T11K WHALE FISHERY. 237 



England, however, preceded (lie- United States in the use, of steamers in the whale fishery. 

 She dispatched a vessel of this character to Davis Straits in 1S57, a note of which e\ cut was made 

 at the time by one of our Eastern papers.' Mr. Southwell records this event, together with other 

 items of interest in connection with tin- seal fishery, which 1 quole in lull. He sa.\s: 



"Steam was first introduced into the whale fishery in IS.'iT, when the iron steamship innnit 

 was sent out to Davis Strait, and the following spring she proceeded to the Greenland seal fishery, 

 returning to 1'elerhead after a- voyage of three weeks with l."iO tuns of oil. Her .success raised 

 the cupidity of the iron steamship owners of Hull and Newcastle; and as the Baltic, where most 

 of these steamers were employed, is often closed during the months of March and April, it is not 

 surprising that the prospect of earning some 10,001) in about thirty days was irresistible to them. 

 The consequence of this was that in IS.j'.t lifty-two vessels were lying in Bressay Sound, bound for 

 the seal fishery. So dillieult was it to make up their complement of men that some of the vessels 

 had to go on to Orkney to complete their crews. The result of the, voyage has been given above. 



" Iron steamships, however, had but a short reign. In due course they sailed, but some never 

 returned. Meeting wi:h rough weather several of them came in contact with the ice, and the 

 Empress of India, the Recruit, and the Innuit went to the bottom. Since this disastrous voyage, 

 (with one exception, the Itiver Tay, from Dundee, which met with a like fateiu Davis Straits in 1868, 

 her first year), no iron steamships have ventured to brave the thick-ribbed ice. 



" The Dundee whaler Tay. a fulled rigged ship of 600 tons, was fitted with an auxiliary screw 

 in l.SfiS ; and the introduction of steam soon proved so advantageous that new wooden steam-vessels 

 were speedily built, and the old sailing vessels converted, so that in 186!) the whole of the Dundee 

 fleet were screw-steamers. At first the crews of the; steam vessels, from want of knowledge of the 

 habits of their prey, were not very successful; but after a time it was discovered, that if the seals 

 were sighted in the water and followed till they took to the ice to produce their young, by allowing 

 two or three days to elapse, they became so reluctant to desert their offspring that both parent 

 and young fell easy victims. The men were then let loose, and shot down every mother seal which 

 ventured upon the ice to suckle its young or even showed its head above water; the young seals 

 being of little value so early in the season were allowed to crawl away and die. It need hardly be 

 said that this mode of hunting the seals simply meant extermination, and rapidly produced most 

 disastrous effects.''! 



OUTFITS FOR A WHALING VOYAGE. When a whaler goes into commission, she is overhauled 

 inside and out; her rigging is set np, new sails are made and bent, and the wood and iron work 

 is painted. If an old vessel, she may be heeled over, and her bottom and sides planked and calked; 

 old masts are unstepped and new ones put in, and the spars and rigging critically examined. 

 Meantime the cooper has taken measurements of the ship's hold, and his gang of men are busily 



men in the crew, and the quarters are heated by pipes leading from the toilers. The Thrasher, to which the above 



-iireinents refer, was the 1 1-1 steam whaler constructed, and is the most complete iu her equipment. She has 



1 latent try -works anil iron tanks in the lower hold ; her engines an : :ri 'el-acting, with independent conden^-i 



and |iuni]is. The cylinders are 22 by 36 inches. This type of engine is, in the opinion of the firm, better adapted 



for whaling purposes than the compound engine, and more economical. The bow of the Thrasher is protected and 



strengthened in every ay possible, and the vessel is ;i great improvement on the .steamers Mary and Helen. Belvedere, 

 and .North Star, which were also built by this linn for the Arctic whale fishery. 



" \VllAI.lNG BY STIC AM. During the present year, steamers lit ted with t lie screw have for the first time been enf 

 in the tiieeiiland fisheries from Kngland. Lasl month an iron vessel of Him tons, fitted with a propeller, left the 'I 

 lor ]>a\is Snails, and it is anticipated that she will be able to pern Irate many of the haunts of the whale and seal 

 in the small bays and inlets into which sailing vessels are unable, to find their wa.y. Gloucester Telegraph, June 17, 



tOn the lieaked or Bottle-nose Whale (Z////r<mf/i> rostratue). Seals and i he Seal Fishery. p,\ Thomas Southwell, 

 F. /,. S.. read I'.'th December. 1882. pp. 1 1-- l-'.i. Keprinted fiom the Transactions of the Norfolk and Noi wicl) Natural 

 . Vol. III. 



