172 NEWFOUNDLAND 



Norrona Station, on 8th June 1905, which had devoured a 

 small quantity of herrings. 



On being struck the Finback is either killed dead on the 

 spot, or rushes away at a speed of about 15 knots for a 

 distance of two or more miles. Most of the steamers carry 

 about 2^ miles of line. When it is exhausted the rope is 

 "clamped," z.e. held fast by the winch, and the steamer is 

 towed at a rate of 6 to 10 knots. As the efforts of the whale 

 slacken, quarter-, half-, or full-speed astern is employed by the 

 steamer to act as a drag, and so the battle goes on until the 

 monster is exhausted, or the harpoon "drawn." 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 Fin-whalers, but they prove that the chase of 

 this great whale calls for the sternest 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 three-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 

 Veranger Fjord. In 1896 the Jarjford 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 overwhelmed had not 

 Captain Castberg, hunting in another steamer, come to their 

 rescue. 



The following notes from my diary were made when, as 

 guest of Mr. Haldane, I shared in the chase of the Finback 

 in August 1904: — 



