A Whale Hunt off Cape Flattery
Captain Gavin of the steamer Thornton reports a vivid, bloody encounter between Indigenous hunters and a whale.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Captain Gavin, of the steamer Thornton, reports seeing a number of Indians off Cape Flattery killing a whale. There were seven large canoes filled with men engaged in the fight, and the leviathan was pierced with hundreds of spears, to every one of which was attached an animal-skin bladder for the purpose of keeping him afloat. The huge creature lashed the sea with his tail and vainly endeavored to escape his destroyers, but without avail; the bladders were too much for him. Captain Gavin says: 'what with the yells of the Indians, the big whale enveloped with bladders, and the water all around covered with blood, made up an exciting scene that the few who had the privilege of witnessing will not readily forget.'
“What with the yells of the Indians, the big whale enveloped with bladders, and the water all around covered with blood, made up an exciting scene.”
This account captures a traditional Indigenous whaling practice as viewed through the detached, descriptive lens of a 19th-century white sea captain. It serves as a reminder of the deep-rooted maritime culture of the Pacific Northwest that persists in the region today.
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