Such weapons are too light to penetrate the whale's hide, so the harpooner must literally press them home.
But many a Yankee countinghouse was foreclosed, many a proud harpooner sent back to the plow.
Says Japan's Shimasaburo Hamai, 69, retired after 45 years as a harpooner in a land where monuments were once dedicated to the souls of hunted whales: "I want our whaling tradition .