"The truth was that the old system of whaling from boats was past, being replaced by the modern one of small powerful steamers with harpoon guns in their bows. These had been invented and brought to perfection by the Norwegians. The Norwegian steamers did not attempt to penetrate the ice, but fished in the open sea, and even the fastest, strongest blue whale, the largest and most powerful mammal in the world, could not contend against their bomb guns." (p. 443)In the final paragraph of his book, Lubbock places modern whaling in perspective from its origins:
"Though there is still much hardship to be faced in the whaling trade, the thrill of the fight is no longer enhanced by the leviathan's threat to the life and limb of his attacker. Science has taken the romance out of the old fishing and made it into an abominable slaughter, which the old-timer must view not only with amazement but with a very considerable amount of contempt. But the age is a scientific one, and the human being tends more and more to become just a cog in the machinery. However, the one law of life that even Einstein cannot get away with is that the old must make way for the new: in the words of the sea shanty, life is a case of "Get up, Jack, let John sit down." (p. 453)
From "The Arctic Whalers" by Basil Lubbock
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