Jujiro Wada - Whaling

Whaling

Wada was a cabin boy and cook aboard the Pacific Steam Whaling Company's bark Balaena from March 1892 until October 1894. During this time, the ship was hunting baleen whales in the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans. Wada learned English during this voyage. His teacher was the ship's master, H. Havelock Norwood.

Wada returned to Alaska in 1895, this time as a shore hunter at Barrow. Shore hunters hunted whales using land-based boats, and also hunted caribou with which to provision visiting whale ships. Wada worked for the Cape Smythe Whaling and Trading Company. The local manager was Charles Brower. This is probably when and where Wada learned to handle sled dogs and speak Alaska native languages.

In 1896, Wada returned to Japan to see his mother. He was in Japan about three months.

Following his trip to Japan, Wada returned to Alaska, where he went back to working as a shore whaler at Barrow. In September 1897, an early freeze trapped eight ships of the U.S. whaling fleet in the ice off Point Barrow. Naturalist Edward Avery "Ned" McIlhenny (of the Tabasco sauce family) and two assistants were then living at the Point Barrow refuge station, and during the next few months, the McIlhenny party and the Barrow shore whalers helped the crews of the stranded whale ships.