WHALE HUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA 



In one of its wild dashes the sixty-ton whale, com- 

 ing at a speed of probably twenty-five knots per hour, 

 drove straight into the ship, crushing her side like an 

 eggshell and tearing her almost apart. The vessel 

 filled so rapidly that the crew were hardly able to get 

 a small boat over before she went down. Later the 

 men were all rescued. 



J. G. Millais, Esq., says of the finback: 



Space will not allow me to give any of the numerous 

 stories of the exciting hunts to which one listens in the 

 galley and the cabin of the Atlantic Finwhalers, but they 

 prove that the chase of this great Whale calls for the stern- 

 est courage and readiest resource. 



To stand up in a tiny "pram" amidst a whirl of waters 

 and lance a fighting Finback is no child's play, and requires 

 that six-o'clock-in-the-morning pluck that the Norsemen 

 possess in a high degree. Many accidents have occurred to 

 the .boat crews when engaged in "lancing," and one or two 

 to the steamers themselves. 



The whaler Gracia, belonging to Vadso, was sunk by a 

 Finner in 1894 in the Varanger Fjord. In 1896 the Jarfjord 

 was sunk in ten minutes by one of these Whales charging 

 it, when about sixty miles north of the North Cape. A heavy 

 sea was running at the time, and the crew crowded into 

 two small prams, which would probably have been over- 

 whelmed had not Captain Castberg, hunting in another 

 steamer, come to their rescue. 1 



Without doubt practically all ships which have been 

 injured or sunk by whales have been struck by acci- 

 dent. Just before a whale dies it goes into what is 



"The Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland." By J. G. 

 Millais. Longmans, Green, & Co., p. 271. 



176 



