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Image Not Available for Catchalot board game
Catchalot board game
Image Not Available for Catchalot board game

Catchalot board game

Date1936
Object numberV00028203
NameBoard game
MediumCardboard
DimensionsOverall: 26 x 310 x 239 mm
ClassificationsToys, games and souvenirs
Credit LineANMM Collection Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds
DescriptionThis unusual American-made game based on a whaling theme. The title Catchalot is from the French word for Sperm Whale. The game was produce in 1936, but harkens back fifty years to a more active time of American whaling. The game is played like checkers with two players jumping over each others game pieces.
HistoryChester S. Howland was a renown New Bedford MA resident, whaling expert and lecturer. He was the author of Thar She Blows! and the son of Captain George Howland, a whaling captain. A brochure about Mr. Howland is available on the object file or online at:

http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/traveling-culture/chau1/pdf/howland/4/brochure.pdf

http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/traveling-culture/chau1/pdf/howland/2/brochure.pdf
SignificanceAn unusual American-made game based on a whaling theme. The game is patented in New Bedford Massachusetts, one of the most active whaling ports in the world by Chester Howland, the son of a whaling captain. Children's games by the nature of the use they receive are rarely found to survive, especially in this condition.