How did hand-thrown harpoons and lances work in early commercial whaling?

In early commercial whaling, the use of hand-thrown harpoons and lances was a labor-intensive process conducted from small, double-ended boats carrying crews of five to seven men.1

The process functioned as follows:

• The Strike: When a whale was sighted, the crew approached by rowboat. The harpooner, a key member of the crew, would throw the harpoon to strike the animal. The harpoon itself consisted of a shaft and a head featuring two sets of sharp barbs designed to anchor the weapon in the whale.12
• Playing the Whale: Once the harpoon was embedded, the whale was "played" at the end of ropes, similar to how one might fish for smaller prey. This process exhausted the animal.13
• The Kill: After the whale was sufficiently fatigued, the crew would move in to deliver a fatal blow using a lance.13
• Recovery: Once the whale was dead, the carcass was towed back to the main whaling vessel for processing.1

This method relied entirely on the physical skill of the crew and the manual deployment of these tools, as early attempts to introduce harpoon guns in the 1800s were unsuccessful.1