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New Bedford
Two men in the crow's nest shouting
"Thar She Blows" |
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Clifford Ashley created this piece depicting two men shouting from the crow's nest in 1905.
Whalers would climb upwards into the crows nest to be on the lookout for whales.
When one was spotted, he would shout "Thar She Blows".
The whales usually surfaced and blew the water out of their blowhole on the top of
their back near the head.
This is so that they could clear it and be able to take another breath.
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Whales are mammals and have to surface to breathe.
Clifford Ashley had been a whaler as well as an exceptionally well trained artist.
In
August 1904, he shipped aboard the whaling bark Sunbeam from New Bedford to hunt sperm whales
on the west coast of Africa.
Clifford Ashley was born in New Bedford on December 18, 1881.
He died September 18, 1947 in the nearby town of Westport, Massachusetts at his home about 15
miles from where he was born. |
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