Penguins, Whalers, and Sealers: A Voyage of Discovery

This book from L Harrison Matthews is an odd combination of excellent and awkward.
Published in 1977 it is primarily a look back in history to fifty years prior when as a zoologist he worked in the southern ocean islands of the Falklands, South Georgia, the South Shetlands and the South Orkneys. He spent his time with sealers and whalers, so we are subjected to the realities and brutalities of their work, as well as some of the more uncomfortable aspects such as their harvesting of penguin eggs for food, and live capturing of penguins to be housed in zoos.

So being able to separate acceptable activity today from that of what is now 100 years ago is essential in appreciating the excellent aspects of this book.

There are two things that make this book stand out. Firstly, it is non-academic. The writing in conversational (by which I mean, this reads as if the author is telling a story to the reader) and devoid of over-technical jargon,, making it very accessible. Secondly, it is very well organised and contains a lot of information about the primary focus - penguins.

Arranged in 6 chapters, these are titled Jackass; Gentoo; Macaroni; Adelie and Ringed; Captain James Cook; King. Most people probably know these are all species of penguins, with the exception of Cook, although I think Captain James Cook would make a good, albeit lengthy name for a penguin.

Each of the penguin chapters concentrates on that species. It has the context of where the author was, what he was going there, the men he was with and their activities, but for the larger part is about the penguin.

For jackass penguins we get a short story about an out-of-territory penguin in Brazil where the author and his Brazilian girlfriend are languishing nude on a deserted beach, before swapping suddenly to the Falkland Islands - the more natural home for this subspecies of jackass (also known as the Cape Penguin or African Penguin). I doubt there are two places less alike than the beaches of Brazil and the Falkland Islands!

The gentoo are a sub-antarctic species, and the author encounters vast numbers on South Georgia. The macaroni penguin is a crested penguin, often mistaken for a rock-hopper (because it does hop, and, well, there are rocks), and the author also encounters them on South Georgia.

For adelie and ringed penguins we are on the South Orkney Islands, which the author visits on a resupply run for the meteorological station. The ringed penguin, now known as the chinstrap penguin is fairly widely distributed, but the author writes about in in the South Orkney and South Shetland islands.

King penguins are the largest of the sub-antarctic penguins (emperor penguins are 25% bigger, but they are exclusively Antarctic penguins), and the author encountered four on South Georgia somewhat out of season, and then a later visit to a rookery in a different part of South Georgia.

For each type the author describes their habitat, nesting and paternal/maternal habits and any other relevant details, as well as wrapping the context of his visit or some stories about his time nearby. Contained within the chapters there is also some of historical information about exploration related to the locations. One of the slightly jarring aspects of the narrative is where the author confirms or corrects an assertion he made saying (paraphrasing) that ‘thirty years later this was proven by XYZ when ...', although I suspect this was the only way to remain faithful to his thoughts of the period he was writing about.

Penguins are not all we learn about. The sea leopards (more known as leopard seals now) and sea lions, albatross and other birds, whales and dolphins are all heavily featured, although as noted above the whales and sea lions are as often being flensed as they are praised.

The chapter on Cook covers more extensively the exploration and expedition history of the geographical area. This was perhaps the most dry chapter to read, but provides a wider context to the area - and not just for Cook, for many others too. For me it was cluttered with coordinates and dates, lots of unrecognisable names (of people and places), so it was slow going.

All in all, if you have even a passing interest in penguins, and can separate the whaling and sealing activities, this is a short and interesting read.

4 stars.