| |
| Comments. The issuer is thought to have been John Fowler, an oil
merchant and tinplate worker with a business at 78, Long Acre, at the west
end of London. Most readers will be familiar with the ceremonies on board
ship of "Crossing the Line" when she passes over the Equator: King Neptune
and his barber pay a visit to the ship; and novices are initiated with horse
play and a shave. It is not so well known, however, that the Northern Whaling
fleets held a very similar ceremony on the first of May. Hence the appearance
of his Oceanic Majesty on the token. |
| |
| The reverse shows a whaling boat about to attack a spouting
whale. The harpooner in the bow is preparing to make his throw, and then
the rowers will back away to avoid the thrashing tail which could smash
a boat to matchwood. If the stricken beast sounded, and the line jambed,
it had to be cut immediately or the boat was pulled under. Whales, too,
might tow a boat many miles, and then a rising wind prevent return to the
mother ship. Every year the whaling fleet lost men in this way. |
| Commercial Coins 1787-1804., pp. 102-103 |
