Nordcaper

As the Greenland whale, or bowhead, was unknown to the European naturalists of Rondelet's time, it may be presumed that the species he had in mind was the black whale or nordcaper.

A nordcaper would yield 700 to 800 kg. or even more, and in addition it was generally very fat, one particular specimen in Bunaveneader producing 120 barrels of oil.

IWS II (1931 p. 7) tabulates catches from 1890 to 1909 and, referring to unspecified catches in those years, notes that 'Sperm-whales and nordcapers were only present in very scanty numbers'.

The only baleen whales available which Chaplain could have had any chance of holding were the slow-swimming nordcapers and these were scarce in Irish waters.