Captain William Sylvester removing the baleen, or whalebone, of a 50-foot whale. The baleen was typically the first part removed from a whale carcass.

This finback whale was discovered by local lobster fisherman after a large storm washed it ashore on Ragged Island in Harpswell. It had been dead some time.

Sylvester, a local whaler, considered the whale was about 75 years old and supervised the process of cutting up the carcass.

Captain William Sylvester was a whaler for 40 years in New Bedford, Massachusetts. At the time of this photograph, he lived on Orr's Island with the other men who helped cut up the whale.