by Edouard A. Stackpole

27

Return of a Whaling Treasure Piece Captain Peter Paddack's "Iron"

IT WAS A NANTUCKET relic which had been practically forgotten over the years, and had been relegated to things lost by generations of islanders. But it has now become a part of the treasures of the past returned to Nantucket by an interested individual to whom the story is an integral part of Nantucket history. I refer to the head of the harpoon which was presented to the Association by Lawrence D. Stewart, of Ossining, New York, and is now on display at the Whaling Museum. It was that part of a harpoon which created its own niche in whaling history.

The story began in the year 1802, when the whaleship Lion, of Nantucket, left this island port under the command of Captain Peter Paddack. The ship made the traditional cruise into the South Atlantic, rounded Cape Horn, and made its way to the off-shore grounds off the coast of Chile. A month later, Captain Paddack was in his boat just to the north of the Gallapagos Islands, in pursuit of a sperm whale. Approaching his prey, the master of the whaleship, poised in the bow of his boat, "got fast" with his harpoon. In the usual whirl to escape, the whale tore himself loose from the line and swam away with the harpoon still in his body.

Thirteen years later, Captain Paddack, then in command of the whaleship Lady Adams, was in the same area. His boat's crew got fast to a whale, and eventually killed it. In cutting in the blubber, the head of an old harpoon was uncovered. Captain Paddack was astonished when he found his own initials "P P" incised on the head of the harpoon. Upon his return home in 1817, Captain Paddack brought the harpoon head with him. Some years later, he moved to Maine, and the harpoon was carried to his new home. It remained with his family. In October, 1859, it was loaned to the Agricultural Society for a special exhibition on the Atheneum's second floor. Its remarkable history made it more than an object of curiosity.

The unusual harpoon head was retained by Captain Paddack's family, and in 1923 was in the possession of his great-great grandson, Lawrence Davis, of Mount Vernon, New York. In October, of that year, an article appeared in The Inquirer and Mirror, which told again the story of this fascinating relic of the sea. Peter Paddack had proven what was a well known fact among the whalers: that whales, following a pattern of migratory routes, return to their old haunts, year after year.

Captain Peter Paddack was an outstanding whaling master. During the War of 1812 he re-captured the bark Yankee from a group of privateersmen who had captured the vessel and then left her in the hands of a prize crew. Captain Paddack led the attack on the prize crew and re-took the vessel.