Lewis Temple: The Blacksmith Who Revolutionised the Whaling Industry
7 January 2026The Inventor Who Changed Whaling Forever In the midst of the 19th-century whaling boom, an African American blacksmith named Lewis Temple created an invention so revolutionary that maritime historian Clifford Ashley called it “the single most important invention in the whole history of whaling.” Lewis Temple (1800 – 18 May 1854) was an American maker […]