FROM THE DEEP OF THE SEA - Being the Diary of the Late CHARLES
EDWARD SMITH, M. R. C. S. SURGEON OF THE WHALE-SHIP DIANA, OF HULL
EDITED BT HIS SON CHARLES EDWARD SMITH HARRIS, MJJ.. CH. B.
SURGEON, CUNARD STEAMSHIP COMPANY, LATE TEMPORARY
SURGEON-LIEUTENANT, R. N. Mine own will I bring again as I did
sometime from the deep of the sea. PSALM Ixviii, aa. got THE
MACMILLAN COMPANY 1923 All rights J fiiNXE iN Xm-fitO I ro SflRVTES
OF AMERICA BY THE MACMILLAlSr Set up and. electirotyped.
IPublislied. February, of J. J, Little Ives Company New York. TJ.
S. A PREFACE MY late fathers diary of his terrible experiences in
the whale-ship Diana in 1866-67 has been in my possession for a
great number of years. It was not until a ship I was surgeon of
happened to go to Hull in October, 1920, that I became aware of
there being some relics of the Diana in existence still, and on
exhibition in two of the Hull museums. It was the sight of these
relics that reawakened my interest in the story of the Diana, and
which impelled me to take in hand at last my fathers old manuscript
with a view to editing it for publication. The curator of the Hull
museums Mr. Thomas Sheppard, F. G. S., F. R. G. S. very kindly
looked through the diary, and encouraged me in the project I take
this opportunity of thanking him for his ready assistance. An
account evidently largely drawn from my fathers diary of the Dianas
fatal voyage appeared first in the Cornhill Magazine in 1867. This
article was written by the late Captain Allan Young, commanding the
discov ery ship Pandora. His preliminary remarks in that article
will serve admirably to explain here the general scheme under which
the British whale-ships worked some sixty, seventy and more years
ago, a scheme which the Diana was following on this particular
voyage. Captain Young wrote Owing to the high value of whale-oil
and seal-skins, and the great demand for whale-bone which had
reached VI PREFACE the value of nearly 700 a ton, quite a fine
fleet of steam and sailing vessels used to leave various English
and Scottish ports for the Greenland seas. The ships used to sail
about the end of February, having engaged all their principal
officers, harpooners, boat-steerers, and seamen, from their port of
departure. They would then fill up their complement of boatmen from
amongst the fishermen of the Shetland Islands. Then the ships used
to sail to the East Greenland coast and the neighbourhood of Jan
Mayen Island for the seal-fishing, which was conducted amongst the
ice packs and floes on which the young seals are born. In curring
the greatest risks from collision with the ice packs, the violent
gales, and the loss of boats and men sent away searching in all
directions for the seals, the ships would return to Lerwick after
some weeks of this laborious work, and often without having found
any seals at all. This is what happened on this particular voyage
of the Diana. The sealing season having come to an end, the ships
used to return homeward to recruit their crews and re plenish their
stores for the ensuing voyage to Davis Straits in search of whales.
At one time the whalers used to be content with trying the seas on
the West coast of Greenland, in Davis Straits, and in the vicinity
of Discoe Island, beyond which it was considered impossible to
pass. Owing to the expedition, which was sent in 1818 for the
discovery of the North-West Passage, having giveninformation of the
great numbers of whales seen in the extreme northern limits of
Davis Straits, more particularly on the western side, the
whale-ships began to penetrate that inhospitable region, often with
astonishing success. As the whales always seek the protection from
the PREFACE vii attacks of the swordfish of the land-floes the ice
still attached to the land and bays after the main bodies of ice
have broken away during the summer, the whale ships used to time
their arrival in the neighbourhood of Ponds Bay about the
commencement of July...
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