The Fishing Season, 1888: How Belugas were slaughtered

"The black and white whales were caught in Prince Regent Inlet, the latter in Elwin Bay. The lancing of white whales as the tide receded was exciting work, for the fish lashed out violently with their tails in their struggles to get afloat, and threw the mud and water in every direction, whilst the men, waist deep in the churned-up sea, plied their lances wildly" (p. 420)

As a note of reference the black and white whales, also called "swordfish" or "grampus" by some whalers, were Orcas or Killer Whales, the chief predators of the Beluga whale. Whaling vessels would often take note of these pods as indication that they were hunting Beluga and follow signs to find similar pods of distressed Belugas chased into a sound or against a beach. Captain Adams gives the following account to the Zoologist:

The white whale is very shy and easily scared, quick in its movements, and very keen-sighted; it is consequently very difficult to capture in deep water. It is generally taken in the shallow bays after the ice breaks away from the land. The grampus is a great enemy of the white whale, and great numbers of the latter are found driven by them into the shallows. The fishermen are on the watch for such a chance, and when it occurs all boats are sent in pursuit; they are placed in a cordon around a school of fish, the boats being about equal distance apart and to the seaward of the fish; the boats gradually advance, driving the fish on shore at the most convenient place they can. When tide recedes the white whales are left aground, or nearly so, and then the slaughter commences, the men jumping into the shallow water and dispatching the fish with lances. Sometimes the fish turn and make a desperate rush seaward, great numbers escaping. Nets have occasionally been used in endeavouring to enclose the fish, but I cannot say that on the whole the use of nets has been a success. It has sometimes helped to secure a good result, but at other times the fish in a rush seaward have carried nets and all before them. (p. 414)

Furthermore, Lubbock writes:

"White whales feed on the salmon and, when they followed them up narrow fiords, it was sometimes possible to net the entrance behind them. A white whale drive was a noisy affair, with much firing of rifles and beating of tin cans. It took place at high water, so that the ebbing tide should strand the scared whales. Their value consisted mostly in their skins, which were worth about 1/6 per lb., and when dressed were sold as porpoise hide. From 6 to 7 of these whales boiled a ton of oil." (p. 414)

 From The Arctic Whalers by Basil Lubbock

Disasters among foreign ships at the sealing in the Arctic

"There were some terrible disasters amongst foreign ships during the sealing, and the Orion discovered 70 men frozen dead upon the ice, the crews of a foreign barque and brig, which had been wrecked. These men were all upon one piece of ice, and as they had died the survivors had piled up the bodies to make a breakwater on the weather side of the ice to prevent the sea from breaking over them. In this way a solid wall of dead men, cemented together by the frost, was made, behind which only two or three men were found to be still living.

The three Hull brigs, Germanica, Hebe and Violet, were all stove in and wrecked in the ice this year at the sealing. The Violet previously rescued a Dane, who was found on a piece of ice with a piggin hoisted on a boat hook as a distress signal beside him. He was found on his hands and knees, almost frozen stiff and unable to speak, whilst laid out alongside him, were five dead shipmates. These man had lost their ship in a gale. The surgeon was compelled to amputate both the Dane's legs, but he only lived for another six weeks." (p. 360)

From The Arctic Whales by Basil Lubbock

The success of the 'Eclipse.'

"The catch of the Eclipse, generally known as the Old Eclipse, shows one the way in which the Greenland whale was being killed off; most of her 22 fish were what were called 'nursery' whales, fish that did not exceed more than 30 feet in length and had not long been weaned. These were very easily killed; in deed, out of the 22, the Eclipse was stated to have killed 15 at a fall (i.e. at a single lowering of the boats). These nursery whales were generally found in the Polar ice to the northwards of 80° at the end of June and after. As far back as 1790, when ships had begun to be fortified or strengthened for penetrating the ice, the slaughter of these nursery whales had begun, and it is not surprising that such tactics as killing off the young fish should have practically exterminated the Greenland whale." (p. 343)

from "The Arctic Whalers" by Basil Lubbock

God's wrath

Plagues are bible-grade events. Highly infectious diseases that increase the mortality rate of a population qualify as a biblical event. Right now, we're in the center of one.

I live in a Christian world. Religions like Christianity provide much needed structure and meaning to people's lives. Why? They reduce uncertainty. Religion maps onto a world full of circumstantial tragedies a gridwork with a narrative direction. Acts of good faith garner the love of God. Conversely, God visits wrath upon acts of evil. But most importantly, God is a mystery.

Armed with the best in epidemiological science we have discovered that our plague originated in a mammal-jumping virus that infected a person butchering a pangolin in a wet market in China.

This act of discovering the route of virus transmission and its ground zero event does something to demystify the potential religious potential to re-signify a plague as the ubiquitous condemnation of a people by God for their wayward activities.

How are we to suggest that Covid-19 is God's punishment for our sins against a pangolin in a Chinese wet market?

The success of a virus depends upon its route of communication. And so goes efforts to fight infection rates. Like many viruses this one succeeds where people come into direct contact. People revert to living as anchorites, religiously following a routine to avoid infection. Those that endeavor to enter the public for basic necessities may resort to wearing a mask and gloves to avoid contagion. And it is in this gesture that we find a removal of a prime interface for the public and the production of 'normal' relations. As the expressive features of the face and body are covered, a psychological effect of walling off identity and 'communication' occur. It is in this confluence of the term for both sharing information and spreading disease that we find a very potent metaphor and reality concerning disease. Given the social nature of humans the diseases that we spread have evolved to take advantage of that pathway, to pass through normal, day-to-day contact.

A July 27, 1823 Killing Field

"The result of this slaughter of whales was vividly described in the Cumbrian's log of July 27: 'We were turning south along the land floes in hopes of fish. Here and there along the floe edge lay the dead bodies of hundreds of flenched whales, and the air for miles around was tainted with the fætor which rose from such masses of putridity. Towards evening, the numbers come across were even increasing, and the effluvia which then assailed our olfactories became almost intolerable'" (pp. 254-255).

from "The Arctic Whalers" by Basil Lubbock

May 28, 1823: An 'Unsuspicious' Fish

"On May 28 the Cumbrian captured a very unsuspicious fish whilst lying to in a pool of water with seven sail in company. This whale, after swimming all round the ship, at length put her nose to the bow, and for about two minutes attempted to push the ship along. Whilst she was occupied in this strange fashion she was harpooned" (p. 253).

from "The Arctic Whalers" by Basil Lubbock

The Fishing Season, 1811.

"By this date, quite two-thirds of the whalers went to Davis Straits where the season was a close one. The Greenland fleet found the ice barrier hard to get through, and a few ships reached the fishing ground before May 26. A good run of whales was met with in Lats. 78° and 79°, but, as in past years, many of the ships took toll of undersized fish and even suckling calves" (p. 188)

from The Arctic Whalers by Basil Lubbock