THE LAST PHASE OF WHALING 257 



uniformly unsuccessful, and steam whaling suffered 

 a serious setback. 



One of the Peterhead whalers attracted much 

 attention. The Empress of India, built of iron, was 

 specially fitted out for the trade. She was strongly 

 fortified, being twelve feet thick forward and carried 

 eleven boats. The bottom of the captain's gig was 

 bronze. No expense was spared in her outfit, her 

 crew consisting of one hundred and ten men. All 

 the crew expected to make a small fortune, and 

 looked on the old sailers with contempt. Some of 

 the officers were so sure of getting full of seals that 

 they made all their plans for the future ; they were 

 going to fall in with the north end of the main body 

 of seals and sweep through the centre, leaving the 

 rest for those who were fortunate enough to be in 

 their company. However, the first piece of heavy 

 ice penetrated their port bow, and they foundered 

 in four hours, all hands being saved by the despised 

 sailers. 



Several iron steamers of Hull, the Emetine, 

 Gertrude, Corkscrew, Labuan, and Wildfire, pro- 

 ceeded to the seal fishery, but most of them came 

 back empty and damaged. According to Barren this 

 year proved that iron steamers, however strongly 

 built, were not suitable vessels to contend with the 

 Greenland pack ice. A few years later (1861) 

 Barron changed his opinion, and now writes that 

 " this year would prove the death-blow to sailing 

 vessels. Men having experienced the great differ- 

 ence between steam and sail, few will go hereafter 



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