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

say, to avoid going over the side, negating much of the effort I had already put in on
that particular whale over the last hour or so.
I wrote to Maureen that if she could see me she'd think me an awful ruffian. I wore
a dirty boiler suit, big leather sea-boots stained with oil and blood and with metal
spikes in the sole to keep a grip the wooden deck, and a beret, or when it was really
cold a fur cap. My beard was quite a size by then. It might be thought that this was a
nightmarish existence, but with experience one quickly took it all for granted; the
dead whales were no longer great, splendid creatures - merely smelly lumps of meat,
bone and blubber. One could not permit oneself to think of the horror of it all.
A week later it was still very rough down there but we were heading south to
where the weather was usually better and where we could expect more blue whales.
Very heavy seas had made ‘delivery’ of whales very difficult and I saw two slip their
hawsers when being hauled up astern. Several ships of the fleet were in sight, but
disappearing from time to time in the troughs of the waves so that only their crow's
nest was visible. The total first week catch for the whole fleet had been 1,700 Blue
Whale Units. In two days time the short blue whale season would begin (16 January).
There had been few whales that day - most had been shot yesterday and I had spent
most of the day in the lab, working on the specimens I had collected so far. It was
getting quite interesting and I thought I was onto something important; I hoped so
anyway. It looked now as though the season might end about 10 March, in which
case we would be back in England by early April, but it was still too early to say.
On 13 January we had had a ‘tot’ for 30,000 barrels. Commander Buckle had been
very ill - with shingles - and was only just recovering. He spent several days in bed
and it was very painful - his face all swollen and erupted - but in a few days he
would be quite all right. He said at one stage, he thought he'd had it, and tore up all
his letters and papers! He was nearly 65 and it's not a pleasant ailment, especially on
board a ship, far from home. That night Chris and Hugh came in for drinks before
supper and there was a film after but I came out after the first reel. They might come
to our wedding in Portugal. And Alec was in Lisbon a year or two ago. Hector
Whaling Co. started a small shore station at Sao Thomé, a small island off the African
coast (now closed down) and they flew into Lisbon one day, still wearing their
whaling clothes and shoes, and had difficulty getting into a hotel. Although in the
season we became inured to the smell more or less and didn't notice it, I was afraid
an outsider would justifiably think we stank. I was told that when one has been away
for a few days in a catcher the smell is very apparent on return. Probably if I would
be taking my catcher trip in mid-February or later. It still looked as though we
would be heading for the Balleny Islands and the Ross Sea so plenty of ice would be
encountered. We were seeing some very large icebergs by now.
A week later it was a lovely day. We were at 63° 56' S, 86° 16' E - the sea mirror
calm, temperature 8°C and occasional sunshine. The tanker Biscoe came alongside
that morning but I hadn't been across to sample some English food - though I could
have done with some! We get the same menu every week and supper was nearly
always the same 'pa legge' - cold meats etc, and bread. In the messroom we had an
‘English table’ and occasionally when we got fed up with Norwegian cooking, we
asked for an English meal - they usually interpreted this as corned beef and boiled
potatoes; we couldn't win! That day was also very notable because I found a huge
pair of blue whale ovaries with a combined weight of l31 lbs. (73 and 58 lbs). I froze
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