Report on the Dominion Government Expedition to Hudson Bay and the Arctic Islands on board the D.G.S. Neptune, 1903-1904

by A. P. Low

Crew of the American Whaler ‘Era’.

The attention of the Hudson’s Bay Company was early directed to the whale fishery of Hudson bay. In 1719 a frigate and sloop, under the command of Knight, were despatched from Churchill, to explore the western shores of the bay to the northward and to prosecute the whale fishery in those waters. The disastrous ending of this venture, the entire crews dying of scurvy and starvation on Marble island, put a stop to all projects of the Company as regards whale fishing, until one was undertaken in recent years, but so little success attended the venture that it was abandoned after three years’ trial.

Public attention was first called to the whale fishery of Hudson bay by Dr. Rae, in the publications on his voyages in 1846 and 1854 along the northwestern coast of the bay in search of traces of the Franklin expedition.

In 1860 the first American ships visited the northwestern part of Hudson bay, wintered there, and returned with full cargoes. Their success led other whalers to the same waters, so that in 1864 there were fourteen American ships in Hudson bay and Cumberland strait.

Whaling in Hudson bay has since been almost wholly in the hands of the Americans, and an idea of the value taken by them from those waters may be obtained from the tabulated statement at the end of this article.

The first British vessel of modern times to visit Hudson bay for whales was the Newfoundland steamer Nimrod, which, according to Hall, was at Repulse bay in 1867. The Scotch steamer Arctic made two or three voyages to the bay, the last being in 1897, when she struck a rock in Hudson strait, and was damaged to such an extent that she subsequently sunk in Cumberland gulf. The Hudson’s Bay Company’s ship Perseverance, already alluded to, was in Hudson bay from 1894 to 1896, and only took five small whales. Changing hands, a couple of years later, this ship was at Cumberland gulf, and sailing from there for Scotland must have struck an iceberg, as no tidings have since been had of her. This, or being crushed in the ice or being wrecked by striking sunken rocks upon these uncharted coasts, is the usual fate of the whaling vessels, and some such loss, entailing excessive hardships and often death upon the crews, is almost an annual occurrence in these Arctic waters, so that a high rate of remuneration is necessary to compensate for the risks.

Since 1898 the Scotch steamer Active has made annual voyages to Hudson bay, and has established two stations, one on the north side of Hudson strait and the other first at Southampton island, but later removed to Repulse bay. Walrus hunting was the first object of this undertaking, with whaling as a secondary consideration. Success appears to have crowned this enterprise, as in addition to a few whales, a goodly number of walrus are taken annually, and the profits of these are enhanced by the furs obtained from the natives, and by mica from a mine worked on the north shore of Hudson strait.

Whaling in Hudson bay appears to have reached its height about 1870, after which the disappearance of the whales from the more accessible waters led to a diminution of the catch, and many of the American whaling vessels were transferred to the Arctic whaling waters reached from the Pacific, which were also discovered and made known by the British ships in search of the ill-fated Franklin. At present only one of the American whalers is in Hudson bay, and none of them have visited Cumberland gulf for some years past; the only connection with the industry now on that coast is the small and unprofitable station at Cape Haven, on Cyrus Field bay, owned by a firm in Boston.

The movements of the whales appear to depend largely upon the ice of these northern waters, and that in turn is modified by the currents and configuration of the seas, so that a short geographical description is necessary to a proper understanding of the movements and habits of these animals.

Davis strait and Baffin bay separate Greenland from the great Arctic islands of Baffin, Bylot, North Devon and Ellesmere. Their combined length stretches from the mouth of Hudson strait to the entrance of Smith sound, or from latitude 60° N. to latitude 78° N., a distance of 1,200 miles. In shape they may be compared to a sack loosely drawn in about a third of the distance from its mouth, which opens widely to the southward, where it has a breadth of nearly 500 miles between the southern part of Greenland and the island of Resolution on the north side of Hudson strait. Both shores then gradually approach, until in the neighbourhood of latitude 66° N. the distance across is 200 miles. To the northward of this the Greenland coast runs nearly due north, while the western coast trends towards the northwest, and in consequence when latitude 75° N. is reached Baffin bay is nearly 400 miles wide from the Greenland coast to the shores of North Devon. Beyond this the Greenland coast sweeps to the westward, around Melville bay, and after Cape York is passed turns northwest until Cape Alexander, at the entrance to Smith sound, is reached. The western coast, in the meanwhile, first runs north and then northeast to Cape Isabella, which is only twenty-five miles distant from Cape Alexander on the Greenland coast.