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

gone to a dentist in England - another one of them gone! We looked around the
town, did some shopping for ceramics and the consul came aboard for lunch.
Onwards to East and West Greenland waters: We left Reykyavik in the early
evening in bright sunshine, with sparkling views. After dropping the pilot we
travelled westwards along the coast of Reykjanes with the boats of the herring
fleet trying to keep up with us. There was a beautiful moon rising to the south - a
brilliant orange. We headed towards Greenland expecting to be l6 - l7 days in
Greenland waters and then to return to Grimsby via Reykjavik and Aberdeen.
The sea continued calm, great shearwaters and little auks were common and we
saw five killer whales one evening.
On the morning of 4 September we were in thick fog, the water was oily calm
and we proceeded very slowly, with blasts of the foghorn at intervals. There was
a chat over the radio with Kingston Topaz which had filled up its hold with fish in
six days. A few icebergs were reported. On board there was a chapter of
accidents during the day; a station winch broke hauling in the bathythermograph,
and the trawl broke twice - the headline and side line. The first
time it brought up nothing, the second try Sebastes (redfish) and large sponges,
two feet in diameter, which the crew call ‘duff’ – from the resemblance to plumduff.
The main winch brake failed to work properly; and the thermometers of the
bottom frame were reading incorrectly. Later the fog closed in and I did three
bottom temperature lowerings, the last at 11.30 pm in a howling gale. There were
some icebergs around us during the night and we "dodged" slowly. After a tot of
rum I went to bed very tired.
Next morning there was thick fog that cleared about 10 am to give us our first
glimpse of the Greenland coast, west of Cape Farewell. The coastal mountains
were bare, rocky and pinnacled, with a vision of glaciers and snowfields behind.
A belt of fog obscured the actual coast and through it we could see the misty
shapes of islands and some grounded icebergs. There were two large bergs
ahead; dolphins kept us company and there were kittiwakes, little auks and
fulmars about. We listened to the skippers talking about their experiences on the
RT. Mostly they had been out of luck, with gear repeatedly breaking. One man
had had eight one-ended hauls; another had spent 48 hours mending gear. This
was probably caused by the accumulation of heavy ‘duff’ on these relatively
untrawled banks.
Later the weather cleared when we were off Nanortalik Fjord, and the scenery
was now truly magnificent. It was typical glaciered country with only a few
small snow patches and glaciers visible further inland. The hills were very varied
in shape and colour and the watery atmosphere lent depth and an air of grandeur
to the scene. It was a distinctive and beautiful coast, but dangerous on account of
the off-lying islands and grounded bergs. We counted seventy of these, one
carrying a block of rock the size of a cottage. Four trawls were ‘shot’ during the
day and I worked until 1.30 am. We measured 385 cod and took otoliths from 100
(for age determination), stomach contents and other collections. We also weighed
some fish to establish liver size in relation to body size; a cod of 7-8 lbs has a liver
of only 4-5 oz, at this time of year. I did four bottom temperature lowerings and
one bathy-thermograph cast - becoming quite expert at it by now. Then, while I
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