[Illustration: LANCING A WHALE.
An eighteen-foot spear is the lance—half iron half wood. The pram is
swung out; and Jensen is handed the lance. We reach the whale and Jensen
makes a lunge, and the spear goes in five feet and is twisted out of his
hand; the vast body rolls over, the tail rises up and up and comes down
in a sea of foam.]
MODERN WHALING
&
BEAR-HUNTING
A RECORD OF PRESENT-DAY WHALING WITH
UP-TO-DATE APPLIANCES IN MANY PARTS
OF THE WORLD, AND OF BEAR
AND SEAL HUNTING IN THE
ARCTIC REGIONS
BY
W. G. BURN MURDOCH, F.R.S.G.S.
AUTHOR OF
“FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC”
“AN ILLUSTRATED PROCESSION OF SCOTTISH HISTORY”
“FROM EDINBURGH TO INDIA AND BURMAH”
_&c. &c. &c._
With 110 Illustrations
chiefly from Drawings & Photographs
by the Author
LONDON
SEELEY, SERVICE & CO. LIMITED
38 GREAT RUSSELL STREET
1917
PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
The readers of this book will be interested to learn that the expedition
from Dundee which set out for the Antarctic regions in 1892 to the
Weddell Sea, south and east of Graham’s Land, and in which the author
of the present volume took part, was the first of its kind since the
famous expedition commanded by Sir James Ross in 1842. Dr W. S. Bruce,
the distinguished polar traveller and oceanographer, was the scientific
naturalist, and Mr Burn Murdoch, the author of this volume, was the
artist and historian of the expedition, which is described by his pen in
“From Edinburgh to the Antarctic.” It consisted of three whaling vessels
specially built of great strength to withstand ice pressure, barque
rigged and fitted with auxiliary steam power. They were accompanied by
a Norwegian barque of similar type. The chief object of the expedition
was the capture of the Right or Bowhead whale by old methods, from small
boats. For three months these vessels were continuously amongst the thick
pack ice and enormous bergs on the east side of Graham’s Land.
The publication of the above-mentioned book, and lectures by Dr Bruce
and Mr Burn Murdoch, revived both at home and abroad interest in the
Antarctic regions, and in 1897 the Belgica expedition followed in their
wake, and this again was followed by expeditions of various European
nations.
During the expedition of 1892-1893 vast numbers of the largest-sized
finner whales were observed in the neighbourhood of Erebus and Terror
Gulf, and between South Georgia and the South Shetland Islands. The
report brought home of these whales being in such numbers led to the
development of the present great whaling industry in the Southern Seas.
Companies were formed and modern steam whalers were sent South to hunt
these powerful rorquals or finner whales. The extent of this industry and
the methods of modern whaling are described in the first part of this
volume.
In the second part, which is concerned principally with bear-hunting in
the Arctic regions, some description is also given of the old style of
harpooning narwhals from small boats.
* * * * *
The publication of this volume has been held over owing to the war.
Part of the text was printed off, and it contains references to events,
current at the time, which, without this explanation, might puzzle the
reader. The prices of the products of the whaling industry are for the
same reason more up to date in the Appendix than in the text.
LIST OF CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
Planning a Modern Whaler—Towing a Whale—Our Whaler, the
Haldane, in Shelter—Balta Sound, Shetland—We plan a Company—Our
New Whaler, the St Ebba, in Tonsberg 17
CHAPTER II
Norway to Tonsberg—Comparison between the Old Viking Ships
and our Modern Vessel—Similarity of Lines—Modern Methods
of Whaling—“Modern Whales” compared with Old Style—Whales,
Sperm—Right Whales—Finners—Tackling a Finner with Old Style
of Gear—Whaling Stations—Utilisation of Whole Carcass—Whale
Products—Modern Whaling in Southern Hemisphere—Stations round
the World—Decrease and Increase in Numbers of Whales—Natural
Close Season—Increase of Biscayan Whale 21
CHAPTER III
In Southern Norway—Building our Whaler—Cutting Lance
Shafts—Tanks—Whale Lines—Outfit for Prolonged Cruise—Rigging
and Arrangements of Hull—Our Harpoon Guns—The Henriksens
of Tonsberg—Svend Foyn inventor—The Henriksen Works—Early
Experiments with Modern Harpoon—Tonsberg Yacht Club—Tonsberg
Whaling Captains—Successors of Svend Foyn—Development of
Modern Whaling in South Atlantic—Weary Waiting—Trial Run
of Engine—Provisioning—At the Rope Factory—Spinning our
Whale Lines—Norwegian Hospitality—The St Ebba’s First
Journey—Studying Charts—The Winch 27
CHAPTER IV
Clear St Ebba from Quay Side—Anchor in Sheltered Fiord—Getting
our Fishing Gear, Guns, etc., in order—Adjusting Compass—Final
Provisioning—Ammunition—The Islands in the South Atlantic we
hope to visit—A Fault in our Accounts—Harpoon Gun Drill 38
CHAPTER V
Leave South Norway for the Shetlands—Anchors foul—At Sea at
Last—Down the Skagerak in Calm—Picking up Lights—Unpromising
Weather—Half a Gale—Digging into same Hole—Full Gale—St Ebba
a Dry Ship—Hove to—A Sick Crew—Our Cook—Engine will not
start—Drifting across North Sea to Yorkshire Coast—Recollection
of a Previous Whaling Voyage—All Hands to Air Pump 45
CHAPTER VI
Drifting—Gale falling—Engines start—Set Sail—The Name St
Ebba—We put aside our Plans for Arctic Whaling—Fair Isle
Light—Sumburgh Light—Bressay and Lerwick—Quiet and Greyness of
Lerwick—Shetland Anæmic 53
CHAPTER VII
The Waiting Part of Whaling—Before “grassing a Fish”—Waiting in
Japanese Seas—Poultry on a Whaler—Small Whale Yarn—Tied up in
Lerwick—“Customs” on Board—“Tearing Tartan”—Entangled in Red
Tape—Are we Pirates?—A Mass of Fish and Cormorants—Shetlands
held in Pawn—A Burly Type of Old Whaler—About the Old Dundee
Whaling Captains—The Registrar braves a Storm—Herring Catchers
_versus_ Whalers—British Restrictions on Whaling Industry 57
CHAPTER VIII
Visit to R. C. Haldane at Lochend—Return to St Ebba—Captain
Henriksen entertains the Board of Trade Inspector—Registers
our Tonnage at Sixty-nine Tons—A Sunday Saturnalia of
Shag Shooting—How to cook Shag (Cormorants)—The Quiet of
Lochend—Haldane’s White House, Peat Fire and Illuminated
Missals—Stories—Our Shetland Whaling Station 64
CHAPTER IX
Extracts from Whaling Log and Sketch-Book—In Shetland—Sea-Trout
in the Voe—The Whaler Haldane calls for the Writer—The
Forty-Mile Limit—Seals and Birds—The Modern Whale
Gun—Difficulty of shooting it—Various Whales—Their
Names—Idyllic Sea—A Bad Day for Whaling—Hunting—Freedom of the
Sea—Try to blow up Mackerel—Sabbath Calm—No Whales—Fascination
of watching for a Blow—Hark back to Shetland—New Departure—A
Bag of Wind—Across the Limit again—Fine Weather—Æsthetics on a
Whaler—A Blast, Whales at last!—A Rough Chase—A Bull’s Eye at
Forty Yards—Lost! 68
CHAPTER X
Better Luck—Spectacular Effect—Whales and Rainbow—On
Chase—The Sea teems with Life—Our Chance comes—Heart-stopping
Excitement—A Close Shave—In Tow—Seventy Tons in the Basket—Ten
Whales in a Day—Vexatious Government Restriction—Uses of Whale
Meat, Oil, and some Values in £ s. d. 80
CHAPTER XI
Whaling has its seamy Side—A Whale Hunt—Colours of the Sea
and Whales—In Tow—Whale is killed—Another Whale—“Thrilling
Dangers” of Whaling and Exceptional Behaviour of Whales—Dangers
of Whaling—Whale Steak—Whale Guano as Fertiliser—Lancing a
Whale—Exquisite Colour of Whales—Pedigree of Whales—Rolling
Home, Two Whales in Tow 85
CHAPTER XII
Back to the St Ebba on West of Shetland—Fine Weather—No
Competition—All Hands busy but no Whales—Our Last Night in
Port—Out to the West—The Ramna Stacks as Targets for H.M.S.—A
Sailing Ship once more 97
CHAPTER XIII
A Fine Weather Chantey “California”—Back to Lochend—Cormorant
Hash—Up Anchor and leave the Shetlands—Cape
Wrath—Lewis—Dunvegan—Picking up Lights—South to Tobermory—Our
West Coast on a Dark Night—Ardnamurchan and Coll—Morar,
the Most Beautiful Country in the World—Drimnin next, Glen
Morven—Tobermory—Relatives and the Lady of Aros Castle 102
CHAPTER XIV
The British Fleet at Oban—A Union Jack made in Norway—St George
_versus_ Imperial Idea—Violation of British Constitution—John
Knox a Sunday Golfer—Wives at Sea—A Yarn—A Spy in Tobermory—The
Tobermory Policeman 110
CHAPTER XV
Harvest Moon—Across the Irish Sea—Belfast—Origin of our Name
Scotland—Erin go Bragh—What brought us to Ulster Day and the
Covenant—The Crew’s Adventures—Greenhorns in Ballymacarack
Street—Down Channel for the Azores—Spun Yarn—Deep-sea
Swell—Inspection of Rifles 115
CHAPTER XVI
N.E. Gale—“Oot o’ this intil a waur”—Into Deep Soundings—It
Blows Hard—Black Night and Phosphorescent Wake—Oil on the
Waters—Driving through—A Scrap of Sail—Attempt at Dolphin
Spearing—A Whale in Phosphorescent Sea—An Idyllic Sunday—A
Shoppie or Sale of Clothes from the Slop Chest—Æsthetic
Music—Grieg on a Melodeon—M’Crimmon on Practice Chanter—Men who
have dreamed—A Demonstration on flensing a Whale—Dolphin Steak
and Onions—The Islands of the World 122
CHAPTER XVII
A New Land (to us)—St Michael of the Azores—Bens and
Glens—Colour of the Island—Portuguese Pilot—Talk by Signs—About
Sperm Whales—Ponta Delgada—Its Remarkable Beauty—Arcades—Colour
Reflections—The Inner Harbour—Sea Fishing—Bonita—A Trammel
Net—Hunting for Whales round the Island—Distress Signals—The
Wreck 130
CHAPTER XVIII
Notes about the Island—Compared with Madeira—Its
Sights—The Streets of Delgada—A Café—Vino Tinto—Guitar
Melody—Costumes—Chase Small Whales—Whales’ Ocean Routes—“The
Ladies’ Gulf” 139
CHAPTER XIX
A Sudden Gale—Driving on to a Lee Shore—Bad Night—Engine
Trouble—Killers attacking Whale—Recollections of the
Antarctic—Oddments—An Eight-Foot Ray or Skate—A Jaunt on
Shore—The Writer’s Excursion to “The Seven Cities”—Up the
Hills—Wind up Affairs in Delgada—Up Anchor 146
CHAPTER XX
Leave the Azores and San Miguel—Madeira in Prospect and
Tunny Fishing—Whales at Last!—Sperm—A Chase—Prospects of
Success—Long Chase—Fast!—A Straight Shot—A Bull Sperm—Cutting
up a Sperm Whale’s Anatomy—Sharks—Creeling a Shark
Single-handed—Spermaceti Oil—Blubber like Marble—Cooking
Process—£. s. d. on the Horizon—Sharks and Pilot Fish—General
Satisfaction—Whaling off Madeira 154
CHAPTER XXI
Madeira at Dawn from the Sea—Description—Funchal Flowers—Tunny
Fishing—Early Morning Start—Splendid Colours of Native Boats
and Crews—Small Fry for Bait—A Large Tunny caught by next
Boat—Our Tunny and Pulley-haul Fight—Sailing Back 165
CHAPTER XXII
We leave the North Atlantic—Engine Troubles—Slow Voyage to Cape
Town—New Engineer puts Diesel Engine right—Up the East Coast of
Africa—The Seychelles Islands—Many Whales—We decide to make a
Land Station—Apply to Government for Licence 176
CHAPTER XXIII
Going to the Arctic—Objects in View—Our Little Company in
the Fonix—Rough Weather—The First Ice—Draw for Watches—A
Party lost in the Ice and a possible Cure for Scurvy—A
Lunatic in the Ice—The Coming Spanish Arctic Expedition—Clay
Pigeons—Fencing—We aim at Shannon Island—North-East
Greenland—Ice Floes and Mist 179
CHAPTER XXIV
Arctic Ice compared to Antarctic Ice—Colours of the Floes—First
Blood—Habits of Arctic Seals compared with those of the
Antarctic—Stopped in the Floes—Cobalt Ice Water—White Bears’
“Protective Colouring”?—Watching a Bear Hunt—Flea of _Ursus
Maritimus_—Scoresby on the Danger of Bear-hunting 187
CHAPTER XXV
Six Bears in the Twenty-four Hours—A Bear’s Meal—C. A.
Hamilton’s Veteran Bear—The Writer and a Bear stalk each
other—Tips for Animal Painters—Sensation facing a Bear at Three
in the Morning—Bear Flesh as Food—The colour of the Polar
Regions—Method of pulling a live Bear on Board—A Bear eating a
Seal 196
CHAPTER XXVI
Waiting for Whales—Narwhals at last!—Our She-Cook—An Arctic
Sanatorium—A Shark—Arctic Seals and Seals of the Antarctic—Our
Bear’s Food—_L’éscrime_—Rifle, Pistol, Lasso—Lasso our
Starboard Bear—Morning Watch in the Ice—Ivory Gulls, Fulmars,
Skuas—Small Life—More Bears—A Bear Stalk before Breakfast—Fears
about reaching Greenland—Bears on Board—Cachés in Franz Joseph
Land—Bear Stories—“The Ends of our Garden” 204
CHAPTER XXVII
A Walk on the Floe—Bear takes a Football—Lasso Practice—A Piece
of Driftwood—The Bagpipes—Pushing West—A Cold Bath—Chasing a
Bear and Cubs—Lost in Mist—Clever Mother Bear—Bear-hunting, a
Man killed—Expectations of Walrus 219
CHAPTER XXVIII
A Narwhal and a Bear in the Bag—Missing Whales—Old Style
of Whale Gun—Svend Foyn’s Cure for Toothache—Is Whaling an
“Industry” or a “Speculation”?—Whales “Tail up”—Excitement
of Whaling—Svend Foyn overboard—Floe Rats—Bears struggle
for Freedom—Size and Strength of Bears—The Silence of the
Arctic—Seals—Painting Ice Effects—Our Gifted Steward and our
Vivandière on the Ice—A Bear on the Floe Edge 231
CHAPTER XXIX
Arctic and Antarctic Floes compared—The Writer, the Bear and
our “She-Cook”—Bear bids for Freedom—Rope-throwing—An Artist’s
Points in a Little Seal Stalk—Man and his Works in Arctic and
Antarctic—Whales’ Food 240
CHAPTER XXX
On Sitting up late—Harp Seals—Young Bears and Seniors—A Family
Party—An Ice Grotto—A Hot Grog and Another Bear—A Tight Place 248
CHAPTER XXXI
All Hands to secure the Bears—Two Bear Cubs captured—Invidious
Comparisons between the Starboard and Port Bear—Another
Bear for the Larder—Greenland’s Icy Mountains—A Blue
Seal—“Starboard” makes more Trouble—A Spanish Yarn—Why the Harp
Seal blows its Nose 256
CHAPTER XXXII
Sports on the Floe—Notes on Protective Coloration 263
CHAPTER XXXIII
Bear Cubs, “Christabel” and “William the Silent”—Bottle-nose
Whales—Bear _versus_ Bull—The Dons back the Bull!—Getting out
of the Pack to Open Water—Meet Spitzbergen Ice 276
CHAPTER XXXIV
We get out of the Ice—Open Sea again—Spanish Airs—Killers—A
Whaler’s Esperanto—Killers attacking a Rorqual—A Gleam of
Sun—Then Rough Weather—Then Shelter in a Fiord—Beards off and
Shore Togs—Our Engineer’s Children and the Bagpipes 281
CHAPTER XXXV
Trömso again—Down the Coast—Selling our Bears—Bears
Escape—Eat the Fish in Market-place—We put our Bears into
New Cages—Notes amongst the Norwegian Islands—Recollections
of Hunting—Fishing—Music—A Viking Air—Talk in the
Smoking-room—Drawings of Whale’s Structure 287
CHAPTER XXXVI
Killers—Stomach of Whales—Grampuses and Whales—William and the
Mandolin—The “Prophet”—Hard Waves—Back to Trömso 291
CHAPTER XXXVII
Teetotal Travellers—Fate of the Bears—Bears at
large—Trondhjem—Folk Songs 300
CHAPTER XXXVIII
Whalebone—Whales’ Food—Head of Sperm Whale—Value of Whale Oil 308
APPENDIX 312
INDEX 317
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Lancing a Whale _Frontispiece_
PAGE
Piping in the Arctic 24
Modern Whale Gun and Harpoon 24
Stern View of the St Ebba 40
The St Ebba in the Fiord of the Vikings 40
Dead Seal on the Floe Edge 48
Mouth of a Finner Whale 72
Leaving our Two Whales at the Station 76
A Finner Whale being cut up 76
Towing a Whale 80
Two Whales being hauled on a Slip 88
Flensing Blubber off a Polar Bear’s Skin 102
Whale Under Side up 102
The St Ebba Motor Whaler in Oban 112
The Arcades at Ponta Delgada 136
Tunny on the Beach at Madeira 136
Killers attacking a Finner Whale 152
Cutting up a Cachalot Whale 156
Sperm Whale sounding 156
Trying to get rid of the Lasso 157
Cutting up Sperm Blubber 158
Hauling Sperm Whale’s Flipper and Blubber on Board 160
A Sleeping Bear and Cubs 168
A Dead Bear 184
Reloading a Gun with a Harpoon 192
Towing a big Bear’s Skin 192
The Last Cartridge 200
Arctic Shark 208
A Modern Steam Whaler 208
Fulmar Petrels 216
Starboard being hauled on Board 216
A Polar Bear 224
The End of the Trail 232
Towing Two Bear Cubs 264
The Captain’s Polar Bear Cub 264
Bears in the Water 272
Our Last Glimpse of the Ice 288
Our Engineer’s Daughter 296
Photo of Starboard 304
Species of Whales 310
[Illustration: ST. EBBA]
MODERN WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING
CHAPTER I
It blows, it blows, at Balta Sound, a cold, strong wind, and yet we are
in June. I think it always blows at this northern end of Shetland, but we
on our little steam-whaler, the Haldane, are sheltered from the sea by
the low green shore and the low peaty hills half shrouded in mist.
One after another herring steam-drifters come up the loch and collect
round the hulk of a retired sailing-ship to sell their catch on board it
by auction. The hull of the wooden ship is emerald-green and the small
sombre-coloured steamers crowd around it. On their black funnels each
shows its registered number in white between belts of vivid scarlet, blue
or yellow.
Our Haldane lies at anchor somewhat aloof from these herring-boats, as
becomes our dignity and position, for we are whalers!—in from deep-sea
soundings—hunters of the mighty leviathan of the deep, the Balænoptera
Sibbaldii, the Balænoptera Borealis, the Balænoptera musculus: commonly
called Blue, all of which we call Finners, the largest mammals living or
extinct. We are smaller than the herring-drifters. They are a hundred
to a hundred and twenty feet long and we are only ninety-five, still we
consider ourselves superior: are we not distinguished by a crow’s nest
at our short foremast, and all the lines of our hull are classic—bow and
stern somewhat after the style of the old Viking ships—meant for rapid
evolutions, not merely for carrying capacity?
Our colour is light greenish khaki, and if red lead paint and rust show
all over our sides, it is an honourable display of wounds from fights
with sea and whales—better than herring scales!
We enjoy the enforced rest: all last night we towed a big whale
alongside—seventy tons’ weight in a rising gale! The bumps and thumps and
jerks and aroma were very tiresome.
We towed it ninety miles from the outer ocean to our station at Colla
Firth, on Mr R. C. Haldane’s property of Lochend, in the early morning
(it is light all night here), and left it floating at the buoy, went
alongside the trestle pier, helped ourselves to more coal, and slipped
away again before the station hands had time to rub their eyes or show a
foot.
We came up through the islands, ran to the north of Shetland, passed
Flugga Light, then turned tail like any common fishing-boat and ran back
before a rising gale to this Balta Sound on the east for shelter.
Our little Haldane doesn’t care a straw for heavy weather, but we
on board her can’t harpoon well or manage a whale in heavy seas, so
“weathering it out” only means waste of coal.
Therefore we spend the morning in shelter, tramping our very narrow
bridge (three steps and a spit, as the sailors say), and we talk and
sometimes go into our tiny chart-room and draw; and Henriksen plays Grieg
on the melodeon! Henriksen is a whaler by profession, an artist under the
skin; and the writer is an artist by profession and harpooneer on this
journey from choice and after long waiting.
As we draw and chat we notice with admiration Swedish line-boats like the
Norwegian pilot-boat in type, sailing-boats with auxiliary motors, coming
up the loch with their sails down, pit-put-a-put, dead in the wind’s
eyes! We know they have been cod and ling fishing in the North Atlantic
for several months, and are now full of fish packed in ice.
“Ah,” sighs Henriksen, “if I had a boat half the size of this Haldane,
with a motor and crude oil like them, I’d make a good thing of whaling
round the world,” and the artist agrees, for both have seen many whales
in far-away seas. Henriksen knows the Japanese seas where there are Right
whales—Australis with bone, and Sperm, or Cachalot, with spermaceti; and
the writer has seen sperm in other warm seas in numbers, and big Finners
or Rorquals in the Antarctic seas by the thousand. So we blow big smokes
in the chart-room and draw plans in the sketch-book of a new type of
whaler. And she will be a beauty!
The Haldane we are on is second to none of the modern kind of
steam-whaler, and we have killed many whales with her up to seventy or
eighty tons in weight. But she requires to be frequently fed with coal,
and has to tow her catch ashore, possibly one or two whales, or even
three at a time, for thirty, forty or even ninety miles to leave them to
be cut up at the station.
We plan a vessel that shall be able to keep the sea for a long time
without calling for fuel like these Swedish motor-boats, and that will
hunt whales and seals round the world, and carry the oil and bone of its
catch on board.
Can there be any drawing more fascinating than the designing of a new
type of vessel for whaling round the world, for warm seas where the grass
and barnacles will grow on her keel, and for high latitudes where cold
seas and perhaps ice will polish her plates all clean again?
So after some more whaling and planning, round the Shetlands in fine
weather and storm, the writer goes south with rough plans, and in a
few days two good men and true have agreed to be directors of a little
whaling company; and, the whaling season over, Henriksen goes home to
Norway, and with a shipbuilder they draw out our plan in detail, for
a new patent Diesel motor-whaler for hunting all kinds of whales and
whaling-grounds round the world, a combination of the old style and new,
with sails and motor to sail round the world if need be with never a call
at any port for food or fuel.
All winter Henriksen the whaler and another Henriksen a shipbuilder
toiled at the planning and building of the St Ebba, Henriksen driving
every day from his farm five miles into Tonsberg with his sleigh behind
slow Swartzen; and the writer pursued his calling in Edinburgh, receiving
occasionally fascinating drawings or detail plans of the whaler in white
line on blue paper, and then he joined Henriksen in summer in South
Norway and both together they drove out and in to Tonsberg, behind slow
Swartzen, day after day for weeks, till weeks ran into months, and it
seemed as if our ship would never be done.
A coal strike in Britain was the first cause of delay, our Colville
plates were kept back by that. Still, we had her launched in little more
than a twelvemonth from the time we first planned her, which we thought
after all was not half bad.
We called her the St Ebba—why, it is hard to say.
It would take volumes to describe the trouble there is in preparing a
boat for such a purpose, especially a new type such as ours. Further on
in this book the reader will be able to understand from the drawings and
descriptions the different styles of whalers of the past and present.