Bob - Thanks for the Ballina naming information. It's interesting that the Aboriganl name relates to fish. And again, thanks for starting this thread. I'm finding many interesting sites.

Les - Thanks for the Fairmile info Les. I guess the CPO who told us the HDMLs had been switched from petrol to diesel motors and speed were halved had his 'models' crossed. Your mention of Balaena got me on a search, as well as our own DT Lyrics, there's good bacground information in Henry's Songbook. But the two sites that got me excited are...

Glasgow Digital Library
Balaena 1892-3 Trip. It includes a map of her route, and a photo of the good ship herself. It's part of Scotland and the Antarctic. Lots of interesting reading there.

MIT Metamedia
Herman Melville - a page of whaling illustrations, sound files, including Balaena (unfortunately I can't hear 'em as my sound card isn't hooked up to the stereo at the moment) and MOV clips, which I assume are from films (I have to wait anther hour and a half for one to download at < 3kbs). Actually, the page takes a while to come through on my connection, so 'open in a new window'

Looks like another all-night session.

Cheers - Sam