July 7th. Monday. Summer had returned by morning and the making off had already begun when I came on deck. We were lying almost opposite the mouth of Admiralty Inlet and fast to a nice straight floe edge with not a bit of loose ice any place. There was more life on deck at the "making off" than there was at the flensing and every one was busy. The blubber had been cut into pieces two or three feet square and put down the main hatch. These big cubes of a faint orange color were taken on deck with the winch, and any pieces of adherent flesh being removed they were cut into blocks of a few pounds each. Along each side of the deck stood uprights; on the top of each was a plate with spikes called a clash, and beside each stood a harpooner with a long sharp knife. A block of blubber was lifted by a man with clash hooks and stuck on the clash spikes, with the skin up. The harpooner cut the skin off and the piece was then thrown into a heap in front of the speck trough. The speck trough, which was about two and a half feet square, was placed across the deck over the hatch; forward of this stood the boat-steerers and in front of each was a block of whale's tail resting on the opened back lid of the trough. Each man had a chopper, and as the pieces of blubber from the heap were thrown to them, they chopped them into little bits and swept them into the speck trough, from which they were conducted to the tanks through a canvas tube attached to an opening underneath. A man in the 'tween-decks directed this tube to the tank he desired to fill. The bone was stowed down the quarter hatch. It was always important to keep the ship clean and get the blubber away, as there was no regularity about the appearance of fish. A number might come at once, and several being killed, the crew could be blocked with work, while again there might not be another seen for a month.
When the making off was over, the decks were scrubbed down.
July 8th. Tuesday. The Arctic, Esquimaux and Narwhal were all in sight to the north of us. During the forenoon we lowered away for a fish, six boats going after it. We saw the spout near the ice edge and were ready for its return, but it came not, probably finding a breathing place somewhere and after resting coming out north of us. We waited a long time and had a tiresome row back. The native picked up by us when we first came had been landed near the south shore, where he had his dogs. Now we saw three coming along the floe and we picked them up, sledges, dogs and all. They belonged to Navy Board Inlet. Hardly were they on board when all hands were called and the boats were away, as spouting had been seen astern. I was in one of the four boats between the ship and the south coast, and we must have sat there half an hour before anything occurred; in fact, we thought the fish had gone elsewhere. The men were all pretty restless, when suddenly the water broke two boats from me and the report of a gun was followed by the cry—"A fall." I saw the whale throw its tail straight up as it went slowly down; then it started north and we pulled past the ship in that direction and scattered out to wait its reappearance. In the usual length of time the fish appeared in our midst and another iron was put in. Away we went again in the best of spirits. Of course, the fast boat in each case remained and moved only as towed by the whale. I was in Watson's boat, and at the whale's next appearance we were almost on the top of it and he immediately lanced, but the game stood very little tickling of that sort and was soon off. Again it came up beside us, and this time very breathless as it had such a short breathing spell before. Three boats were at once busy with lances, and in a very short time we registered a kill. When the lines were cut, and the flukes and tail attended to, we returned to the ship, pulling to the shanty, "A-roving, a-roving, since roving has been my ruin," and having the whale in tow, we were very much elated by our afternoon's work, but there was a great surprise in store for us. Arriving on board, the whale was made fast and I went down to have some coffee. When I came up I found that the crew of the first fast boat, having taken their line to the ice to facilitate pulling it in, had utterly failed to get it beyond a certain point. Thinking it had fouled something at the bottom, they were ordered to come on board and take their line in with the steam winch. This was done, and when after great pulling the very tight line was almost in, behold, there was a dead whale at the end of it. One must be on board a whaler to appreciate a pleasant surprise like this. It is not so much the extra money, as the satisfaction of success. What had happened was this.
The first harpoon fortunately struck deep in the shoulder of whale No. 1, which immediately sounded in shallow water and broke its neck. No. 2 was not a fast fish at all when we first saw it. Now, we had a fish on each side, and as soon as the crew had refreshed themselves with supper, the work of flensing started with a will. When things were well under way I turned in, very tired, and when I tumbled out four hours after, one fish was on board. The men were now ordered to turn in for four hours, except, of course, the lookout and a few nondescript people like myself and the engineer. I learned another thing about the ways of the Arctic this morning; directly the crew had turned in, the clock in the companion was put forward an hour, and when two hours had passed it went on another hour, then all hands were called and our second whale taken on board. This fish was flensed in about three hours, the crew turning in, except a boat's crew on the bran and the lookout. The Esquimaux came steaming towards us during the night, which annoyed us greatly, as the fish were coming up the south side and we thought our berth rather good. She steamed past and hooked on five or six hundred yards south of us. The Aurora immediately unhooked and passed her, while she repeated the performance mid a storm of abuse from both barrels. Our Captain was afraid to go closer to the shore, so we remained where we were. When we hooked on first, the natives had left us, going north to the other ships. We now saw a number of well loaded sledges coming up the south coast. It was evident that they would board the Esquimaux first, so we would lose the chance of bartering with them. Consequently, we sent a boat off to pick them up and bring them on board. Our opponents saw what we were doing, so sent a boat also. As it had a shorter distance to go than ours, it picked up the whole caravan and brought it back. Our boat noticing a sledge far away with two people in it, waited for them and brought them to the Aurora. It happened that these two old natives owned all the barter on the other sledges, and as we kept them on board, everything had to be turned over to the Aurora by the other ship, greatly to their disgust. The Captain obtained from them quite a lot of narwhals' tusks and bear skins. The incident amused us very much.
July 9th. Wednesday. Two boats on the bran and the balance of the crew washing down the ship. I had my first ride on an Eskimo sled. Giving a native a plug of tobacco, he removed from his sled all the movable things and I got on. Then addressing a few remarks to his dogs, off they started. As the ice was smooth I enjoyed it at first, but we came to a hummocky place where it was not so pleasant. I did my best to stop the dogs, but they followed their leader, and finally I tumbled off and returned to the ship, the dogs going on probably home. The runners of the sledge were made of whales' jaws with bone cross pieces lashed to them. When I went on board I found a boat just starting for a bear to the north of us. I don't think I ever saw one any distance from the water; this was along the floe edge and several miles away. Between us there was a peninsula of ice on which there were some hummocks. I landed here to try a stalk and the boat rowed around. For a time I did very well, the bear wandering aimlessly and slowly about, but before I got within three hundred yards of him, he had seen me and was off to the water. I fired several times, but without effect. He plunged in and started to swim across from the peninsula to the main floe. The boat had by this time doubled the cape and bruin had a bullet in his head before he had gone very far. We hauled him on to the ice and skinned him. The men cut some steaks for themselves, but I never had the pleasure of trying polar bear, as the Captain did not care for carnivorous animals as a food.
A great many white whales were now around. I wished we could have driven a school of them up a fiord the way they drive the potheads up the Shetland voes. When we returned we found that a narwhal had been killed, but we did not like to disturb the right whales by hunting these very much.
As the ship was generally hooked on to the floe which extended across the Sound, her bow was pointed up and her stern down, consequently astern nearly always meant down the Sound, as the current setting in that direction held the ship in that position.