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

more hectic. I spent the rest of the day working on specimens and got the refrigerator
going.
That evening Hugh showed his whale film, taken the previous season, and we
watched a western called ‘Stampede’. The radio informed us that the Oxford and
Cambridge Varsity Rugby Match was a draw, 6-6. The following morning, although
no whales had been caught I got up at 5.30 am, just to get into the hang of the
routine. The work is divided into two 12-hour shifts beginning and ending at
midnight and noon, and I wondered how I would stand up to this working day, or
longer, for four months or so on end. It's a long time.
From then on we often had bad weather all day - blizzards, strong winds and
very rough seas, when catching rates slowed or stopped. The visibility was often low
and some days the catchers didn’t even see any whales. At noon on 9 December we
were at latitude 57°21' S, long 32 °48' E and the catchers ahead told us the fringe of
the pack-ice was about a hundred miles South. We were steaming on course 080
degrees, almost due East and parallel with the ice-edge. There was a large tabular
iceberg that day, the first real berg we had yet seen. It was about half a mile long and
seemed about 200 ft high with a flat top like a table and caves cut in the cliffs by the
waves - which I termed the whale hangars! There was no colour though, because it
was such a dull day.
The following day was such a change becoming fine and sunny with little wind. I
worked in the lab during the morning because no whales were coming in. They
hauled the first ones up the slipway at about l.30 pm, and I worked on them until
5.30 pm. Then I had drinks with Shep in his cabin and listened to a gunner on the
radio telling how he'd shot a whale with an experimental electric harpoon (there's
only one) and had not been able to kill it. They were still putting current into it after
half an hour, and it recovered every time they shut off the current. This was
horrifying. If only it worked to plan, it would be such a blessing for it would kill the
whale instantaneously instead of slowly and save it so much pain. The equipment
was in an experimental stage. It had been designed and built by a British firm of
gunsmiths, Wesley-Richards, and the "canon" was a spigot-gun: instead of fitting
inside the barrel of a gun as in a conventional whaling cannon, the harpoon shaft
fitted over the gun barrel or spigot. It was supposed to have a flatter trajectory and
thus be more accurate. The main problem was to conduct the electricity to the whale,
once the harpoon had struck. A flexible copper mesh conductor within the harpoon
line was intended to be relatively elastic, but it often snapped when the tension came
on the more elastic fore-runner - the "fishing line". The Norwegians seemed to be
conservative, and were against the new technique and obstructive. They wished to
revert to the well-tried Svend Foyn gun. I was very tired, but got up at 5.0 o’clock
and collected the list of whales from the previous day to take up to the Secretary's
cabin. Breakfast was not due until 8.0 o’clock and was I hungry. Whaling goes on all
night but I'm only on duty (officially) from 6 am. to 6 pm.
There was good news on 12 December. I was working on deck examining whales
when Mitch came along and told me there was a catcher, Setter III going to Cape
Town for repairs to the propeller. Naturally she would be taking mail and I had
about half an hour to write to Maureen in order to be sure of catching it. The
previous day I had had my first taste of real hard work so far. I was up at 5.30 am -
coffee and list to the Secretary. Then at six o’clock changed and out on deck for
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