Atlantic walrus (O. r. rosmarus)
wild-caught on June 7th, 1899
deceased on July 16th, 1899
None.
capture 1899-Jun-07 in Jones Sound, Canada
death 1899-Jul-16 in transit
No images available at this time.
The images found here have all been gathered either from this facility's official resources or news articles.
This walrus was one of three captured off "the S.E. point of Cobourg Island, at the entrance of Jones' Sound". Two of the pups were captured by the owner of the whaling ship "Esquimaux", Andrew Barclay Walker, while another was collected by ship guest, W. Cecil Hammond. The calves were named Jim, Jack, and Jess (later called Jessie).
A. B. Walker's diary notes that the calves would not eat for ten days, but ultimately took pea soup siphoned through a rubber tube. On June 20th, 1899 he noted that the calves were now feeding on their own from a small tub filled with a mixture of oatmeal and pea soup.
It would seem that the walruses had free roam of the ship, as Walker wrote in his diary; "They pay occasional visits to us in the saloon and our cabins, taking a look round to see if things are ship-shape before retiring".
Walker expressed hopes to take them back alive, presumably to Dundee, Scotland, where the ship dropped anchor to end its 183-day voyage on October 27th, 1899.
1900. Andrew Barclay Walker. The Cruise of the Esquimaux, Steam Whaler, to Davis Straits and Baffin Bay, April-October 1899. Retrieved from Google Books.
2014-Dec-15. D. Bruce Stewart et al. A catch history for Atlantic walruses (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) in the eastern Canadian Arctic. Retrieved from septentrio.uit.no