FOOTNOTES
[1] Values of whales and their products constantly change. To-day finner whales’ oil is becoming almost as valuable as sperm oil.
[2] A pram is a flat-bottomed boat, square stern and pointed saucer bow.
[3] A. Balænoptera Musculus; B. Balænoptera Sibbaldii; C. Balænoptera Borealis; D. Balæna Biscayensis; E. Physeter Macrocephalus.
[4] Far the best whale to eat is the Seihvale Balænoptera Borealis.
[5] We picked up a dead whale two days later and we hope it was the whale we lost.
[6] In the South Shetlands Captain Sorrensen, referred to previously, killed ten whales in one day, one was ninety feet in length, and probably weighed ninety tons.
[7] This snatch block hangs on a wire rope that passes over a sheaf and leads down to the hold, where it is attached to an enormously strong steel spiral spring. This makes a give-and-take action when hauling up the dead whale from the depths to counteract the jar on line and donkey-engine that comes from the rise and fall of the steamer on the sea.
[8] In these waters a small shrimp called a “krill” colours the water a rusty red for miles.
[9] Later we learned that three S.S. of several thousand tons were hove to during this hurricane. Bravo, St Ebba! sixty-nine tons, one hundred and ten feet, and the safest boat in the world.
[10] Only a few of our men have done bottle-nose whaling, but that is the same thing on a small scale.
[11] Ambergris. [See Appendix.]
[12] These carros are the cabs of Funchal, like four-poster beds, brilliantly painted, with chintz hangings, and sledge runners instead of wheels. Their progress is like that of a crab—neither fast nor certain.
[13] Don José and Don Luis Gongolez Herrero.
[14] Don Luis Herrero Velasquez.
[15] Seal oil is manufactured into olive oil in Paris and the patent leather is made at Dundee.
[16] Not proved. The smaller 250 bore and higher velocity seemed to us all to be most effective and stopping.
[17] I have learned since that five vessels came to grief in the year 1913. Of one trip (Stefansen’s) only one man has survived.