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

It was now really dirty weather – Arne Bogen, the Gunner kept saying ‘Plenty
wind – bad for lobos’ (i.e. for taking seal) and we were all drenched repeatedly.
We didn’t land, because closer inspection showed only four or five small seal, and
so we returned to Albatros at 4.10 pm for coffee. I borrowed a pair of trousers from
Bogen while mine were drying and drank a mug of coffee going round Kade
Point. The motor-boat man was eating too and we discussed seals and evolution;
and he told me about his home in Norway and the house he was building in the
woods. In Wilson Harbour, where we were to spend the night, were two whalecatchers,
Busen 9 and Stora, and another came in after we had anchored – the
Southern Gambler. The Gunner remarked in his halting English, that sounded so
like the so familiar Geordie dialect, that it was ‘yust like Liverpool!’ and roared
with laughter. For dinner we had dozens of whale steaks with onion and
potatoes. Then we repaired to the after wardroom, where the two mates played
cards in a boisterous way and I found myself falling asleep after a very active day.
Next day I was woken at 6.30 am by the Second Mate telling me it was time to
go ashore. I dressed, had a cup of coffee and jumped into the boat with the others.
Two of the whale catchers were still anchored but Southern Gambler was on her
way out to sea. We were towed in to the nearest beach, a long stretch of fine
shingle, littered with ice blocks, from the glacier, and skeletons strewn upon it
from a recent slaughter. Behind was the usual area of tussock, which we
proceeded to search for seals. We had covered about a mile and a half of beach,
extending almost to the snout of the Schräder Glacier, when a shout from way
back showed us one of the Poles, Pilat, driving a large bull down the beach. We
hurried back, having seen only 26 small or medium sized elephants. The bull was
shot at the water's edge and examined, the sealers cutting off the fore-flipper on
one side to make it easier to roll it over. Cast up on this beach was a blackfish,
Globicephala, carcass about 18 ft long, from which I took a tooth for later
examination and further along the beach lay a dead elephant pup, but there was
no apparent cause of death. We had some difficulty getting off that beach because
of the high surf, but managed it with only a wetting. The trip back to Albatros was
longer, because we had walked so far.
Breakfast was served when we got back, the anchor was raised and away we
steamed to King Haakon Bay. There the ship was anchored in a small cove, under
the towering blue ice cliffs of a, for these parts small, glacier much crevassed and
rising about 120 ft above us. The boats were lowered and we went in to a small
beach where there was a ‘pod’ of about thirty elephant seals, mostly small. Two
bulls were killed, though only four to five years old, and I collected material – and
took photos of the team, which caused some amusement. Then out to the ship
again. We weighed anchor and steamed into King Haakon Bay under tremendous
ice cliffs with the peaks and snowfields above occasionally showing though the
cloud. Numerous birds accompanied us; in addition to yesterday's species there
were diving petrels (small-winged birds with a strange darting flight, reminiscent
of bats or some insects) and there were a few prions (whale birds).
King Haakon Bay was very bleak, the shore comprising glacier fronts and
steep moraines for the most part. But the sun came out and it was pleasant
enough sitting out of the wind in the lea of the funnel, admiring the views.
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