A few years ago, I had a very vivid dream in which men hunted dragons in the sky with flying boats. I was probably influenced by a trip to the Whaling Museum in New Bedford, MA., where I was amazed. impressed and horrified by the tools and practices of that trade. The image that stuck with me, was of men, in a small open whaleboat in open water, chasing and harpooning whales, that dwarfed the men and their boats, sometimes weighing in at 50 tons or more.
In the dream the hunters shot harpoons attached to weights into the dragons and eventually wore them down. Once the dragon was exhausted, they fell into the ocean, where the flying boats would land, and dispatch and dismember the dragon, much as the whales were hunted and slaughtered a century ago by whalers from Nantucket and New Bedford. Like the original whalers, the dragon hunters were a special class of men with their own habits, language and society.
After the dream, while the imagery was still fresh in my mind, I did some sketches, imagining the boats, the men, the costume, technology and the culture of these dragon hunters. At some point I would love to develop this idea further, but for now, here are some sketches and notes from my sketchbook.
