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...