A whale is usually sighted by the column of spray which it throws up in breathing, and which often rises twenty feet in the air, accompanied by a puffing sound. A whale usually spouts or breathes five or six times when it comes to the surface for that purpose, and so remains up for several minutes. It then goes down to feed, and remains under the water for fifteen or twenty minutes, during that time travelling perhaps at most a mile. If possible, advantage is taken of the wind to approach the whale, to avoid the noise made in rowing. For that purpose ordinary metal row-locks are not used, their place being taken by stout pins, to which the oar is attached by a ‘grummet’ or loop of rope. Both ear and eye of the whale are very small, but in the water they are very acute, and any strange noise instantly arouses suspicion. The eye is so placed that the animal can only see ahead, and care is therefore taken to approach it from behind.
The Scotch whalers use guns, both for the harpoon and for the bomb, with which the whale is killed after the harpoon is fast. The harpoon has but one barb, and is so attached to the shank that when it has entered the skin and the line begins to pull, it swings at right-angles to the wound, and cannot be removed without cutting a large hole. The shank is about two feet long, and is split from the head to butt. In this split runs a ring to which the line is attached. The butt is a circular disc the diameter of the bore of the harpoon gun. This gun is mounted on a stanchion in the bow of the boat, and, working on a swivel, may be pointed in any direction. It is a muzzle-loader, and its discharge is insured by a double primer. When the gun is loaded, only the head of the harpoon and a short length of the stock protrude, sufficient for the ring with attached line. When it is fired the ring slips back to the butt and the head is buried deep into the side of the whale.
The harpoon line is generally made of manilla, and has a circumference of about three inches. It is carefully coiled in tubs between the seats, each tub holding a line 120 fathoms long. After the whale has been struck, the line is passed aft and a turn taken around a post in the stern, from which the line is payed out as required. The bomb gun has a bore about an inch in diameter, and fires an explosive shell, so arranged as to explode shortly after coming in contact with the body of the whale, and thus well inside. This gun is rarely used before the whale makes its first plunge, and frequently several dives are made before the boat can get close enough to give this coup de grâce.
Preparing for Spring Whaling.
As soon as life is extinct, the boats form in line and tow the whale, tail first, to the ship, where its tail is made fast to the quarter, and an effort is made to reach a harbour, where the carcass may be stripped with safety. When this is impossible, the body is brought alongside the ship and secured by the head and tail. Work is then commenced with long-handled blubber spades, about six inches wide and very sharp. The blubber is removed in long strips cut around the body, and when one side is finished the whale is turned over. The great lips are cut away, and then, with cheers, the prize in the upper jaw is hoisted on board. The blubber, as it is taken from the whale, is stored in the empty tanks and is taken home in this condition. It is not reduced to oil immediately, as is the practice with the Americans.
The Scotch whalers of Hudson bay differ in their methods from those of Baffin bay only in the employment of Eskimos to man a part of their boats, and consequently they do not carry so large a white crew. The natives employed by the Active belong to the north side of Hudson strait and come from the vicinity of Big island. Several families of these Eskimos are taken on board the ship when she arrives in the early summer, and remain on board until she leaves for home in October. These natives are employed partly in whaling and walrus hunting, and are very useful in skinning and preparing the hides of the walrus.
At present there is only one American vessel engaged in whaling on the eastern side of America, the topsail schooner Era of New Bedford. This ship entered Hudson bay during the summer of 1903, wintered in the harbour of Fullerton, and intended to pass the winter of 1904 in the same harbour, returning home in the following September. As the Neptune wintered alongside at Fullerton, and as the writer made a trip lasting two weeks to Southampton island, in June, 1904, in company with four of the whaleboats belonging to the Era, he is personally better acquainted with the life and methods of the American than with those of the Scotch whalers.
The Era is over fifty years old, and was originally built for a coasting packet. When her usefulness in that trade was passed, some thirty years ago, she was sheathed with about three inches of hardwood, and further reinforced with iron plate in the bow. Little expenditure seems to have since been made by the owners. The ship is now very leaky, and in such a condition that she could not get a British rating. During the winter, when tightly frozen in, the pumps were going daily, and when at sea they are almost constantly going to keep the vessel afloat, while the forecastle, the home of a crew of twelve men, has several inches of water on the floor, and every bunk is soaking wet. This forecastle is very small, and when the small stove and table are set up, the men have to crawl over one another to get to their small double-decked bunks. The air is exceedingly bad, and these quarters probably account, in part, for the scurvy prevalent amongst the crew. The food is as antiquated as the accommodation, and is confined to the staples, barrelled pork and beef with biscuit left over from the Spanish-American war, and returned from Cuba more or less alive; to these are added coffee and molasses of the cheapest kind, and a small quantity of tinned meats, preserved potatoes and dried apples, none in quantities sufficient for anything approaching a daily ration; no antiscorbutics, such as lime-juice, are carried. These antiquated rations are supplemented by fresh meat of the deer, seal and walrus obtained from the natives, but during the winter this supply is often very inadequate.
The officers and crew numbered twenty on leaving New Bedford. They consist of the captain, two mates, three boat-steerers, cook, steward and twelve seamen. None of the officers hold certificates, and as far as their qualifications to navigate the ship are concerned, have passed no official test.