Fishing about and about fishing
LEVIATHAN: DEATH AND SURVIVAL
"The history of whaling has illuminated the best and worst characteristics of mankind." (Max Colwell)
The book "A Savage History": Whaling in the Pacific and Southern Oceans", written by John Newton, published in 2013 by the University of New South Wales Press Ltd. (Sydney, Australia – www.newsouthpublishing.com ) has brought me back to the movies "Sea-Wolf" with Edward G. Robinson and "Moby Dick" with Gregory Peck, both actors playing the tough, obsessive characters of captains hunting seals and whales, based on the classics written, respectively, by Jack London and Herman Melville. I saw them both, about 60-65 years ago.
John Newton, an Australian journalist and proficient writer, produced an amazing book on the history and substance of the world's whaling industry in the Southern oceans. As its name indicates the history of whaling was cruel to both the whales and their hunters. Some of the whale species had been hunted down close to extinction, and only then, thanks to such NGOs' (non-governmental organizations) as Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace, and to gradually intensifying international legal efforts, the carnage was restrained and whales' populations recovered.
Whaling has been practiced from times immemorial, starting with whales and dolphins beaching on their own, or for whatever reason, crowding in shallow sea inlets and bays. The exploitation of Cetaceans has been essential for the survival of the natives of the lands and islands of the Northern parts of Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Peoples, as the Eskimo, Faroese, and the early inhabitants of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Inuit in the Far North and the Nootka of Pacific North East, were killing whales for subsistence, as were doing some coastal people in the Far East, wherever smaller whales and dolphins were approaching their shores. But, these had been marine fishermen who already in the Middle Ages encountered and killed whales far offshore.
The great oceanic whaling industry was started by Basque ocean-going fishermen, who in the 16th Century discovered summer concentration of whales initially in the Gulf of St.Lawrence, between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Spanish and French fishermen turned whalers have expanded their hunting grounds along New England and up to Greenland. The oceanic whaling, sealing and fishing industries have been using manpower from coastal communities, coaxing sea-going men by the promise of making good money and good food and plenty of booze on board, and, in the Pacific Polynesia and Melanesia, aborigine women liberal about sex. Where there were not enough volunteers to sign on for often 4–years long sailing, men in portside pubs were offered free booze, and once drunk, were shanghaied only to be waken to work when the ship was already well out to sea. Before the introduction of modern technology, as steam power and harpoon guns in the whaling fleet, when specialization became the order of the day, those three industries had employed more or less the same sort of people.
The life on board whaling ships was crowded and smelly, while the work was hard and often of many hours and sleepless nights. Although after the introduction of motorization the living and working conditions generally improved, they were still much inferior to today's, even the smaller fishing vessels.
In 1948, I spent many months on board "Drom Africa" (South Africa), one of the first 2-3 vessels of the fledgling Israeli Navy (see photo). A gift from South African sympathizers, in her youth in the early 20th Century she used to be a steam-powered whale-chaser. Before the WW2 she was converted to trawling, only to serve as a minesweeper during the war. The conversion and some modernizing improvements notwithstanding, I could perceive the rough-tough living and working conditions that the whalers had to endure. And, still, in spite of the small size of this always rocking and rolling boat and the always wet low-freeboard deck, I'd prefer to serve on such a chaser than on board a smelly whale-factory ship.
INS "Drom Africa", 1948
The crew's accommodations were in the crowded focs'l, where two-level berths filled a scanty space. It was separated from aft compartments by engine room with the adjacent, heat radiating boiler compartment. Further aft were located two small cabins - one for two engineers, the other for the quartermaster and the "donkeyman". The ship's stores were located further aft. The superstructure was amidships and contained a small mess-room and the ship's galley, at the deck level, and above - two cabins, one of the mate and the other of the wireless operator with all the ship's radio equipment. The captain's cabin was on the top level, behind the wheelhouse.
In his final chapter, entitled "Whaleography", John Newton gives a short account of the marine mammals that go under the scientific name of Cetacea. It's composed of toothed whales (e.g., sperm-whales, killer whales, dolphins and porpoises), and baleen whales (e.g., blue whales with average weight of some 110 mt and reaching over 30 m of length - the largest of all living, and perhaps also, of extinct animals, right whales, fin-whales, minke, and humpback whales). The toothed whales predate on all sorts of marine animals, starting with other whales and seals, giant squids, penguins, and ending with all sorts of fishes. The baleen whales are filter-feeding, skimming the water for krill and other small creatures, while some, like the fin-whales and humpbacks, feed also on small schooling fish.
”Savage History" reflects seamen ambition and endurance in their quest and conquest of valuable marine resources – whales in this case – that for at least two Centuries had bravely served the world's population with oil for their lamps, and meat for food. But, on the other hand, it describes also man's cruelty and the wanton profiteering-driven industry that led to quasi collapse of many whale species during the 19th and 20th Centuries. Apart from being a most-interesting reading, it may also serve as both, a beautifully illustrated coffee-table book and a reference book for all students of this and associated subjects.
An artist's view of processing a beached whale.