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

time on the whaling grounds. We hadn't caught any whales for six days, and every
day had been expecting some. If only I'd known there would be a gap of six days, I
could have made an effort to do all kinds of things. But as it was time had flown, just
in talk and conviviality and I'd read a couple of books and done a little work on the
FIDS paper. I found that it is often hard to settle down to this on board ship; the life
at sea casts its spell and I enjoy just being there within the vast 360 degree horizon
and immense expanse of sky. I still went up to the bridge two or three times a day to
see if there were any whales reported from the catchers.
Ships were on their way with mail for us, but we'd been dodging around for days
with Thule and Bransfield (store ship and refrigerator ship) in our vicinity. Then on l9
December we had heard that Bransfield with 33 bags of mail was expected alongside
that night. However, she was still l30 miles off and - as far as I could make out - lost!
However, we were heading towards her so there might be some mail that night. The
sea was leaden-grey with heavy clouds and fog patches in places. It seemed to be
getting rougher and there were many white tops to the waves. I had moved into a
new cabin on my own once the season began and was very comfortable. At 11
o’clock. the mail from Bransfield finally arrived and I collected mine in the
Commander's cabin. There were many letters from home and from all sorts of
people, including Anne Speyer (one of the girls on the "Andes" voyage), but none
from Maureen. I had a letter from my FIDS friend, Ray Adie the geologist, in
Cambridge, telling me that he was taking a job with a firm in Birmingham, Albright
and Wilson.
We had been heading East again but might get home a little earlier if we could
stay in the West. One point favouring that option was that the price of whale oil was
down that season and the price of fuel oil had gone up. So it would be economical if
we stayed West, instead of going East. In that case, just as soon as the whaling season
ended, we'd be home in about 23 days. However, it was early days and all depended
on finding whales. On that night, the sea was mirror calm; we'd been sailing through
a belt of snow-white pack ice during the day and now that we were through it the sea
was incredibly flat, the swell damped down by the ice. Several catchers were near us,
their lights reflected in the water, and the Bransfield also was in sight. On 22
December we saw the Norwegian factory ship Abraham Larsen in the afternoon and
evening.
Next day it all changed again. We started off on our travels eastwards after
waiting around about 20°E for a few days. Soon we were at almost 30°E and
pressing on at full speed, not sighting or catching sperm whales. Under the
regulations of the IWC it was still too early to take baleen whales. The catchers
formed a line in front of us searching for whales and covering a broad transect across
the endless ocean. Christmas was very near and there wouldn't be much activity on
deck. In fact it looked as though there wouldn't be much until the long whale (baleen
whale) season began on January 2nd. That day we had a Christmas present from the
company. I received a bottle of Haig Scotch, one of Norwegian brandy, four bottles of
South African beer, five bottles of soda water and a bag containing nuts, figs,
chocolate, a packet of cigarettes and a cigar. It seemed rather a nice gesture! It
reminded me of the year before when I had been on a skiing holiday in Norway with
Maureen and bought some chocolate with orange filling. Some of the gift chocolate
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