ADD: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song (Otway)

Subject: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Nov 05 - 06:15 PM

Killers of Eden
Words Lorcan Otway Tune Traditional ( The Factory Girl)
all rights reserved Otway 2005


As I was a sailin', bound out from sweet Eden
A killer leapt high and white water was flung
I watched and I sighed as I thought of the hunters
And men who once broke the law of the tongue

In Twofold bay the Davidson whalers,
And their mates, the Yuin took humpbacks in the fall
Killer whales hunted with them and then were rewarded
With the baleen whale's tongue, then it's homeward we'd haul

Now landsmen and sailors who are strangers to Eden
Would never believe us when we'd tell them the tales
How we hunted as partners with the Killers of Eden
Australian whale hunters with those faithful killer whales

In the dark of the night there would come a commotion
As Old Tom would call us, with a flop of his tail
A calling whale hunters to launch and to follow
To where the Killers of Eden had captured a whale

How many's the time was a whaler man rescued
When the hand of God dealt his boat a death blow
Old Tom kept the sharks off, while Hooky did sound and
snatched a drowning whale fisher from cold fate down below

Whatever where you thinking, Harry Silks, you murderer
For the killing of Jackson, a beached killer whale
You've broken the trust and you broken our hearts
And you betrayed our partners who we never did fail

And then it was finished, the covenant was broken
When Logan broke trust with Old Tom, one foul day
Broke the law of the tongue, in the face of bad weather
And the Killers of Eden did quit Twofold bay

Farewell to you mates, you great Killers of Eden
You never proved false and we'll ere sing your tale
And though there's no way we can ever repay ye
We will drink to the honor of the brave Killer Whale

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: John O'L
Date: 09 Nov 05 - 06:35 PM

An amazing story. All true apparently. The killer whales (a type of dolphin) rounded up the humpbacks for the whalers and drove them into Twofold Bay to be slaughtered, for which as payment they recieved the tongues of the dead whales.

The killer whales saved many whalers from drowning and from being attacked by sharks during the time of their association, which was apparently started with the Aborigines long before the white man came along.

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Nov 05 - 06:38 PM

Yup... John, when I heard the story, I could not sleep till I wrote the song. Cheers lor

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 09 Nov 05 - 09:14 PM

G'day Lorcan & John,

When I came through Bega (on the far south coast of New South Wales)I saw, in the Whaling Museum, a tooth of the killer whale that worked with the shore-based whalers of Eden.

Years of grabbing their guide ropes ... and towing them out to where the whales were ... had left a deep groove, the thickness of a boat's rope - and this was one of the ways the body of this killer whale was identified when it was washed up, after dying of natural causes.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Nov 05 - 09:56 PM

Gu'day Bob! Seems present evidence in his skull is that old Tom died of an absess when he tried to stop them from taking the last whale and breaking the covenant by holding onto the tow line. According to an eye witness, Logan's daughter, her father reversed and then went forward, yanking a tooth out of Old Tom's mouth. The infection may have been instrumental in his death.
Bless the old fellow, he was true to the end.
lor

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 09 Nov 05 - 10:17 PM

G'day Lorcan,

I've no brief for the accuracy of Museum information presented by one side of the story ... but the wear patterns in the tooth displayed were consistent with a long history of repeated mild abrasion ... and not with a single catastrophic event.

That doesn't mean that a final severe event, which broke out a tooth did not happen ... but a dislodged tooth in open water would sink without trace. My memory of what I saw in the Museum display (and that's about 7 years back ...) is that the tooth was said to have been removed from the recovered carcass. They certainly did not say anything ... at least, back then ... about betrayal - or abcesses.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Nov 05 - 10:55 PM

Ah Bob! I hope you get a chance to see the documentry they just ran on PBS... they interviewed the last, I think four people alive who saw it all. Two died since it was made. They had an overly cautious zooologist Danielle Clode, who whould not conceed that the wear on his tooth was made by the repeted contact with harpoon lines, her bit on the documentery was noted to be over cautious in latter reviews... but they had a forensic scientist look at an missing tooth, in the front, forward of the worn canine, and it was exactly in keeping with the account of J.R. Logan's daughter, Margarette Brooks, who was on the White Heather on the night the last of the whales was taken with help from the Killers of Eden.
Been googling a bit, after seeing the documentry, a rather sleepness night, feeling I had to come up with a song. In fact the Davisons, were so cautious they did not mention that Old Tom, whould in fact, tow their whale boats to where the others were harassing the baleen whale. Experts now tell them that this is behavior that Killer Whales do in captivity, and not a wild tale, towing behavior is not greatly odd for an intelligent animal in the case of this symbiotic behavior...
Well, hope ya like the song, and my best to all down under, what ever it is you are all under... a keg I hope, a nice friend is good also, if you both are having a chuckle
All the best
and throw a shrimp on the barbie for me
and eat it for me as well or it will be well manky by the time I get there to eat it.
lor

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: skarpi
Date: 10 Nov 05 - 03:35 PM

Hey Larry , I have never heard the song , but the lyric is amazing
and tells a ( true) story? well done Larry I can´t wait to hear it
from your own mouth.Who knows I might even visit you ?
we´ll see.

All the best Skarpi Iceland.

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: kendall
Date: 10 Nov 05 - 04:19 PM

When you see a Orca attack and rip the tongue out of a baby gray whale, it's easy to be horrified. Thats the only part they want, and the rest is wasted. Kinda makes you think of man, doesn't it?

Well done, Larry.

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: InOBU
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 09:32 AM

Ah Scarpi... yer always welcome! I'm going to try and get this thing on CD today... let ya all know... Kendall, it does, but I think the Killer Whales proved more trust worthy! Oh, PS Scarpi YES, it IS a true story... saw a documentry and I'm sending a copy to the Eden Killer Whale Museum when it is recorded, recieved a LOVELY note from them. I recomend EVERYONE! go to Eden when in Australia...
Cheers lor

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: GUEST,Greg Mc
Date: 12 Nov 05 - 08:29 AM

Nice work Lorcan.
For anyone confused about the teeth, the missing teeth and abcess are on the right hand side of Tom's upper jaw and the "rope groove" is on the left side of Tom's lower jaw. They are virtually unrelated except the groove is the result of longterm wear and the missing teeth were most likely the result of the tussle with Logan's yacht .
The museum knew nothing of Margaret's story and the significance of the abcess untill we finished the doco so they have only known about it for a year.

There are only a few references to the killers towing boats out to a chase and it seems it was only an occasional ocurrence during the days in the 19th century when the Davidsons had competition from other whaling companies. However the oldies such as whale crew member Eric Turnbull recounted to me in 1988 how Tom would intercept the rope between the boat and the harpooned whale and drag the boat about in madcap fashion as the men tried desperately not to capsize. He was sometimes as much a nuisance as a help but he was adored so greatly they wouldn't dare discourage him except for the ocasional prod with an oar.
I might mention we Aussies say autumn rather than fall. You might like to integrate the imagery of the fact that the yuin whalers would wait till the wattles bloomed (a beautiful yellow native wildflower) as a sign that the whale season was beginning.
Cheers
Greg

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: InOBU
Date: 12 Nov 05 - 11:17 AM

Dear Greg: Great to hear from you, the documentery was hauting... really kept me up until the song was finished. Just recorded it, and so, send me and email at [e-mail] and I'll post you a rough first copy of the CD which it will be on... I'm sending a few off to the museum early next week... really wonderful film...
Lorcan Otway

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Nov 05 - 02:41 PM

The killer whale is a beautiful animaal with its precisely drawn color bands and sleek dynamic curves. Here in Juneau Alaska, a pod of them periodically enters the bit of ocean (the Gastineau Channel) between the mainland and the island on the other side and we love to watch them. They are also efficient predators and we have various stories about that.

About 15 miles 'out the road' is a natural bay where there is aa boat harbor with many fingers of floats.

A friend and I went to see the sea lions once when we were told that they were in the harbor. It was an interesting, primal scene. Two pods of sea lions hunting herring. They disappeared underwater one by one and the surface of the water smoothed, giving no hint of the action below. Then suddenly the heads popped up one by one blip! blip! blip! as the pods returned to the surface, and the air filled with bellows. (Sea lions don't sound like lions, to me they sound like cattle.)

We stayed there for a couple of hours. The herring were another facet of wonderment- I had heard of herring balls but this was the first time I saw the phenomenon: great masses of herring formed a huge silvery, squirming ball of fish, as each fish tried to get into its center. One ball was close to the float finger we were standing on; the sea lions never found that one.

Fisheren told us that sometimes the killer whales discovered the presence of sea lions and while some members of the pod patrolled the entance to prevent escape, the orca would come in and slaughter sea lions until the very water was bloody...

There is also video depicting a pod of killer whales attacking a mother moose and her half grown calf when the moose were swimming to the mainland. They killed the mother outright and then pursued the calf into a thick patch of kelp, where they eventually also got the calf.

On the other hand, once a boat I was on came across a small pod (maybe 5) of killer whales and we played with each other for an hour. The orca mostly swam on one side of the boat, dipping in and out of the water and the male repeatedly crossed under the boat to the other side, flashing in the sun, speeding up, dropping back, keeping pace with us.

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: InOBU
Date: 12 Nov 05 - 05:00 PM

Oh Ebbie! I'm so jealous! One of these days I have to get to Alaska ( and Austrailia as well of course!)
Cheersm'dears... thinking of you all
lor

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Nov 05 - 05:24 PM

Come on, Lorcan! We have lots of wildlife, limited only as to species. What we've got, we've got lots of.

Every time I see killer whales I think of yin yang.

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: SINSULL
Date: 12 Nov 05 - 11:47 PM

Wonderful song, Larry.

Don't miss Alaska. When I moved out of NYC I debated between Maine and Ketchican, Alaska. Someday...

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: InOBU
Date: 13 Nov 05 - 07:32 AM

Note corrections in the second verse with GREAT thanks to Greg

Killers of Eden

Words Lorcan Otway Tune Traditional ( The Factory Girl)
all rights reserved Otway 2005

As I was a sailin', bound out from sweet Eden
A killer leapt high and white water was flung
I watched and I sighed as I thought of the hunters
those men who have broken the law of the tongue

When the wattles were bloomin the Davidson whalers,
And their mates, the Yuin took humpbacks in the bay
Killer whales hunted with them and then were rewarded
With the baleen whale's tongue, t'was the law we did say

Now landsmen and sailors who are strangers to Eden
Would never believe us when we'd tell them the tales
How we hunted as partners with the Killers of Eden
Australian whale hunters with those faithful killer whales

In the dark of the night there would come a commotion
As Old Tom would call us, with a flop of his tail
A calling whale hunters to launch and to follow
To where the Killers of Eden had captured a whale

How many's the time was a whaler man rescued
When the hand of God dealt his boat a death blow
Old Tom kept the sharks off, while Hooky did sound and
snatched a drowning whale fisher from cold fate down below

Whatever where you thinking, Harry Silks, you cold murderer
For the killing of Jackson, a beached killer whale
You've broken the trust and you broken our hearts
And you betrayed our partners who we never did fail

And then it was finished, the covenant was broken
When Logan broke trust with Old Tom, one foul day
Broke the law of the tongue, in the face of bad weather
And the Killers of Eden did quit Twofold bay

Farewell to you mates, you great Killers of Eden
You never proved false and we'll ere sing your tale
And though there's no way we can ever repay ye
We will drink to the honor of the brave Killer Whale

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: karen k
Date: 13 Nov 05 - 10:47 AM

Great song. Sure wish it had a chorus. Would love to hear you sing it Larry.

karen

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: GUEST,mixednuts
Date: 13 Nov 05 - 04:03 PM

Just watched the PBS production - a fascinating story.
regards from Calgary Alberta Canada

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 14 Nov 05 - 02:26 PM

I just saw the PBS special and am much taken by your song.

What a sad story, though. Mankind (maybe it should be mansort) betraying, once more, the life they should be sharing this world with instead of grabbing all for themselves.

Makes me wonder if evolution is a valid explanation of our origins or if we came from another world after we had used it up.

CB

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: Ebbie
Date: 14 Nov 05 - 02:54 PM

"...a valid explanation of our origins or if we came from another world after we had used it up." Coyote Breath

Wow, CB. That idea hadn't occurred to me, although I have often wondered about the possibility that we are the equivalent of some kid's ant farm. (Not original with me) I expect that ants in their world are as self important as we are.

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From:
Date: 25 Nov 05 - 07:31 PM

hi im reserching killer whales and i would want to know how heavy they weigh

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Nov 05 - 02:08 PM

Although small compared to some whales, killer whales are the largest predators of mammals ever known. Male killer whales, or bulls, average 5.8 to 6.7 m (19-22 ft.) and usually weigh between 3,628 and 5,442 kg (8,000-12,000 lb.).
2. Females, or cows, average 4.9 to 5.8 m (16-19 ft.) and usually weigh between 1,361 and 3,628 kg (3,000-8,000 lb.).
3. Individual sizes vary significantly between geographical areas. Length estimates for more than 2,000 killer whales taken by North Atlantic whaling operations show male North Atlantic killer whales average about 6.1 m (20 ft.) while females average about 5.5 m (18 ft.).
4. The largest male ever recorded was 9.8 m (32 ft.) and weighed 10,000 kg (22,000 lb.). The largest female recorded was 8.5 m (28 ft.) and weighed 7,500 kg (16,500 lb.).

More

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: InOBU
Date: 26 Nov 05 - 09:08 PM

Gee Ebbie... I', not sure about that... give me a mo, as I weigh the one in me bath tub.... brb   lor

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: Cluin
Date: 26 Nov 05 - 09:31 PM

Killers of Eden.

Subject: RE: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Nov 05 - 11:21 PM

Good gracious, Lor - how big is your water heater??

Subject: RE: ADD: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song (Otwa
From: GUEST,Danielle Clode
Date: 26 Apr 06 - 03:12 AM

Well this is the "overly cautious zoologist" here from the Killers in Eden doco. It's not that I "wouldn't conceed" that the wear marks on Tom's teeth weren't caused by rope lines (it's a very attractive idea which I believed for a long time myself). But the truth is, every other old dolphin/whale skull in museums around the world has exactly the same wear pattern. Bit suspicious, heh? It seems more likely that those neat little grooves are actually cavities along what would have been the gum line. Tom certainly might have taken the lines in his mouth, but his teeth provide no proof one way or the other.

As to the other, quite seperate, issue of whether Tom was killed by an abcess when his tooth was yanked out. Yes, that does seem quite probable given the amount of bone distortion as the dentist noted (yeh - he was a normal dentist not a forensic scientist).

I know the old saying about never spoiling a good story for the sake of the truth, but as Greg pointed out earlier, in this case the truth is an even more amazing story than any of the myths. A healthy dose of skepticism often reveals an even brighter core of truth.

Subject: RE: ADD: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song (Otway)
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Apr 06 - 08:14 PM

Hi I am doing the inside passage boat trip in july will I see the whales .I was a young lad when I first went to EDEN I saw the old museum the it was small. I been there to play lawn bowls since the new museum is a tribute to EDEN

Subject: RE: ADD: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song (Otwa
From: GUEST,Chris Hallam
Date: 16 Feb 09 - 07:25 PM

I have had the pleasure of knowing a few fishermen from Edens tuna boats of the late 1970's and recorded a CD by a band called "The Killers Of Eden" whose members were all from Edens fishing community. Songs of Mt Imlay, the killer whales etc. A great contemporary folk album. It was for sale at the museum in Eden for a few years. I dont know if its still available, but could find out. email me at: [e-mail] if you want more information

Subject: RE: ADD: Killers of Eden - Killer Whale Song (Otway)
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Mar 13 - 03:29 AM

under eden skies cd by the killer of eden is still available at the museum