Whaling Afloat and Ashore is a 12 minute long film made by Robert William Paul (1869-1943) a London born inventor and pioneer cinematographer. The film shows Norwegian whalers and the Inishkea Islanders on the Rusheen Island, a tidal island on Inishkea, located off the coast of Belmullet, County Mayo.
The Inishkea Islands or Inis Cé in Irish, are located 3km off the Belmullet peninsula coast. The Islands are believed to be named after a saint that lived on the island in the 5th century called Saint Kea. There are two main islands, Inishkea North and Inishkea South with Inishkea North being the largest island of the two at 350 acres. Rich in history and surrounded by crystal clear waters, breath-taking views and white sandy beaches, every corner of the Inishkea Islands are just waiting to be discovered. To learn more about Inishkea please visit our website - www.belmulletboatcharters.com/inishkea
The film starts on board a ship, when a whale sighted by the whalers and harpooned. After the whale is taken ashore, each stage of processing the whale's corpse into a series of marketable products, is depicted in unflinching detail! The whalebone is then cleaned, while the blubber is cut up and processed into oil. The boats involved in the enterprise were the Alectro, the Erling and the Carsten Bruun.