Service memories / by Sir A. D. Home ; edited by Charles H. Melville.

  • Home, Anthony Dickson, Sir.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Service memories / by Sir A. D. Home ; edited by Charles H. Melville. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    18/374 page 4
    We had a fair passage after leaving, and we also had agreeable company, the passengers mostly of the planter and the official classes. As no forced attempts Avere made to create amusements, we happily escaped the quarrels and unpleasantness that are apt to arise on long voyages. In due course we made the land, and anchored in Carlisle Bay, with Bridgetown, the capital, before us, I left the comfortable ship and its most kindly, obliging captain next morning. Once again I saw her—or a part of her— a sunken wreck near the mouth of Balaclava Harbour, one of the many ships that went down in the awful tempest of October, 1864, On reporting myself to the Medical Inspector-General at the headquarters of the Command, I was directed to start next day for Demerara, On our way down south we touched at St, Vincent, Granada, and Trinidad, With fine weather and a steady breeze to temper the heat, our voyage Avas a pleasant one. At the island last named an incident of the most unexpected kind occurred—nothing less than the finding of ourselves almost in the midst of a whale- catching operation, I knew that the North Pole had no monopoly of the Avhale-fishing industry, but to see a Avhale caught up, harpooned, and killed, within the fourth of a mile or so from the ship I Avas on, came as a surprise. The scene burst on us as soon as the steamer had slowly pushed her way through one of the narrow channels, formed by islets lying betAA^een the coast of Venezuela and Trinidad, at the north-east point, the distance between the Spanish Republic and the English Colony being about seven miles. The islets spoken of divide the space into three passages practicable for ships—called “ Bocas,” the Spanish for “ mouth,” When through one of the Bocas, a ship enters at once the large inland sea separating the two countries, called the “ Gulf of Paris,” and on this occasion we saAv nearly from start to finish the capture and killing of a Avhale, The poor brute at first paid no attention to the boats sent from the fishing station to secure it. These quietly roAved up and were alloAved to get alongside it by a sudden rush. Probably the first knowledge the whale had of its
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3