This is one of the pieces in the Verdant Works Exhibition ‘The Arctic Whaling Year’, Autumn 2018.  Blubber from the whales was chopped up and placed in barrels on the ship and brought back to the home post to be processed.  The processing involved boiling the blubber to separate the valuable oil, which was stored and sold in barrels.  In Dundee it was discovered that a mix of whale oil and water sprayed on jute fibres softened them sufficiently to aid their processing.  Whale oil became an integral part of jute manufacture in Dundee and the continuing market for the oil ensured that Arctic whaling persisted from Dundee much later than from most other British ports. The skills of making wooden ships that were suitable for the Arctic meant that the port was an obvious choice for building the Discovery.  It also meant that whaling was still being carried out from Dundee as photography was developing, producing  a wonderful photographic archive.

Jute. Textile panel (80 x 60 cm) from ‘The Arctic Whaling Year’ exhibition at Verdant Works, Dundee, Autumn 2018. Fabric paint and pen, layered sheer fabrics and freehand machine embroidery on cotton and hessian (jute).

The Verdant Works is a jute mill preserved by the Dundee Heritage Trust.  Barrels of whale oil would have arrived at the works, passed over the weighbridge, and been stored in the stone buildings with the iron roof trusses and wall bosses that tied the walls together.