Book contents
- Frontmatter
- INTRODUCTION
- PART THE FIRST VOYAGE INTO SPITZBERGEN AND GREENLAND
- PART THE SECOND CONTAINING THE DESCRIPTION OF SPITZBERGEN
- PART THE THIRD
- PART THE FOURTH OF THE ANIMALS OF SPITZBERGEN
- CHAP. I Of Birds with Toes or Divided Feet
- CHAP. II Of the Broad or Web-Footed Birds
- CHAP. III Of some other Birds that I did not Catch or Delineate
- CHAP. IV Of the Four-Footed Creatures
- CHAP. V Of the Crustaceous Fish that I Observed
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VII Of the Whale
- CHAP. VIII How they Catch the Whale
- CHAP. IX What they do with the Dead Whale
- CHAP. X Of the Trying out of the Train-Oyl from the Fat
- CHAPTER XI Of the Finn-Fish
- CHAP. XII Of Rotz-fishes and Sea-qualms
- LIST OF THE ANIMALS OF SPITZBERGEN
- DESCRIPTION OF GREENLAND
- INDEX
- Plate section
CHAP. VIII - How they Catch the Whale
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2011
- Frontmatter
- INTRODUCTION
- PART THE FIRST VOYAGE INTO SPITZBERGEN AND GREENLAND
- PART THE SECOND CONTAINING THE DESCRIPTION OF SPITZBERGEN
- PART THE THIRD
- PART THE FOURTH OF THE ANIMALS OF SPITZBERGEN
- CHAP. I Of Birds with Toes or Divided Feet
- CHAP. II Of the Broad or Web-Footed Birds
- CHAP. III Of some other Birds that I did not Catch or Delineate
- CHAP. IV Of the Four-Footed Creatures
- CHAP. V Of the Crustaceous Fish that I Observed
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VII Of the Whale
- CHAP. VIII How they Catch the Whale
- CHAP. IX What they do with the Dead Whale
- CHAP. X Of the Trying out of the Train-Oyl from the Fat
- CHAPTER XI Of the Finn-Fish
- CHAP. XII Of Rotz-fishes and Sea-qualms
- LIST OF THE ANIMALS OF SPITZBERGEN
- DESCRIPTION OF GREENLAND
- INDEX
- Plate section
Summary
First, it is to be observed, that when it is like to be a good year to catch whales in, there is many white fish to be seen before; but where we see many seales, there we do not expect to meet with many whales; for they say that they eat up the food of the whale, wherefore the whales will not stay in such empty places, but go to find out better, and so come to Spitzbergen; for there, at the shoar, we see great plenty of the small sea-snails, and perhaps some other small fish. They are caught after the following manner. When they see whales, or when they hear them blow or spout, they call in to the ship, “Fall, fall”; then every body must be ready to get into the long-boat that he doth belong to, commonly six men go into every long-boat, and sometimes seven, according as the long-boats are in bigness; they all of them row until they come very near unto the whale; then doth the harpoonier arise, who sits always before in the boat, where the harpoon, or the sharp iron made like unto an arrow fixed to a stick, doth also lye on the foremost board of the long-boat, which the seamen call the staffen, that is, the broad piece of wood that cometh up from before the boat from the bottom, and stands up higher than all the rest.
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- Chapter
- Information
- A Collection of Documents on Spitzbergen and GreenlandComprising a Translation from F. Martens' Voyage to Spitzbergen, a Translation from Isaac de La Peyrère's Histoire du Groenland, and God's Power and Providence in the Preservation of Eight Men, pp. 116 - 125Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010