THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Scoresby put his trust in exceptionally heavy ballast.  Once the ship was moving, the ballast tended to impel the vessel forward under her own momentum.  It also helped Scoresby’s ship to sail more successfully against the wind than any other vessel.  Rival skippers feared that heavy ballast would worsen any collision with the ice.  Their timidity meant that on one occasion Scoresby caught fourteen whales before his fellow whalers arrived.  In 1806 he had enough time to pursue the whales to within 510 miles of the North Pole, the furthest point ever reached by a whaling ship.

Mead/Inside