THE WHALE FISHEET. 237 



England, however, preceded tbe United States iu the use of steamers in the whale fishery. 

 She dispatched a vessel of this character to Davis Straits in 1857, a note of which event was made 

 at the time by one of our Eastern papers.* Mr. Southwell records this event, together with other 

 items of interest iu connection with the seal fishery, which I quote in full. He says: 



"Steam was first introduced into the whale fishery in 1857, when the iron steamship Innuit 

 was sent out to Davis Strait, and the following spring she proceeded to the Greenland seal fishery, 

 returning to Peterhead after a voyage of three weeks with 150 tuns of oil. Her success raised 

 the cupidity of the iron steamship owners of Hull and Newcastle; and as the Baltic, where most 

 of these steamers were employed, is often closed during ftre months of March and April, it is/riot 

 surprising that the prospect of earning some 10,000 iu about thirty days was irresistible t^them. 

 The consequence of this was that in 1859 fifty-two vessels were lying in Bressay Sound, "bound for 

 the seal fishery. So difficult was it to make up their complement of men that some of the vessels 

 had to go on to Orkney to complete their crews. The result of the voyage has been given above. 



" Iron steamships, however, had but a short reign. In due course they sailed, but some iiev 

 returned. Meeting with rough weather several of them came in contact with the ice, and the 

 Empress of India, the Recruit, and the Innuit went to the bottom. Sinw this disestrous voyage 

 (with one exception, the River Tay, from Dundee, which met with a likXiate in Davis Straits in 1868, 

 her first year), no iron steamships have ventured to brave the thidf -ribbed ice. 



" The Dundee whaler Tay, a fulled-rigged ship of 600 toux, was fitted with an auxiliary screw 

 in 1858 ; and the introduction of steam soon proved so advantageous that new wooden steam-vessels 

 were speedily built, and the old sailing vessels converted, so that in 1869 the whole of the Dundee 

 fleet were screw -steamers. At first the crews of the steam vessels, from want of knowledge of the 

 habits of their prey, were not very successful; but after a time it was discovered, that if the seals 

 were sighted in the water and followed till they took to the ice to produce their young, by allowing 

 two or three days to elapse, they became so reluctant to -desert their offspring that both parent 

 and young fell easy victims. The men were then let loose, and shot down every mother seal which 

 ventured upon the ice to suckle its young or even showed its head above water; the young seals 

 being of little value so early in the season were allowed to crawl away and die. It need hardly be 

 said that this mode of hunting tbe seals simply meant extermination, and rapidly produced most 

 disastrous effects.''! 



OUTFITS FOB A WHALING VOYAGE. When a whaler goes into commission, she is overhauled 

 inside and out ; her rigging is set up, new sails are made and bent, and the wood and iron work 

 is painted. If an old vessel, she may be heeled over, and her bottom and sides planked and calked: 

 old masts are nnstepped and new ones put in, and the spars and rigging critically examined. 

 Meantime the cooper has taken measurements of the ship's hold, and his gang of men are busily 



men in the crew, and the quarters are heated by pipes leading from the boilers. The Thrasher, to which the above 

 measurements refer, was the last steam whaler constructed, and is the most complete iu her equipment. She has 

 patent try-works and iron tanks in the lower hold ; her engines are single, direct-acting, with independent condenser 

 and pumps. The cylinders are 22 by ;5G inches. This type of engine is, in the opinion of the firm, better adapted 

 for whaling purposes than the compound engine, and more economical. The bow of the Thrasher is protected and 

 strengthened in every way possible, and the vessel is a great improvement on the steamers Mary and Helen, Belvedere, 

 and Morth Slav, which were also built by this firm for the Arctic whale fishery. 



* WHALING BY STEAM. During the present year, steamers fitted with the screw have for the first time been engaged 

 iu 1he Greenland fisheries from England. Last month an iron vessel of GOO tons, fitted with a propeller, left the Tyne 

 for Davis Straits, and it is anticipated that, she will be able to penetrate many of the haunts of the whale and seal 

 in the small bays and inlets into which sailing vessels are unable to find their way. Gloucester Telegraph, June 17, 

 1857. 



tOu the Beaked or Bottle-nose Whale (Hyperoodon rmtraltat). Seals and the Seal Fishery. By Thomas Southwell, 

 F. Z. S.,read I'.Hh December, IrttfiJ. pp. 44^-489. Kepriuted from the Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Natural 

 ists' Society, Vol. III. 



