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Repulse Bay/Naujaat

Whaling boats ready to leave for spring whaling, Repulse Bay, Nunavut, May 26, 1902 99 Ko Whaling boats ready to leave for spring whaling, Repulse Bay, Nunavut, May 26, 1902

The Repulse Bay/Naujaat overwintering port was the furthest north in the Hudson Bay whale hunting area. The first captain to overwinter there was Captain White. He commanded the Black Eagle and spent the winter of 1866-67 there in the company of three other ships.

The Repulse Bay/Naujaat site, just like the Depot Island and Cape Fullerton sites, was a favourable location for contact with the local people. The presence of whalers was also a significant attraction for the Inuit, who gradually took up the custom of going there to spend the winter near the ships and their crews.

There is ample evidence to show that on the several occasions when whalers wintered at Repulse Bay they attracted Eskimos from very broad area. At one time or another Eskimos came from Igloolik, Pelly Bay, Boothia Peninsula, and Chesterfield Inlet, an area stretching 500 miles from north to south and 200 miles towards the west (Ross 1975: 126).

However, the Inuit could not count on the annual presence of whalers at Repulse Bay/Naujaat. It must be said that the location, because it was further north than the other overwintering ports, was not favourable for the spring hunt. Whaling crews could not get free of the ice until much later in the spring than at the other sites, so overwintering there meant a considerably shorter hunting season.

The whalers' harbour [Repulse Bay] was far from the main body of Roes Welcome Sound, badly placed for floe whaling in the spring and apt to be frozen up until late in the summer. Although Repulse Bay was occupied from time to time after the inital experiment of 1866-67, most whalers wintered farther south. (Ross 1975: 49-50)

However, Repulse Bay/Naujaat would become a large whaling station.

Two Whaleboats under Sail Towing Harpooned Bowhead Whale 65 Ko Two Whaleboats under Sail Towing Harpooned Bowhead Whale

In 1903, the Kinnes Company closed the Southampton Island station and sent John Murray, in command of the Ernest William, to Repulse Bay/Naujaat. The Ernest William was used as a floating whaling station and, like all the other stations, operated throughout the year. Besides being a place where Inuit were hired to work on the whaling ships in the summer, it was also used to trade furs throughout the year.

Operating mainly in the Repulse Bay area, the Ernest William had functioned as a whaling and trading station, receiving supplies and relief crews annually from the steam whaler Active, which carried the produce out each autumn. (Ross 1975 : 57-60)

The Ernest William stayed near Repulse Bay/Naujaat between 1903 and 1910, but it is believed that it overwintered at Lyon Inlet in the winter of 1906-07. In 1910, it left Repulse Bay/Naujaat for good and was wrecked at Kekerten in Cumberland Sound in 1913.