Arctic Chase: A History of Whaling in Canada's North

Nora T. Corley is a librarian in Ottawa.

The history of whaling in Canada’s North covers some 500 years. This slim tome gives an excellent outline of what is essentially a harrowing business. The book opens with a description of the work of whaling expeditions, whose objective was to kill as many whales as possible to provide oil for Europe’s lamps and “whale-bone” for buggy whips and ladies’ corsets. Dealing with the whales, once caught, was a dirty and unpleasant business. Life aboard a whaler was hard and hazardous. Then follows an account of British whaling in Baffin Bay-Davis Strait in the nineteenth century, and Yankee whalers in Hudson Bay and the Beaufort Sea. Life on Herschel Island, generally omitted from popular whaling books because it is considered too licentious for readers’ eyes, is also described. The last chapter, called “The North Transformed” (but labelled “Whalers and Inuit” in the notes), depicts the effect the whalers had on the Inuit who came into contact with them. Francis, a newspaper writer turned historian, has written a most readable and well-researched history, with lots of local colour. He provides enough detail to satisfy the casual reader and to stimulate the really interested into delving into a most interesting and important aspect of Canada’s past — the presence of so many foreign ships in Canadian waters generated action by the government to assent sovereignty in our North. There is a bibliography of ships’ journals, manuscripts, and over 100 books and articles. Sadly, the map is not up to the standard of the rest of the book, and there is no index. Highly recommended.