THE BRITISH WHALE FISHERY AND THE SCORESBYS
A history of polar discovery would be incomplete without some notice
of the whaling trade in the Spitsbergen Seas and in Davis Strait, for
scientific observations were taken by some of the whaling captains,
and many discoveries were made. Their duties, of course, obliged them
to give the first place to the work on which they were employed. Sir
Martin Conway puts it very well when he says of Scoresby that “he never
neglected business in the cause of science, but was always mindful of
science when business permitted.”
The Dutch, at first our rivals, were for a long series of years far
superior to the English as successful whale-fishers. While the English
continued to fish round Bell Sound and the number of their vessels
decreased year by year, the Dutch, when the whales ceased to come to
the bays, sought them by facing the dangers of the open sea, abandoned
Smeerenburg, adopted new methods, and became very expert.
When the learned Frederik Martens of Hamburg made a voyage to
Spitsbergen in 1671, on board a whaling ship called the _Jonah in the
Whale_, he found Smeerenburg quite deserted. His history of the voyage
contains the first detailed account of Spitsbergen, with notices of
the fauna and flora[106]. Although Smeerenburg was so early abandoned,
the Dutch fishery continued to flourish for another century, enriching
the communities of the Netherlands with products annually yielding
great wealth. In 1709 their fishery in Davis Strait was commenced. In
the unsuccessful whaling captain Zorgdrager the Dutch found a diligent
historian[107].
The revival of the English whale-fishery was due to the fostering care
of Sir Robert Walpole’s government. In 1733 a bonus of 30s. per ton was
offered to owners of whaling ships, increased to 40s. in 1740. Then
the fishery began to flourish. Previously there were only from three
to six ships going north, but in 1749 there were 40, soon increased to
over a hundred from Hull and London. In 1787 there were 162 English
and 23 Scottish whalers, and in 1788 there were 255 ships going to the
Spitsbergen seas and Davis Strait, bringing back 5989 tons of oil, 380
tons of whalebone, and 13,386 skins of seals and bears. It was then
considered safe to reduce the bounty, the British whale-fishery being
established on a firm basis. From 1788 to 1790 London was the chief
port, Hull being a good second in 1788 with 29 sail for Spitsbergen,
and 7 for Davis Strait. Whitby began the whaling business in 1753.
Mr Pitt, by an Act of Parliament (26 Geo. III, c. 41) enumerated the
conditions constituting a whaling ship, the crew, boats, implements,
lines, etc., with so many apprentices according to tonnage, to be
indentured between the ages of 12 and 20. The Act was altered and
amended by later Acts down to that of 1815 (55 Geo. III, c. 32).
The whalers were vessels of 300 to 400 tons, doubled and strengthened
with plates of half-inch iron round the stem. The working of the sails
was arranged so as to be done by the fewest men, a bentick boom being
fitted for the foresail instead of tacks and sheets[108]. The look-out
had to be many hours at the mast-head, watching the ice and looking out
for whales. As this duty had often to be performed in the intensest
cold, the “crow’s-nest” was invented to protect the look-out men from
the weather. The improved top-gallant crow’s-nest, used since 1807, was
invented by Scoresby. It was fixed at the head of the main top-gallant
mast, with nothing above it and consisted of a cylindrical frame 4½
feet by 2½, covered with painted canvas, open above, and closed below
with a square hatch which served as the entrance. There was a small
seat, and places for the telescope and other instruments. A screen
worked on the upper hoop of the crow’s-nest, 2 to 3 feet long and 1
foot high, which was moveable, and adjusted to windward. The vessels
carried six or seven boats, carvel-built, 26 to 28 feet long by 5 feet
9 inches beam, of fir planks half an inch thick; the keel, gunwales,
stern and stem posts being of oak. They had six oars, 16 feet long,
the steer oar being 18 to 20 feet. The oars were fixed to thole-pins
by rope grummets. When the ship reached the fishing ground, the boats
were kept at the davits, ready to lower. The whale lines, beautifully
“flaked down” in the boats, were of 2½-inch rope, and a total of 4320
feet of length was carried in the six lines supplied to each boat, each
line being 120 fathoms. A bollard for passing them round was fixed near
the boat’s stem.
The harpoon consisted of socket, shank, and “mouth” or point with barbs
or “withers,” and was 3 feet long. Later, the harpoon gun came into
use. Lances were 6 feet long, the socket, into which is fitted a stock
or handle, a shank 5 feet, and a sharp point 8 inches long. The fore
ganger is an important part of the harpoon gear. It consists of 8 or
9 yards of 2½-inch rope, spliced round the shank of the harpoon, the
swelling socket preventing it from being drawn off when the harpoon is
thrown. When a harpoon is ready with stock and foreganger, it is said
to be “spanned in.” The point, when not in use, is guarded by a shield
of oiled paper.
Each boat had two harpoons, six or eight lances, a pole and flag to
signal when a whale is struck, and a tail knife to perforate the tail
or fins of a dead whale. There was also an axe for cutting the line
if necessary, the _mik_ to support the stock of the harpoon, and a
_piggon_ for baling and for wetting the running lines to prevent the
bollard from catching fire.
It was thought politic to arouse the zeal of the chief officers by
giving them an interest in the work. The captain got three guineas for
each fish, 10 to 20 shillings per ton of oil, and a twentieth of the
value of the cargo besides. A harpooneer got six shillings per ton
of oil and 10 shillings for every fish he struck. The chief mate was
generally a harpooneer. The “speksioneer,” who directs the cutting of
the blubber, the boat-steerers, line managers, coopers, carpenters,
etc., were also given an interest in getting a full ship.
Sailing in the end of March the whaling fleet made the ice in 70° to
72° N.; the sea between 78° and 79° being most productive. Then the
captain was in the crow’s-nest for long hours at a stretch, conning
the ship through the ice, watching every change, and looking out for
whales; all on board being on the alert and watching for every sign
from the crow’s-nest.
Foremost among a splendid set of men stand the two Scoresbys for the
Spitsbergen fishery, and Captain Marshall for that of Davis Strait.
Thanks to the pious tribute of his son we can trace the career of the
senior William Scoresby from his boyhood. He was born at Nutholm farm
near Cropton, about 20 miles from Whitby, and was intended to follow
his father’s profession of a farmer. But at the age of eighteen he
resolved to go to sea, and got a recommendation to Mr Chapman, an
opulent ship-owner at Whitby. He walked to Whitby one February day,
and got a berth in a ship destined for the Baltic, but as she was
not sailing until April, he set out for his home, taking a short cut
across the moors. When miles from any house, he encountered a furious
gale with a blinding snow-storm, and lost all the tracks. He was in no
little danger. But he had noted the angle of the wind while he was on
the road, and by that means he recovered the track and finally reached
a house nearly exhausted. The intelligence and endurance he evinced on
this occasion foreshadowed his future career. In his Baltic voyages,
while doing his duty as a foremast hand and learning seamanship, young
Scoresby also diligently studied the theory and practice of navigation.
In 1782 Scoresby joined the _Speedwell_ cutter, taking stores to
Gibraltar, but he had the ill-fortune to be captured and became a
prisoner of war in Spain. He fled from San Lucar, and his final escape
appears to have been due to the sympathy of some Spanish girls for
the handsome young Englishman. They fed him and concealed him, until
at last he got on board a cartel, and returned home. After his return
he married and was two or three years at home. In 1785 he entered
the whaling trade on board the _Henrietta_, Captain Crispin Bean,
and devoted himself to the work. After his fifth voyage he was made
speksioneer and second mate, when the whaler was laid up. When Captain
Bean retired, he recommended Scoresby to succeed him, and in 1792 he
became Captain of the _Henrietta_ and afterwards of the _Resolution_ of
Whitby, 290 tons.
We may here glance for a moment at the ordinary mode of procedure in
the taking of a whale. Directly one is viewed from the crow’s-nest the
look-out man gives notice, and instantly a boat is lowered and another
follows. The harpooneer pulls the bow, the line manager the stroke oar.
The whale is dull of hearing but quick of sight. He seldom remains more
than two minutes on the surface, and is generally 10 to 15 minutes
below, moving half a mile or more. The knowledge and skill needed to
harpoon him during his short stay on the surface will be understood.
There is often danger when the fish is struck, from the violent
movement of fins and tail.
The moment a wounded whale goes down the flag is shown from the boat,
and there is a cry on deck, “A fall! a fall!” In an instant all hands
are on deck, boats lowered, and many of the crew go away half dressed.
When struck a whale goes down to a great depth. Sometimes a whale gets
under the ice and will run all the line out in ten minutes, when it
is probably lost. One or two turns of the line are taken round the
bollard, but the line flies out at such a pace that smoke rises and it
has to be kept wetted. If the line runs foul the boat is drawn under
water.
The struck whale goes down into the depths at a rate of ten miles an
hour, and keeps under water for half an hour or more. The longest
recorded time is 56 minutes. When, after a dive to 700 or 800 fathoms,
the great beast returns to the surface, he is again harpooned and plied
with lances, blood rises from the blow holes, he turns on his side and
expires.
All the boats in a line then tow the carcase to the ship, and it is
cleared of lines and placed alongside with the tail abreast the fore
chains and the head at the ship’s stern. The process of _flensing_
follows, the blubber being 2 or 3 feet thick. The band between the
fins and head is called the _kent_. The _kent purchase_ is passed
from the kent to the head of the mainmast, and the fall taken to the
windlass. The upper surface of the carcase is then raised one-fifth
out of the water, with the belly up. The harpooneers then go down with
“spurs” (iron spikes strapped to the foot) to prevent slipping, and
boys in boats are in attendance with knives. The speksioneer directs
the operations. The blubber is divided into oblong pieces or strips by
blubber spades and knives. _Spek tackles_[109] are fixed to each strip
and flay it off, being worked with winches. The spek tackle consists
of two single blocks, one fast to guys between the fore and main mast,
the other fast to the blubber by a strop. The blubber pieces, half a
ton to a ton in weight, are received on deck by the boat-steerers and
line-managers, the former dividing it into smaller pieces with _strand
knives_, the latter passing it between decks with _pick haaks_ down the
main hatchway. It is received by two men called _kings_, who pack it
in the _flens gut_. As soon as the strips are off, the whale is turned
on its side by the kent purchase taken to the windlass. The whalebone
is thus exposed, and is taken off on one side by bone handspikes and
bone knives and spades, with the help of the spek tackle. It is split
into junks on deck with bone wedges, and stowed away. Then there is
another kenting. When the flensing is finished the carcase generally
sinks. If it floats it is attacked by thousands of gulls and fulmars.
The flensing of 20 to 30 tons of blubber can be completed in three or
four hours, the average time. It is an extremely difficult operation,
however, when the sea is rough.
Some casks have been cleared out of the hold, and the space is called
the _flens gut_. When it is full of blubber comes the operation of
_making off_[110]. This is the freeing of blubber from all extraneous
matter, cutting it into small pieces, and stowing it in the casks. The
_skee-man_ directs these operations. The _spek trough_ is an oblong box
over the place where the casks are to be filled. The surface of the
lid forms a table, on which pieces of the whale’s tail are placed as
chopping blocks. A canvas tube, called a _eull_, is then led down to
the hold. The _kings_ then throw the blubber out of the _flens gut_. It
is received by the _krengers_, who remove all the muscular parts called
_kreng_. The harpooneers then slice off the skin, and the boat-steerers
divide the blubber into blocks 4 inches in diameter. The line managers
receive it in the hold by the _eull_, and put it in the casks through
the bung-holes. Their cries were “_let lob_” when they wanted the
blubber to come down, and “_rip the eull_” when it was to be stopped.
In the early days of the fishery the _making off_ was always done on
shore. The jaw-bones, 25 feet long, were brought home to make posts and
arches for gateways: still to be seen in the country round Hull and
even further afield.
It will be seen that the catching of a whale was not the mere
harpooning with the attendant danger and excitement, but that it
entailed a long and very hard day’s work, with incessant labour and
the exercise of much skill and intelligence. It was a splendid nursery
for our seamen, combined with the dangers of ice navigation and the
constant need for a bright look-out.
In 1806 Captain Scoresby had his son with him on board the _Resolution_
as Chief Officer. Both were good sailors and navigators and unrivalled
as whaling officers. The son had the advantage of a better education,
and was devoted to scientific research. Both were unostentatiously
religious, as all our great Arctic heroes have been.
In 1806, the Scoresbys determined to see how far north it was possible
to go, entering the ice in 76° N. on the 28th of April. Captain
Scoresby found the ice to be of extraordinary width and compactness. He
pressed into a pack which, to ordinary apprehension, was impenetrable.
There was a strong ice blink along the northern horizon which, to all
minds on board but one, precluded hope. But Scoresby, narrowly scanning
this ice blink from the crow’s-nest, discerned a blueish grey streak
_below_ the ice blink, and closely skirting the horizon. He knew this
to be an indication of open water beyond the pack. The watchful veteran
detected another sign. He perceived occasionally a very slight motion
of the water between the lumps of ice near the ship. He knew that this
could only arise from a distant swell, which must proceed from an open
sea either to the north or to the south. The distance he had penetrated
into the ice and the unmixed ice blink to the south, convinced him
that it did not come from that quarter. With this conviction came the
resolution to push on through the formidable body of consolidated ice
before him. Every effort was made. It was then that Scoresby invented
the practice of _sallying_, which consisted in the whole crew running
across from one side of the ship to the other in order to make her
roll, and so break up the ice close round her. Then boats were lowered
quickly from the bowsprit to break up the ice ahead. When a lane of
water was formed, there was tracking and towing. All this hard work
and perseverance was finally rewarded, and at length an open sea was
reached, bounded in the north by the solid polar pack. On the 24th May
the latitude was found to be 81° 30′ in 19° E. Though the ice was fixed
and solid to the north, there was an open sea, with a water sky, from
E.N.E. to S.E. This is the furthest north ever reached by a sailing
ship on the Spitsbergen meridians[111].
With the distinction of this highest latitude Captain Scoresby returned
with a full ship. After four more years of full ships, he resigned the
command of the _Resolution_ to his son in 1810. The elder Scoresby
lived on until 1829 as a respected citizen of Whitby and saw his
son’s successful career not only as a whaling captain, but also as a
universally esteemed man of science.
The younger Scoresby went to the fishery for three years in the
_Resolution_ and in 1813 was transferred to the _Esk_, a larger ship.
The dangers from the ice were far more serious than those to which
men were exposed in capturing whales. Many ships were lost in this
way, and the risks run are well exemplified in Scoresby’s account of
the perilous position of the _Esk_ in 1816. It was blowing hard with
a heavy sea when the vessel came upon the ice on the 30th April. It
freshened to a furious gale, the sea mountains high with huge blocks of
ice tossing in the foam. Scoresby tried to wear ship, but she failed to
go round, and fell off to leeward with terrible force. She continued to
beat against the ice wall, threatened with destruction every moment.
All the time Scoresby was in the crow’s-nest.
When the gale subsided it was found that there were 8½ feet of water in
the hold. At first an attempt was made at fothering, passing a thrummed
sail under the leak. But it was found that 22 feet of the keel and 9
feet of the garboard strake were broken and turned at right angles,
so that the sail could not be passed under the leak. Then an attempt
was made to heave the ship down alongside the ice-floe. Stores were
landed on the ice, scuttles were caulked and hatches closed. Hawsers
were passed under the bottom, clenched to the mainmast, and then led to
purchases on the ice. The keel was in this way drawn to the edge of the
floe, while anchors were suspended from the tops on the other side. The
crews of other ships came to help. But the attempt had to be given up,
though an effort to cut off the broken parts of the keel and garboard
strake was successful, and it became possible to pass the thrummed sail
under the leak. Half the cargo was given to another whaler, as the
price of staying by the _Esk_ on the way home; and Captain Scoresby
was welcomed and rewarded on his return for his splendid seamanship in
saving the good ship under his command.
In 1820 the _Baffin_ was specially built at Liverpool, and Scoresby
made commercial profit in her, as well as discovering and surveying
part of the east coast of Greenland. In the same year he published
his great work on the Arctic regions. He was devoted to science and
corresponded with Sir Joseph Banks and Professor Jameson of Edinburgh.
His book on the Arctic regions immediately became the standard work on
the subject, and has not been superseded by anything of equal merit
down to the present day. A few years after its publication Scoresby
resolved to terminate his successful career as a whaling captain and
take holy orders. With this object in view he went to Queens’ College,
Cambridge, took his degree, was ordained, and became D.D. in 1839. For
seven years, from 1840 to 1847, he was Vicar of Bradford, and after
his retirement he lived chiefly at Torquay. He specially worked at
terrestrial magnetism, but other branches of science received attention
from him and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. His last
work was a most interesting life of the elder Scoresby entitled _My
Father_. Dr Scoresby died at Torquay on March 21st, 1857[112].
The Scoresbys stand in the front rank, combining most able and
efficient work as seamen and whaling captains with zealous promotion of
discovery and scientific research. At the same time Captain Marshall of
Hull held a like position in the Davis Strait fishery.
By these fisheries, due to the discoveries of our earlier Arctic
worthies, several communities in England and Scotland were enriched
during a long series of years, and the welfare of the whole kingdom
was advanced. Further discovery received advocacy through the reports
of whaling captains, and an unequalled nursery for British seamen was
securely established.