According to William Scoresby, a well constructed Greenland boat floated lightly in the water, was capable of being rowed with great speed and readily turned around, was large enough to carry 6 or 7 men with 800 pounds weight of whale-lines and other equipment, and yet was safe and bouyant even in a considerable sea.

Whale-boats often suffered damage from whales and ice and were always carver-built, with the planks fastened edge to edge, to allow easy repair.

Six oared boats, designed to carry a steersman and six rowers, one of whom was also harpooner, were 26-28 feet in length and about 6 feet in breadth. The bow and stern of Greenland boats were both usually sharp but boats in the Peterhead fleet usually had a square stern.

This 1:16 scale wooden model represents a whale catching boat from around 1865. The boat is typical of the Peterhead type with a square stern. The boat would have carried a crew of seven including a harpooner and a steersman and 1 kilometre of whale-line, made up of five lines of 219 metres each. The lines were carefully coiled so that they would not snag.

As would be usual by that date, the boat is fitted with a harpoon gun in the prow. The model harpoon can be seen projecting from the gun. When a whale was sighted, two boats like this one were lowered from the steam whaler to fire the harpoon into the whale’s back. Possibly six other whale catching boats were then lowered to assist the capture, using more harpoons. Once the whale was exhausted, it was killed by lances and taken back to the whaler for further processing.

©SCRAN/National Museums Scotland
Model of whale catching boat

©Aberdeen University
Drawing from a whaler's diary of a Peterhead whale boat approaching a bowhead whale