| The Peterhead whaling trade |
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Peterhead whaling songs. The Eclipse, was written four years before Captain David Gray retired. In
1887, Captain Gray took the Eclipse fishing in the Arctic
with her sister ships the Erik and the Hope. The golden jubilee of Queen Victoria's coronation was celebrated in the Greenland seas on 21 June 1887, by the killing of a 57 foot long female whale. It was the largest whale ever caught by Captain David Gray and a Shetland seaman on the Hope, captained by David Gray's brother, John, wrote a special Jubilee song to mark the 'glorious day'. The whale yielded 27 tons of oil. Its jawbone, which measured close on 20 feet, was sent to South Kensington Museum in London where it is still on display. The
phrase one and three in the song refers to the bonus of one shilling
and three pence per ton of oil that the men expected to be paid;
they were clearly unhappy with the amount!
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