Description

Hand-colored print on laid paper depicting an Arctic whaling scene. In the bottom right corner, two men shoot a walrus on a patch of ice while another prepares to club it. In the bottom left corner, four men attack a polar bear, drawn with a boar-like snout, with lances. There are numerous whaleboats on the water. Three, in the central foreground, surround a spouting whale with their harpooneersmen preparing to strike. In the right-hand background, the harpooneersmen of three other boats attack another whale. There are three ships visible; the closest flies a red flag with the Union Jack in the canton. A fourth ship is discernable in the far left background and three or four more in the central background, drawn faintly. Between the two largest ships is a float of ice with a polar bear upon it. Icebergs and cloudbanks line the horizon line. The rays of the sun come out from behind a cloud.

A coat of arms and the following text are printed in the bottom margin: "To the Honorable Sr. John Eyles Barrt. [Baronet] Sub-Governor of the South Sea Company this plate of the whale or Greenland Fishery is most humbly inscribed"

This is followed by thr names "E. Kirkall S. [scriv.?]" and "Baston F. [fecit?]"