"Full of startling excitement!" - Sporting Review, 1839
"Beale appears to be completely in his element when describing the chase and capture of this giant of the ocean." - Magazine of Natural History 1839
Even the intrepid character of the British navy in the 19th Century could not be compared with that of the whaler, who knew no fear among the dangerous coral shoals and sunken rocks with which the seas he so often traversed abounded, and who viewed without dismay the billows breaking on the shores of lands unknown, and but too often inhabited by the "barbarous savage."
In 1839, Thomas Beale (1807-1849) published "The Natural History of the Sperm Whale," to which was appended his "Sketch of a South-Seas Whaling Voyage," which had been republished here.
At the age of 22, Thomas Beale in 1830 joined a whaling voyage out of London heading to the South Seas, signing on as ship's surgeon. Near the Bonin Islands, Beale exchanged berths with the surgeon of another ship, returning to England in 1833.
In his "Sketch of a South-Seas Whaling Voyage," Beale writes of his observations of exciting whaling adventures the crew experienced.
As Beale relates, the life of a whaler was fraught with danger not only from the sea but from the whales and various other dangerous marine life. For example, in describing an attack on his crew by a large pack of angry seals, Beale writes:
"The seals observing our approach, about forty or fifty of them came down directly upon us, roaring frightfully, and exposing their enormous fangs with dreadful fierceness. It was impossible for us to retreat one step. The monsters came sliding and rolling down the rocky precipices. Before we had time for reflection we found ourselves in close contact with them, and their glistening fangs were within a few feet of us, while their growling was awfully fierce and loud. But just as the monsters were about to drive us into the sea, just as their snapping jaws were in the act of seizing one of our companions, Jack Palmer, who was in our van, commenced a furious attack upon them...."
As Beale concludes, "if we survey, even with a hasty glance, the strange vicissitudes of a South Sea voyage, we shall perfectly coincide with those who believe that 'truth is stranger than fiction.'"
