Bowhead Whale

The black skin of the whale (mattukin Inuktitut) is a delicacy for the Inuit; there is scarcely a single meat dish in our civilized cuisine which can match the skin of a young whale. Sometimes it reaches a thickness of one-and-one-half to two inches and is completely black, whereas that of an older animal is tougher and also lighter with increasing age; it may even become quite white in places.

Place: Depot Island
Date: May 20, 1880
Source: Klutschak HW. 1881. Overland to Starvation Cove. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Bowhead Whales

A great number of fine black whales were playing about near the beach, and, from the total absence of ice, would have afforded a rich and easy harvest to a fishing ship.

Place: Southampton Island – Cape Welsfords to the Black Rocks Channel
Date: August 17, 1821
Source: Parry WE. 1823. Journals of the first second and third voyage for the discovery of the North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in 1819–20–21–22–23–24–25, in his Majesty’s ships Hecla, Griper and Fury, under the orders of Capt. W. E. Parry, R.N.F.R.S. and commander of the expedition, vol. 3. London: John Murray, Albermarle Street.

Bowhead Whale

Before the ships were permanently frozen in, several black whales came up to blow in the small pools left open by our cutting the ice.

Place: Winter Island
Date: October 16, 1821
Source: Parry WE. 1823. Journals of the first second and third voyage for the discovery of the North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in 1819–20–21–22–23–24–25, in his Majesty’s ships Hecla, Griper and Fury, under the orders of Capt. W. E. Parry, R.N.F.R.S. and commander of the expedition, vol. 3. London: John Murray, Albermarle Street.

Whale

A large black whale, being the first, was seen near the ships. It is unusual for these animals to descend head-foremost, displaying the broad fork of their enormous tail above the surface of the water; but, on this occasion, the ice was so close as not to admit of this mode of descent, and the fish went down tail-foremost, to the great amusement of our Greenland sailors.

Place: Davis Strait
Date: June 28, 1819
Source: Parry WE. 1821. Journals of the first second and third voyage for the discovery of the North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in 1819–20–21–22–23–24–25, in his Majesty’s ships Hecla, Griper and Fury, under the orders of Capt. W. E. Parry, R.N.F.R.S. and commander of the expedition, vol. 1. London: John Murray, Albermarle Street.