20 WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 



Tonsberg, behind slow Swartzen, day after day for weeks, 

 till weeks ran into months, and it seemed as if our ship would 

 never be done. 



A coal strike in Britain was the first cause of delay, our 

 Colville plates were kept back by that. Still, we had her 

 launched in little more than a twelvemonth from the time 

 we first planned her, which we thought after all was not 

 half bad. 



We called her the St Ebba why, it is hard to say. 



It would take volumes to describe the trouble there is in 

 preparing a boat for such a purpose, especially a new type 

 such as ours. Further on in this book the reader will be 

 able to understand from the drawings and descriptions the 

 different styles of whalers of the past and present. 



