Author's Note
It is a fact that damage was inflicted upon the northern whale-fishery by French cruisers during the Napoleonic War. For details of the fishery itself, Scoresby Jnr has been my chief authority. There are significant differences between the hunting of the Greenland Right whale and the better known Sperm Whale fishery of the South Pacific. Chief among these was the practice of not reducing the blubber to oil as the comparative brevity of the voyage did not warrant it. Similarly I have used the noun 'harpooner' in preference to the Americanism 'harpooneer'. Although it was well-known that the whale breathed air, it was still extensively referred to as a 'fish'. At this period the Right Whale was thought to have poor hearing but acute eye-sight. Although known to overset boats, Mysticetus was a comparatively docile animal, far less aggressive than the Sperm Whale.
The delay in the sailing of the Hull ships is my own fiction but it is based on the fact that in 1802, during the Peace of Amiens, the government removed some of the press-exemptions extended to the officers of whalers in anticipation of further hostilities. It is therefore not difficult to excuse the whale-ship masters their suspicions. There were indeed plans of Hull and the Humber discovered en route to France in early 1803 and this forms the basis for Ellerby's treachery. In addition he was not only acting traitorously but illegally, since he had breached an oath required of whaler captains that they would not profit from any activity in the Arctic Seas than that of whaling.
The extraordinary opening in the ice corresponds roughly to that found by Scoresby in 1806. It was however 1822 before the eponymous Scoresby discovered the great fiord, an inlet of which forms Nagtoralik Bay. Of Scoresby Sound the Admiralty Sailing Directions say 'This ice-free land consists mainly of rugged mountains but… near the open sea the vegetation is luxuriant and game is plentiful.' It is also 'considered to be the most easily accessible part of the coast of East Greenland.'
Drinkwater's reasons for suppressing his discovery are clear. When Beaufort was appointed Hydrographer to the Navy his habit of personally scrutinising all surveys combined with the remoteness of the locality to delay the publication of a spurious and anonymous survey of 'Nagtoralik Bay and its surroundings.' By this time, of course, Scoresby's name had become firmly connected with the area.
Примечания
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2
Naval slang for death or burial. Bodies were usually slid overside where the foresheet was belayed.
3
To work Tom Cox's traverse meant to idle.
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Caused by a single-celled plant:
