28o FOLLOW THE WHALE 



and Dundee stayed longest in the business because she needed a cer- 

 tain quota of whale oil every year for her own thriving jute industry. 

 The conversion to steam was, in fact, very rapid, and its adoption 

 made possible the solution of many of the worst problems presented 

 by the ice. Not only did it increase the speed and certainty of move- 

 ment and reduce the risks, but it made possible the first successful 

 reinforcement of the ships. This started a train of events that has 

 ended in our modern icebreakers, the power of which is sometimes 

 almost incomprehensible even to those who run them. Yet, the first 

 steamers were merely sailers with a very small auxiliary power unit, 

 so ridiculously small, to our way of thinking, that it seems almost 

 inconceivable that it could have moved the ship at all, let alone push 

 it through ice, or permit it to tow other vessels. These ships, ranging 

 in tonnage from 275 to 500 tons, were propelled by engines develop- 

 ing only 36 to 70 horsepower, equivalent in actual push to the real 

 pulling power of one or two good dray horses! 



The introduction of steam power was not the only factor involved 

 in the passing of the old whalers and of the second phase of British 

 whaling. On the one hand, the supply of available whales was once 

 again giving out — this time the arctic rights — while, on the other, 

 industrial technology was already producing substitutes for whale 

 products, and a completely new technique for whaling suddenly 

 sprang up in the hands of another people. The English more or less 

 gave up whaling altogether in 1875, but the Scots managed to con- 

 tinue and to make handsome profits, due to their readiness to change 

 their procedures and to their general versatility and enterprise. The 

 Modern Period of whaling, based on the great rorquals, began in 

 1880, when the Scots had a fleet of twenty-five steamers. In 1890 

 they were still making a profit with seventeen and, although the 

 numbers went steadily down, they continued to employ seven in 

 1904. 



The reasons the Scots could do this were various, but it was mostly 

 because as the right whales vanished, they took to hunting the white 

 whales, or belugas, which gave fine oil and most valuable leather, 

 blackfish, and other lesser species, while they also developed sealing 

 to such a pitch of efficiency that they almost destroyed the market. 

 Then again, the "Black" Scots were, as we have said, one of the most 

 ancient races of "sea farmers" in the world, and they knew all man- 



