Paintings of whale hunts

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My regular readers may recall that on my last vacation/fishing trip I had planned to do some whale hunting. Alas, my scheme was foiled by the TSA when they refused to allow my to board the airplane with my harpoon. Stupid bureaucrats. This post, in honor of my dream, shows artwork depicting whale hunts. Oh, what might have been.

From Moby Dick:

Now, with the subordinate phantoms, what wonder remained soon waned away; for in a whaler wonders soon wane. Besides, now and then such unaccountable odds and ends of strange nations come up from the unknown nooks and ash-holes of the earth to man these floating outlaws of whalers; and the ships themselves often pick up such queer castaway creatures found tossing about the open sea on planks, bits of wreck, oars, whale-boats, canoes, blown-off Japanese junks, and what not; that Beelzebub himself might climb up the side and step down into the cabin to chat with the captain, and it would not create any unsubduable excitement in the forecastle.