Harpoon

The iron harpoon was a tool used by Pomeranian fishermen to catch large fish. It is constructed differently than other tools of this type, which usually consisted of a spearhead attached to a shaft with a rope that was used as a throwing weapon when hunting large marine animals. The presented harpoon has an arched, so-called working part, which is sharply pointed and equipped with a single, moving barb. Originally it was attached to a handle (which has not survived until today). This instrument was used for fishing from a boat. Unlike other thrusting tools, it was not used to directly stab fish. It was rather an accessory used to hook the large and heavy catches, to pick them up in a way that would prevent them from breaking the longline. It could also have been useful when dragging fish from the boat to shore. The tool on display comes from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It is one of the forty-seven fishing objects in the collection of the Department of Ethnography of Pomerania of the National Museum in Szczecin, acquired in the Szczecin district of Stołczyn. It was purchased by the museum in 1949.

Agnieszka Słowińska