Port Lockroy and Dallmann Bay
Well it’s a rough, tough life,
Full of toil and strife,
We whalers undergo...
And we don’t give a darn,
When the storm is done,
How hard the wind did blow...
We’re homeward bound,
‘tis a darn fine sound,
On a good ship taught and free...
-Whalers Sea Shanty
Homeward bound... indeed it is a darn fine sound. Tonight the Endeavour turns her bow back towards South America and the exciting crossing of the Drake Passage. When we departed Ushuaia last year not a soul onboard knew exactly how this expedition would go or even what our minds and hearts might find here on the seventh continent.
Today, on our last day in Antarctica, we encountered a time warp. In the morning we were transported back to a time when man’s relationship with huge leviathans in these waters was to kill and process them for oil. Evidence of early whaling lies literally at our feet near Port Lockroy as we trod past skulls, jawbones, ribs, and vertebrae of once-mighty whales reduced by man to a mere skeleton of their former magnificence. Bones piled upon bones piled upon even more bones speak of a time when the only good whale was a dead (and processed) whale. A somber experience to be sure.
This afternoon we fast forward to the present year of 2007. Humpback whales are frolicking in Dallmann Bay, surrounded by pristine ice-covered mountain peaks. Rather than trying to hunt them for their oil, we choose to hunt them only for the photographic image and memories that they have to offer. Adults lift their tails to the sky as they slide underwater to feed. Mothers with their young calves give us hope for a renewal of even more humpback whales in these waters. Certainly living whales are worth so much more to 21st century humans than the processed whales of the 20th century were worth to the whalers. At least it is our fervent hope.
Well it’s a rough, tough life,
Full of toil and strife,
We whalers undergo...
And we don’t give a darn,
When the storm is done,
How hard the wind did blow...
We’re homeward bound,
‘tis a darn fine sound,
On a good ship taught and free...
-Whalers Sea Shanty
Homeward bound... indeed it is a darn fine sound. Tonight the Endeavour turns her bow back towards South America and the exciting crossing of the Drake Passage. When we departed Ushuaia last year not a soul onboard knew exactly how this expedition would go or even what our minds and hearts might find here on the seventh continent.
Today, on our last day in Antarctica, we encountered a time warp. In the morning we were transported back to a time when man’s relationship with huge leviathans in these waters was to kill and process them for oil. Evidence of early whaling lies literally at our feet near Port Lockroy as we trod past skulls, jawbones, ribs, and vertebrae of once-mighty whales reduced by man to a mere skeleton of their former magnificence. Bones piled upon bones piled upon even more bones speak of a time when the only good whale was a dead (and processed) whale. A somber experience to be sure.
This afternoon we fast forward to the present year of 2007. Humpback whales are frolicking in Dallmann Bay, surrounded by pristine ice-covered mountain peaks. Rather than trying to hunt them for their oil, we choose to hunt them only for the photographic image and memories that they have to offer. Adults lift their tails to the sky as they slide underwater to feed. Mothers with their young calves give us hope for a renewal of even more humpback whales in these waters. Certainly living whales are worth so much more to 21st century humans than the processed whales of the 20th century were worth to the whalers. At least it is our fervent hope.
