockbuster to be replaced by DVDs and Netflix with Blu-Rays now giving way to streaming video.
If we are lucky, there will always be whales. They may no longer be central to our economy, but they are still there. I can only imagine what our next evolution will look like.
No comments:
Post a Comment