IN THE CAMPBELLS

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2615, 24 September 1909, Page 5

IN THE CAMPBELLS

WHALING AND SHEARING. AN EXCITING EXPERIENCE. ALr. J. T. Hebberley. one of the party who left the Tory Channel in January to go whaling and sheafing in the Campbell Islands, returned to Wellington this week. “There were eleven of us,” he informed a “Post” reporter. “We went down to do the shearing of some 8000 sheep, and incidentally to go whaling. AYe took down a whale-boat and an oil launch. It was not until Ala roll that we saw the first whale spout. Wed I, there were two, a big whale, and a little one. But although ‘right’ whales, none of them are verybig. They are not sperm whales. We went down after whalebone; but not for oil. That is the pity of it. We could have got plenty of oil, but we had no casks in which to store it, although we could have ‘tried out’ any number or whales for that matter. We did not capture the bigger whale of the two we first saw. We cut off the head of the smaller one, and let the carcase go. Altogether, we killed 13 whales, and -could have got 80 tuns of oil. A NARROW ESCAPE. “AYe did very well,” Air. Hebberley continued, “until our boat was smashed up, and we nearly lost five men. The boat had had a ‘tap,’ and had cracked her bottom; but it was on the 23rd. July that we made her fast to a very fine fellow. He was nearly dead, but in his flurry he sounded, takiug Air. Norton down with him. Norton was fast to the line by the arm. He went rightdown. We had no time to cut the line before the whale came up again and struck us, smashing up the boat. - Norton came up, too: he was very bad. We had to attend to his arm for days afterwards. It was a wonder that he did not lose it, even though he saved his life. Our other men in the boatcould not swim. They were in the water for about five minutes, perhaps. It was long enough. Every time they tried to get on to the smashed boat it rolled over with them. They were saved by the launch. AYe lost a lot- of gear and the tide was running out fast. We towed tho boat back. She was bottom up.”

There appears to be one deep, smooth water inlet in the Campbells, and that? was Preservation, but here, Mr. Hebborlcy said, the whales seldom or ever came. One had to go out on file worthwest side of the island for them. ‘‘You do not know what wind is until you have lived on the Campbells.” said Mr. Hebberly. “It is fearful attunes ; and while we often saw plenty of whales we could not go out to them—even if we had not lost our gear in the smasli-up—because the weather was far too rough. There was an abundance of whale feed down there, and the place swarms with birds. We went down for the shearing, and to take the whaling on as a- side line. I have a ton and a half of bone with me ; but it will require to be properly dried when I get over to the Sounds.” Mr. Hebberly’s experiences in Tory Channel and in the Campbells have led him to discredit some of Frank Bullen*. stories of whaling. The work is hard and hazardous; but there did not appear to him to be in it that thrilling “color” which Bullen had used to such advantage in his whaling stories. There are nine men on the' island, and they will be brought up for a three month’s holiday in December, and then taken down again for the shearing. Replying to another question. Mr. Hobberiv said he did not think whaling on old-fashioned lines would pay with oil at the price it is: but if a party went down in say, a schooner, and they wore all working men on shares then it might pay. But it would not support a captain and officers, who would not take an active part in the actual bnsinoss of catching and trying out; a! must be on shares.