Chapter 106 101．the joys of adventure

We parted ways with the British whalers and went our separate ways. Now, the British whalers are getting smaller and smaller in our field of vision. Looking at the British whaling ship in the distance, I thought of everything about its glorious history. The British whaling ship was called the Samuel Enderby. At first glance, its name does not sound very loud, but anyone who understands the history of whaling in the world knows that the meaning it contains is not ordinary. Its unusual name comes from "Samuel Enderby", a name that makes all whalers awe. He is the founder of the world-famous Enderby Whaling Company. Although he has passed away, his pioneering achievements allow us to write a special book about him in the world whaling history.

From the perspective of the development of the world's whaling industry, although we Nantucketers have gone out to sea in groups to hunt whales as early as 1726, after all, we only cruised in the North and South Atlantic Oceans, and did not cause worldwide whaling. whale climate. It was the Enderby Whaling Company that truly ushered in a new era for the world's whaling industry. According to the documents we know now, the Enderby Company should have been established during the period when the Tudor and Bourbon dynasties were jointly in power. But it is impossible to verify the exact year.

In short, in 1775, their first fleet dedicated to hunting sperm whales officially set off. In 1778, a whaling ship named "Amelia", also from the Enderby Company, set off. The ship circled the Cape of Good Hope to the south, arrived in the South China Sea as the world's first whaling ship, and returned with a full load of whale oil. So the "Amelia" became a model for the whaling industry to follow. For a time, the world's whaling industry developed rapidly. Enderby Company is still making advanced efforts, and has persuaded the British government to send gunboats to participate in their work of opening up whaling routes in the South China Sea.

Although we don't know the result, it is unique in the history of world whaling. In 1779, the Enderby Company equipped another whaling ship called "Kraken" and went on an expedition to the Sea of ​​Japan with great success. As a result, the whaling ground in the Sea of ​​Japan was opened up again. In any case, the Enderby family is a family that has made outstanding contributions to the world's whaling industry, and they deserve the highest honor in the whaling industry. This is recognized. Frankly speaking, what the Enderby Company left to the whaling industry is not only honor and respect, but also more affordable treatment.

This is also well-known in the whaling industry, and sailors on many foreign ships are now envious. Long before our present encounter with the Samuel Enderby, I had been on board one of their ships, somewhere in the Patagonian Sea, in the middle of the night, I remember. That time, we went to their bow to drink. It was a joyful meeting, and we had a good taste of the enthusiasm and opulence of the English whalers, as delightfully as their nation, the Saxon nation. When the sailors on the whaling ship met, they drank alcohol, and only wine could represent their mood. For sailors, this is the life of adventure.

They are worried every day, if you drink here today, you may die in a hunt tomorrow, so every gathering may be the last love and friendship, and every drinking may be the last Opportunities for joy. Today there is wine, today is drunk, that is what the sailors believe in, otherwise, they feel that death will be even more worthless. That time we drank hot beer, which was very sweet and very happy. This is the best time in my memory. We drank an average of ten gallons an hour until we were top-heavy and unable to express our ideas, but with bursts of joy in our hearts. The beef we had was equally good, a bit tough for what we're used to, but quite good.

It's just that the bread doesn't quite appeal to me. Also, their forecastle isn't too bright, otherwise they'd be perfect. But this doesn't affect my good opinion of them at all. A group of upright heroes, all of them are good players, plus delicious food and good wine, no matter from any point of view, it is not the best whaling ship ? In fact, not only Enderby's whaling ship is like this, but all British whaling ships are like this. Although British merchant ships were famously harsh in the seafaring industry, their treatment of whaling ships was second to none.

This may also be a factor for them to attract good whaling players widely and make their own whaling industry invincible. In fact, in Europe, the Dutch, Finns, and Danes, who predated the English whaling, were almost astonishingly generous in the provision of whaling ships. When I was researching the history of whales, I once came across a musty book, and from its whale smell, I concluded that its contents must have something to do with whales. Only, it's written in Dutch, which I can't read. So I asked my friend Snow to translate it for the price of a barrel of sperm whale oil.

he told me: It was not a book about whaling, it was a business book, but luckily there was an article about the whaling industry. From his translated article, I found a table, which was a statistics about the food and supplies provided by the 180 whaling ships in Holland at that time during a cruise. Now I copy here: 400,000 pounds of beef Sixty thousand pounds of Frisian pork 150,000 pounds of fish Five hundred and fifty thousand pounds of hard bread Seventy-two thousand pounds of soft bread Two thousand eight hundred kegs of butter Twenty thousand pounds of Texel and Lyton cheese

Cheese (secondary) 144,000 pounds Gin five hundred and fifty anke (about 5,500 gallons) 10,800 barrels of beer When I read this form, I was completely taken aback. My God, the Dutch whalers literally put the entire food bank on board. Although when we look at these tables, we can't help but increase our appetite when we think of these delicacies, but we don't know how the Dutch digest so many things. So I spent several days calculating how much food each Dutch sailor consumed in a single voyage. First came the butter and cheese, which were astonishingly consumed. However, it is not difficult to understand that the place where the Dutch whaling ships were going was the waters north of the Netherlands, that is, near Greenland.

There is often a world of ice and snow, and there is not enough oil on their bodies to keep out the cold, so this has also formed their habit of eating oil. You must know that the Eskimos near the North Pole often use oil instead of wine. After the pursuit is successful, everyone holds a cup full of whale oil and drinks it all in one gulp. How unimaginable it is now. I don’t know if the Dutch do as Romans do, but one thing is that their consumption of oil has greatly increased, as evidenced by the table. Then came the beer, which amounted to 10,800 barrels, which was astonishing. A Dutch whaling ship's cruise route starts from the mainland and goes to the vicinity of Greenland without returning. In this way, the time they need each time is about half a month, no more than a few days. There are a total of 180 ships, even if there are 30 people in each ship, there are a total of 5,400 people, which happens to be an average of two barrels of beer per person. You know, normally, these two barrels of beer are enough for one person to drink for twelve weeks! Now they're going to kill it in over two weeks, do they hang out on the deck every day drunk? But that doesn't include the equally impressive amount of gin. I can't help but be skeptical. But doubts are doubts. The fact is that the Dutch are not only not drunk, but also often return with a full reward. There must be a reason for this. After thinking about it for a long time, I have to attribute this to the cold climate of the polar regions, where everything is not routine, and beer is just a good way for the Dutch to maintain their energy. Because it suits their constitution very well. What would happen if we drank like this under the equator? Dozing off on the top of the mast or even falling into the sea, being drunk in a small boat and being thrown away by the tail of a whale, in short, this can only be the result of this kind. The above is both arguments and examples. He said a lot, but he just wanted to explain one point, that is: From the Dutch who were the ancestors of whaling two or three hundred years ago, whaling ships have been extravagant in terms of diet. The British have inherited this from the Dutch to an extraordinary degree, and have developed it even more so. There is such a saying on British whaling ships, that is: Even if you cruise around without catching a whale and return empty, don't forget to drink up all the wine you brought with you.