Hunting 'devilfish' in Korea in 1912

A close-up view of a whale stranded purportedly in Korea in 1946-47. Robert Neff Collection

By Robert Neff

In February 1912, an American arrived at a small Japanese whaling station near Ulsan, Korea. He was 28 years old, a naturalist and an explorer, and possibly the inspiration for Indiana Jones; he was Roy Chapman Andrews.

Andrews came to Korea in search of the Koku Kujira, or "devilfish," that were said to haunt the coasts of the Korean peninsula. He was convinced that the Koku Kujira were, in fact, gray whales. These whales were once encountered in great numbers off the western coast of North America, but were hunted so extensively that by 1870 they were nearly, if not completely, extinct.

Andrews convinced his employer ― the American Museum of Natural History in the United States ― to allow him to travel to Korea on a great scientific mission "to rediscover a supposedly extinct species."

The whaling station, situated in a bay sheltered by tree-less hills, would be his home for the next six weeks. Judging from Andrews, the whaling vessels at the station were privately owned by Scandinavians ― especially Norwegians ― who hunted the whales for a commission. The crews of these whaling vessels were mainly European and Japanese. The surrounding Korean population tended to their own small farms or loitered around the station in hopes of part-time work.

The situation may have been true years earlier (and possibly in this case), but by the early 1910s, most of these whaling operations seemed to have been mainly Japanese enterprises. In November 1909, the Oriental Whaling Company had three whaling vessels operating along the coast of Gangwon Province. The three ships had a combined crew of one hundred and three men (85 Japanese and 18 Koreans) and was so successful that the company intended to purchase several more ships.

View of the whale from the roadside in 1946-47. Robert Neff Collection

It is interesting to note that whales may have been the reason why he was in Korea, but one of the first subjects Andrews described was Korean women. He seems to have been greatly intrigued by them.

"Women in voluminous white skirts with bright colored sashes and jackets so short that their naked breasts appeared beneath. Some girls were really lovely: delicate oval faces, skins almost white and soft brown eyes. To a Westerner the Korean girls are much prettier than either the Chinese or Japanese women. I suppose because their features more nearly approximate our own."

He was somewhat perplexed with the Korean idea of modesty, noting that a woman's room was inviolate ― only her husband, brother or father were allowed to enter. Men were prohibited from going upon their own roofs unless they first warned their neighbors, so that the women of the household could be safely ushered away from the inadvertent wandering eye of a male who was not part of their household. "Custom decrees that women may expose their faces and breasts without offense, but nothing else."

Andrews had "an insatiable curiosity" about his Korean hosts, so he sought answers from a fairly unlikely source:

"I could speak Japanese fairly well and one of the young clerks at the station knew a little English. I am afraid I exhausted him with my ceaseless questioning but he was invariably polite."

Curiosity, however, went both ways. Andrews claimed that whenever he went into the small Korean village near the whaling station, the Korean women would poke holes in their paper windows and spy upon him as he passed by; their "gurgling sounds of laughter" trailed behind him.

Life at the whaling station when there were no whales to butcher, was generally spent drinking and in the company of the Japanese geisha and the Korean "sing-song" girls. However, when one of the whaling ships arrived in port with a whale, the port became a busy, vibrant and smooth-running operation. Within hours of the whale's arrival at the station, it was butchered into great chunks of meat and shipped to Japan in a meat steamer. Only the head, flippers, viscera and bones remained.

Stranded whales, sometimes referred to as the "lottery of the sea," could be sold for a very good price in Korea. Circa 1946-47. Robert Neff Collection

During his six weeks at the station, Anderson performed a number of tasks. At first he remained ashore with the cutting crews, carefully measuring and documenting each Koku Kujira. He was now convinced they were gray whales.

He then served aboard one of the ships ― most likely under Captain Melson aboard the whaling vessel "Main." The work was extremely difficult and dangerous. For hours he stood behind the harpoon gun in the freezing sleet and bitter cold that froze his oilskin stiff and left him deathly sick, cursing the sea for the torture he was forced to endure in his pursuit of knowledge.

He witnessed and took part in the hunt for at least 40 gray whales and "saw them hunted by men and killers [it is unclear what these killers were]; learned their clever tricks to avoid both these deadly enemies," He also managed to gather two complete Gray whale skeletons, but the task was not as easy as he had supposed it would be.

The first attempt at collecting and cataloging a gray whale skeleton ended in failure because he had not taken into account Korean villagers' apparent appetite for whale bone soup. He had gathered an entire gray whale skeleton and piled it up in the small yard near his house with signs posted in Korean and Japanese to not tamper with the bones. However, later, when he came out and began to catalog the bones, he discovered that many of the bones were missing.

He had no choice but to procure another skeleton. Once again he posted signs asking and warning people not to tamper with the bones, but he also made preparations to take "heroic measures."

He poked several holes in his paper window that looked out over his yard, and, armed with a .22 caliber rifle and B.B.s, he ambushed an unwary Korean man who crept into his yard to purloin one of the bones. The B.B. was powerful enough to give a sharp sting to its victim, but not powerful enough to do any real damage. Hit several times in the buttocks, the would-be bone thief screamed in terror and fled up the hill. Andrews boasted that his victim likely "took his meals standing for several days."

Andrews had no further problems with bone thieves and he was able to ship his skeleton back to the United States. However, this little shooting adventure awoke in Andrews a desire to hunt something far more dangerous than bone thieves; he wanted to hunt the monarch of the darkness: the tiger.

Note:
For images of Andrews at the whaling station please visit the American Museum of Natural History.

Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books including, Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.