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The Drift of the whaler Viewforth in Davis Strait, 1835–36, from William Elder's Journal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Alan Cooke and
W. Gillies Ross
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Extract

In the autumn of 1835, eleven ships from British ports were beset in Davis Strait. A journal kept by William Elder, an officer of one of the unfortunate ships, the Kirkcaldy whaler Viewforth, was recently given to the Scott Polar Research Institute by Elder's great-niece, Mrs Ann M. E. Jackson. It was this journal that provided the inspiration and the quarry for a small book, now rare, edited by the Reverend J. Bain of Kirkcaldy (Bain, 1836). Elder's original journal (Elder, 1835–36) is here summarized to provide further detail of that harrowing winter, which, as Bain remarked, “will be long remembered as one of the most eventful and disastrous in the history of the Whale Fishery”.

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Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 14 , Issue 92 , May 1969, pp. 581 - 591
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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References

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