WHALING ON TIREE

Whales and basking sharks have been exploited for their meat and oil on Tiree since prehistoric times.

Stranded whales—most commonly long-finned pilot whales, because of their strong social bonds—and dolphins were the commonest target; the coastal place-names Port na Muice ‘inlet of the whale’ in Caolas and Baugh; Tràigh nam Muc in Scarinish and Sloc na Muice in Sandaig probably describe this. (The Gaelic word for whale was muc-mhara, literally ‘the pig of the sea’.)

When the antiquarian John Sands dug into the Iron Age fort in Balephuil, Dùn nan Nighean, in 1882, he found ‘pieces of the bones of a whale bearing the marks of a tool on the ends.’ Martin Martin visited Tiree in 1695, and described whales being eaten: ‘Some years ago, about one hundred and sixty little whales, the biggest not exceeding twenty feet long run themselves ashore in this isle, very seasonably in time of great scarcity, for the natives did eat them all, and told me that the sea pork, i.e. the whale, is both wholesome and very nourishing meat.’ The blubber was also boiled to make oil which was used in simple lamps crùisgean.

But whales could also be actively hunted. The safest way to catch small whales using a small boat is drive hunting. This involves herding a pod of whales or dolphins into an enclosed bay and onto a gently sloping beach, where they are killed and butchered. The best known surviving drive hunt is in the Faroe Islands, where it is known as the grindadráp from the Faroese gringhvalur ‘pilot whale’ and dráp ‘killing’. This drive hunt dates back to Viking times. Up to 700 long-finned pilot whales are still killed there every year, despite international pressure and health warnings that whale meat can be polluted with mercury. Drive hunts also occurred in Japan, Taiwan, the Solomon Islands in the Pacific and Long Island, New York.

Drive hunting also occurred on Tiree, quite possibly also introduced by the Vikings. One of the last such hunts occurred in 1843:

FISHING EXTRAORDINARY

A few days ago, the Isle of Tiree was visited by a shoal of whales, which were no sooner observed than several boats put out to sea to surround them. The ‘leaders’ were shaving a creek, when a herculean native, Mr. D. MacLean, who chanced to be riding by, with heroism worthy of a better cause, jumped off his horse, taking with him the bridle and his trusty dirk. It is well known, that, if one whale bleeds and is stranded, the rest of the shoal, by some fatality, follow, and are easily secured. Mr. MacLean, seeing the leader quite close, jumped upon its back and stabbed it in the belly; the moment the monster took in the saline element it turned belly up. Donald put his bridle about its tail and swam with it to an adjacent boat! In this manner the unequal fight was carried on for about an hour. When Mr. MacLean, after having secured eleven whales, felt exhausted, and had to give up the contest. Abridged from the Dumfries Courier. (Liverpool Albion, 21 August 1843, p. 10)

Flora MacDougall, who was born in Balephuil in 1825, left this account of a drive hunt, possibly the same one:

Not every year, but every seven or ten years, the island is visited by a large number of whales. Large shoals of fish announce their coming, for it is these shoals the whales are following to their sad fate. When the tide is coming in, these great monsters of the deep follow closer and closer upon their prey until they are left helpless by the receding tide upon the sands of the shore. In the meantime, the fishermen have not been idle, for the golden opportunity will soon pass them if it is not improved. Men on horseback have galloped swiftly over the island shouting ‘Whales! The whales!’ In answer to this cry every fisherman has manned his boat and every man on the island has gathered his weapons of warfare for the fray. If the whales are not already following in the wake of the shoal of fish fast enough, the men ply their boats to the rear, and by discharging guns and throwing rocks and other missiles, frighten the huge monsters onto the shore. Twice, before I left my island home [for Glasgow and the America] I saw this, to me, most exciting and wonderful spectacle, and once I counted sixty of those monster sea mammals stretched on the sand, side by side, perfectly helpless, awaiting their doom. Tiree not only obtained enough oil from the whales that came to them in this way, but they were able also to furnish the neighbouring islands with what they would use until the whales came again. When the tide ebbed it bore with it the carcasses of the victims, and when the sun went down all was peaceful upon the island as when he had risen in the morning (Autumn Leaves, February 1925, p. 8).

The Tiree minister also reported the island’s drive hunts, although they seemed to be coming to an end in 1845:

It may not be improper to notice that shoals of small whales sometimes frequent our bays, and the people have become very expert at driving them ashore with boats. If one is wounded it makes for the shore of its own accord and the rest follow, so that out of a whole shoal, scarcely one escapes. They are commonly from 15–20 feet long, and their blubber yields about a barrel of oil each. For some years they have discontinued their visits (New Statistical Account for Tiree, 1845, p. 215)

The island’s last drive hunt occurred three decades later. But this time it was unsuccessful, possibly because there were less people around with the right experience:

A few days ago, a shoal of about 100 whales visited the Isle of Tyree. Boats put out to capture them, and succeeded in driving them towards the shore. When the whales found themselves in shallow water, they turned suddenly and escaped, some of them diving beneath the boats. (Dundee Courier, 15 June 1877, p. 3)

Dr John Holliday