62 WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 



with a look of " Fear God, but neither devil, man, nor 

 storm." 



He spoke of all the lines he'd been on old flyers like the 

 Thermopylae, and others, sailing cracks that we read of, 

 Green & Smith companies, and the old tea traders, and then 

 he told me he had been at the Greenland whaling, and 

 mentioned a Captain Robertson, and I said : " D'ye mean 

 ' Cafe Tarn ' ? " and he looked at me with a little surprise, 

 but was so pleased to hear the nickname of his old skipper. 

 44 Why," I said, " I was with him on board his last ship, the 

 Scotia, in Dundee, not a year ago, and, bar a slight limp, he's 

 as good as a two-year-old." And from that we started off 

 yarning for as long as there was time, which was not much. 



Old "Bad-Weather" and B Davidson I asked about. 



He knew them from their boyhood : old B.-W. came here to 

 Lerwick on his last voyage and ordered Magnus on board. 

 He was to go whether he did a hand's turn of work or not. 

 Magnus admired B.-W., even though he had the common 



failing ; but now he has gone ? may peace be with him. 



Magnus blamed the steward and mate for his end, on that 

 last voyage, blamed them for not having his temptation in 

 greybeards thrown overboard. My opinion is that the ice 

 finished him. Take a boy as a mill hand and let him struggle 

 through the fo'c'sle to be bos'n second mate first mate 

 and master, then keep him whaling year after year with ice 

 perils and whaling problems and the intense strain and 

 excitement of Arctic ice navigation, and he must die before 

 seventy ! Ice navigation is a severe strain. 



I've known of a strong man, a Norwegian skipper, who 

 when he saw the ice for the first time, and got his vessel 

 well into it, was so scared that he locked himself into his 

 cabin and was fed through the skylight for a week ! 



Another old whaler (I mean this time a man of thirty-five) 

 I met in Lerwick. I heard he wanted to see me, for he said 

 he had been a " shipmate " of mine ; " shipmate " to one 

 who only plays hide-and-seek with the sea sounded rather 

 pleasant, so we shook hands very heartily for a few seconds, 

 but we had no time for a " gam," for I had to go about our 

 business with these horrid Custom affairs. He seemed to be 



