Whalers under Canvas - W. Gillies Ross Whaling and Eskimos

Ross's study pursues the implications of an observation by the late Diamond Jenness, the founding father of Canadian ethnology. Jenness concluded that Beaufort Sea whalers had brought considerable harm to the Eskimos of that area. In fact, he added, the whalemen had made their winter harbour at Herschel Island 'a hive of debauchery'. Would Jenness's judgement apply to the eastern Arctic? The cruise of the Neptune records the course of a Canadian government expedition to the eastern Arctic in 1903-04. Its author, A. P. Low, reported on what he felt were harsh effects of whaling. Speaking of the Aivillik of Roes Welcome Sound, where whalers concentrated. Low concluded that their numbers had first declined, then levelled off: 'There was a considerable decrease for some years after the whaling vessels first frequented [Hudson] Bay.' Therkel Mathiassen, who visited Hudson Bay with the Fifth Thule Expedition, was even stronger in his condemnation. In Material culture of the Iglulih Eskimos, he reports a decline in the Eskimo population from the turn of the century, which he attributes to 'severe treatment by the whalers', 'diseases, especially syphilis', and 'excessive drinking of strong liquor'. Gillies Ross set out several years ago to make his own assessment of the impact of whalers on Eskimo life in the eastern Arctic. He discovered logbooks or journals for nearly half the 146 voyages by Bowhead whalers into Hudson Bay. This book presents the results of that research

Archaeology · Art · Bay · Environmental ethics · Ethnology · Geography · Whaling · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Philosophy