Greenland sharks

Greenland sharks enter the narrative as scavengers drawn to a whale being processed alongside the ship. When Cavendish orders Jones-the-whale to drive them off, the crew’s response turns the sharks into part of the same commercial struggle as the whale: the remains are cargo, and anything that might consume them is treated as a threat to its value.

Setting and Appearance

During the flensing of a decomposing whale, Greenland sharks gather in the water below the ship, attracted by the smells of blood and decay. The scene places them close to the whaling work rather than in a separate encounter with the open sea: they move among the material consequences of the hunt, while the crew cuts the carcass above them.

Encounter with the Crew

Cavendish calls down to Jones-the-whale and directs him to strike at the sharks, explicitly linking the order to protecting the crew’s profits. Jones uses a blubber spade against one shark and later kills it with a second blow; he also kills another. Black is poised to deal with a third, smaller shark, but it gets away. The encounter ends with two sharks dead and one escaping.

Relationship to the Whaling Operation

The episode makes the sharks’ presence a practical concern for the crew because they are feeding near the whale remains the men are trying to recover. The order to drive them off reduces a living animal to a possible loss of commercial material. That calculation echoes the wider voyage, in which Brownlee estimates whale products in tons and pounds and the crew’s labor turns carcasses into oil and baleen. Here, however, the sharks are not hunted as a planned catch: they become targets because they are near the work and are perceived as a risk to its proceeds.

Narrative Significance

The encounter briefly widens the view of whaling beyond ship, crew, and prey. Greenland sharks appear within the same marine environment as the whale carcass, but the crew’s attention is governed by the value of the catch. Their appearance therefore connects the physical aftermath of whaling with its commercial logic, while the escape of the smaller shark leaves one animal beyond the crew’s immediate control.