Here, aboard the Rosie H., in Franklin Bay, a Bowhead whale is being cut up or flensed. The whale was prized for its baleen, used by the animal to strain plankton from seawater. Until the fashion change in woman's undergarments and the introduction of plastics, the baleen was used largely for stays in rigid corsets, umbrellas and so on. Its blubber was boiled down to provide oil for lubrication and lighting. The whalers wintered in the Arctic for several seasons at a time, pursuing the Balaena mysticetus into its last retreat and eventually bringing it to the brink of extinction.
Courtesy: Anderson Collection, Public Archives of Canada
