Whales at war!

Peterhead in the NE of Scotland was a centre of Arctic whaling in the 19th century. Just a few families dominated the high ranks of the industry; the Gearies, the Robertsons, the Souttars and the Volums, but in particular the Grays.

David Gray Jun. (1828-1896) entered the industry in 1849, as master of the North of Scotland and sailed in her with great success until 1852. In that year he took over the Active (2) which had been built specifically for him. Over the next 14 years his prowess as a whale catcher was such that he became known as the "Prince of Whalers" although in reality most of his profits came from sealing. David Gray was also an outstanding naturalist who made many important observations in the Arctic.

In 1885 W H Flower of the British Museum, Natural History, had written to David Gray to enquire about the possibility of bringing back to London the skeleton of a bowhead whale. Gray was unable to accommodate the request but did provide a carved scale model. Gray captured the whale, on which the model was based, at 80 degrees North on the 17th of June 1878. The carved wooden model still hangs among the real whales in the Natural History Museum. Captain Gray made a second painted model, to the same scale of 1 inch to the foot, in 1885 and donated it to the Arbuthnot Museum in Peterhead. It was transferred to the University of Aberdeen Anatomical Museum and then to the Zoology Museum sometime in the 1970s where it is still on public display.

The other day I described the role played by conkers in the Great War. It may come as a surprise to find that whales too were heavily involved in the carnage. The oil derived from the blubber was used to treat soldiers' feet in an attempt to prevent the development of the awful condition known as trench foot.

Whale oil was also an essential ingredient in the manufacture of nitroglycerine which was used both as a high explosive and, in the form of cordite, as the propellant that fired the shells.

The production of nitroglycerine required large quantities of glycerine which was manufactured from vegetable oil, animal fats, and not least whale oil.

The amount of nitroglycerine manufactured, and the numbers of whales slaughtered, was truly prodigious. Altogether, the British Army and Royal Navy fired some 250 million shells, an average of 100 shells every minute throughout the war. And then there were the Germans, the French, the Italians, the Turks, the Russians and the Americans!