Susannes Folksong-Notizen
[1967:] Chase of right and sperm whales, Baffin Bay, 1870s.
By the 1840s, British whaling reached a low ebb [...]. But during
the 1850s the industry began to look up, for the introduction of
steam power meant that whalers could push to new grounds far to
the north, and then batter their way back through some fifty
miles of pack ice until the open sea was reached again. The first
whaling steamer set out from Hull in 1857, but the most famous
whalers under steam power were those that sailed out of Dundee in
the 1860s and 1870s, including the celebrated Balaena.
One of the best-known whaling songs, perhaps because it was made
relatively late in the history of the trade. Dundee was specially
interested in whaling because her main industry, the jute
manufacture, required whale oil. In 1873, the Dundee whaling
fleet consisted of ten vessels, all equipped with steam power.
Largest and proudest was Mr. R. Kinnes's Balaena, of 260 tons
register, length 141 ft., with engines of 65 h.p. At that time,
the fleet would leave Scotland during the first half of May, race
across to Cape St. John, Newfoundland, then northabout into the
Davis Strait and the right-whale grounds of Melville Bay on the
north-west coast of Greenland. Around August they would be
following the southerly migration of the whales to the Cumberland
Sound on the east side of Baffin Land. With luck, by early
November they would be back in Dundee, exulting over their
success, like the men of the nuggetty old Balaena who made this
song. (Notes A. L. Lloyd, 'Leviathan!')
[1986:] The history of this song is a rather confusing one. On
the one hand, it would seem to have been originally composed
about another Dundee whaling vessel, the Polynia, as it mentions
Captain Guy, who commanded the Polynia from 1883 until it was
lost in 1891. However, according to the records of the Balaena,
in 1904 the ship came back from the Davis Straits with one whale,
four bears, ten tons of oil and 15cwt of bone, having been
commanded by a Captain Guy. Whichever ship was the original
subject of the song, we are left with many fine versions.
The Balaena, a Norwegian-built auxiliary steam whaler introduced
into the Dundee fleet in 1891, was one of the last ships in the
fleet to sail from the town. At the outbreak of the war in 1914,
the Balaena was attached to the Hudson Bay Company, to supply
munitions to Russia, but, badly overloaded, she sank during a
gale in the White Sea on her first voyage.
[...] The title [The Old Polina] is a Newfoundland
mispronunciation of the name Polynia, which was a whaler and
sealer from Dundee which spent the summer whaling in the North
Atlantic and the winter plying the seal fishery off Newfoundland.
Built in Dundee in 1861, the Polynia was a 472-ton vessel owned
by the Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company. The skipper,
Captain William Guy, commanded the ship from 1883 until it was
crushed by ice in 1891, and, in the late 1890s, he became captain
of the pleasure steamer running between Perth and Newburgh after
retiring from deep-sea sailing.
All the other ships mentioned in the song are Dundee whalers, who
would compete with each other to make the fastest trip on
"the Western Ocean Passage" - one reason being that the
first ship in St. John would have the pick of the experienced
whale-hunting men.
The confusion about the original subject of the song has already
been pointed out, but the probability lies with the Polynia.
(Nigel Gatherer, Songs and Ballads of Dundee 53) [1993:] [
The famous Captain William] Penny commanded one of
the new Dundee steamers, the Polynia, [built by Alexander Stephen
& Sons, Dundee,] on her maiden voyage in 1861. (Smith, Whale
Hunters 25)
[In 1866,] the master [of the Diana] was Captain John Gravill, a
veteran of fifty years in the whaling trade, who had earlier
commanded the Dundee whaler Polynia. (Smith, Whale Hunters 70)
In 1864, the Dundee whaler Polynia brought home 22 dead bears and
2 live. They were exhibited in the Greenland Yard at Dundee to
raise money for the local hospital. (Smith, Whale Hunters 89)
The ships built during Dundee's whaling years were known wherever
whalermen met - the Arctic, the Polynia, the Intrepid, the
Aurora, the Terra Nova and many more. The names of their captains
became by-words in every house in the town, immortalised in old
shanties sung ashore and at sea:
There's the noble Terra Nova, a model with no doubt
The Arctic and Aurora they talk so much about
Art Jackman's flying mailboat, the terror of the seas
Couldn't beat the auld Balaena on a passage fae Dundee
There were men like 'Coffee Tam', Captain Tom Robertson, who got
his nickname because he wouldn't allow alcohol on board his ship.
Robertson, a Peterhead man, commanded the Balaena for a time and
took her to Franz Josef Land to hunt Sea-horses - Walrus. In the
late nineteenth century the killing of Sea-horses became popular
because Walrus bull hides were greatly in demand for
bicycle-making. Bicycle-makers paid 1/6 per pound for them. Their
tusks fetched 2/6 per pound and the oil from them about £ 18 per
ton.
[Captain Charles Yule] took over the Resolution in 1880 and made
his last voyage in the Polynia in 1883. He was known as
Scotland's Grand Old Man of the Sea - and he lived to be 100.
In 1884, Dundee's most famous whaler, the Terra Nova, was
launched, a symbol of hope, it was thought, but she was the last
whaler built in Dundee. Yet there were still men whose eyes
turned to the North. In the year that the Terra Nova was
launched, a 16-year-old Peterhead lad, John Murray, made his
first trip from the Buchan port on the barque Windward. [In
1908,] Murray was given command of the Balaena - the 'auld
Balaena' of shanty fame:
And now that we are landed where the rum is very cheap
We'll drink success to the captain for ploughing us o'er the deep
A health tae a' oor sweethearts and tae oor wives sae dear
Not another ship could make the trip but the Balaena I declare
The Balaena certainly provided John Murray with the success he
wanted. In 1908 he followed 'Coffee Tam' to Greenland and came
back with a good catch. From then until 1911, as master of the
Balaena, he killed enough whales to keep the Dundee owners happy.
(Smith, Whale Hunters 91ff)
[In the winter of 1862,] the 'auld Balaena' was one of a tiny
fleet of four whalers that had gone south to find new fishing
grounds in the little-known regions of the Antarctic. The other
ships were the Active, under Captain 'Coffee Tam' Robertson, the
Diana and the Polar Star. (Smith, Whale Hunters 100)
See also
The Old Polina
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Susannes Folksong-Notizen English Notes
