Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

Most of the charts of South Georgia were inaccurate and several sealing
captains had compiled their own. In general, their knowledge of this stormy,
rocky and treacherous, frequently fog-bound, coast was so intimate that they
dispensed with charts and even compass. They were without means of
communication, but fuel depots were placed round the coast, so that, in the event
of a vessel being wrecked, her motorboat could fetch help. This is what happened
later in that 1951 season.
When sealing, the Albatros was seldom out for more than a week at a time.
After spending the night in some sheltered anchorage, work usually began at
about 05.30 hrs, or if those beaches had been worked on the previous day, the
anchor was weighed at first light and the vessel steamed to the next bay, before
the men went ashore. Work continued as long as there were seals to be taken, or
until the vessel had the maximum cargo it could stow. There were no fixed meal
times and food was often snatched while the vessel moved from one bay to the
next. The working day usually ended about 7 o’clock and sometimes much later,
although at the beginning and end of the season it was shorter, because of the
reduced day-length. Despite the weather, days when work was impossible were
rare; but this relied on the determination and strong constitutions of the sealers.
They were responsible for raising and lowering the boats and for collecting and
rafting skins to the ship, where the other members of the crew hoisted them
aboard and stowed them. Their efficiency, born of long practice, and their
ingenuity in meeting unforeseen circumstances was remarkable.
When the boats were lowered, the sealers and the gunner jumped into the
heavy pram dinghy and were towed to the beach by the motorboat, which ran in
as far as possible before casting off the towrope. The pram was then rowed in,
often through very heavy surf, and the party jumped ashore. Then the pram
usually waited just outside the line of breakers, but occasionally, if there was little
or no surf, might be hauled up the beach. The sealers, who frequently worked up
to the waist in water, wore overalls, rubber thigh boots, and, over the boots,
rubber or oilskin trousers tied below the knee with string. Waterproof jackets and
sou'westers were usually worn, or, if the weather was fine, a peaked leather cap.
The equipment consisted of iron hooks about 3 ft. long, rope strops about 10 ft.
long with a loop spliced in each end, and a long ‘spekk’ (= blubber) line. The
gunner carried a Krag-Jorgensen rifle (.458 calibre) and a small canvas satchel
containing the soft-nosed bullets. Swedish Eskilstuna knives for flensing were
carried in wooden sheaths, made in South Georgia, with a sharpening steel and a
small hook attached. These knives were washed frequently in the sea and kept
razor sharp with the steel. I acquired such a set of equipment for my own use. A
whetstone for coarse sharpening of the knives was usually carried by one of the
flensers, and they were honed with the steel. (For more drastic attention there was
a whetstone grinding wheel on the deck of the sealer). One man carried two or
three metal tubes about 10 ft. long and 1 in. in diameter, condenser tubes from a
defunct boiler at the whaling station.
The seven sealers had three separate tasks: beating, flensing, and hauling. The
beater selected a bull and drove it backwards to the water's edge, by tapping it on
the proboscis with one of the rods and shouting ‘Ush-aaaaa’ or ‘Oh-ho-ho’, or
some other taunt, sometimes striking the rod with a stone to make more noise. At
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