Blubber House

The Pacific Steam Whaling Co. constructed this building in the early 1890s, presumably for storage purposes. The Mounted Police later used the building to prepare dog feed. Minor repairs were carried out to conserve this building and to allow it to accommodate the Park maintenance workshop. No major changes were required for the building’s new use.

Region:

Yukon

Field Documentation:

August 9, 2018

Field Documentation Type:

Terrestrial LiDAR

Historic Period:

1893CE

Latitude:

69.569014

Longitude:

-138.914339

Threat Level

History

This building was likely constructed by the Pacific Steam Whaling Company for storage purposes, see also the PSWC community house and bonehouse. There is presently very little information about this building, but from its appearance in historic photos it is estimated to have been constructed around 1893 [1]. At one point, this building had an addition that extended from its west end. The addition was the same size as the current building, although slightly shorter [1,2]. Its original construction and use is unknown. However, current information indicates that it was built by the Pacific Steam Whaling Company and was likely used for industrial purposes [1,2]. At a later point, this building was acquired by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (for history of the RCMP on Herschel Island visit) and they used it to prepare dog feed.

Interior of warehouse. Photo source: Capture2Preserv project

Construction

The blubber house is a small frame structure, approximately 8.5 m by 4.9m. The floor is supported independently of the rest of the building [1]. The walls are sheathed with vertical boards and shingled on the exterior. The gable roof is framed using with rafters and collar ties and is also sheathed and shingled on the exterior. In the interior of the building the framing of both the walls and roof are exposed. The blubber house has one entrance, which is located in the south wall. Windows and former windows are located in the south, east and north walls [1].

Current Condition

Currently this building is used as storage by the park rangers.

Notes

[1] Preservation Plan. 1990 Herschel Island Historic Resources Preservation Plan. Final report, December, prepared by Heritage Branch, Department of Tourism, Yukon. [2] Yukon Environment. 2006 Herschel Island Qikiqtaruk Territorial Park Management Plan. Prepared with the Inuvialuit Game Council, the Aklavik Hunters and Trappers Committee along with the Wildlife Management Advisory Council (North Slope) for the Yukon Government.

Open Access Data

The raw data files for this project are available for download from the archive repository. Scans are .las file format. Please download the metadata template to access metadata associated with each file. All data is published under the Attribution-Non-Commercial Creatives Common License CC BY-NC 4.0 and we would ask that you acknowledge this repository in any research that results from the use of these data sets. The data can be viewed and manipulated in CloudCompare an opensource software.

Blubber House Laser Scanning Metadata 2018/19

Blubber House Laser Scanning Data 2018/19

The architectural drawings below were created by Elizabeth Cook, a student in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (SAPL) at the University of Calgary. The drawings were created in Autodesk Revit BIM software using the point clouds captured by the Z+F 5010X and Leica BLK360 scanners. Building Information Modeling (BIM) involves the generation and management of digital representations of the physical and functional characteristics of spaces. We are currently exploring how BIM can be linked with heritage strategies currently used to manage the historic buildings at Pauline Cove – especially in light of current climate change impacts.

North and South elevations of the blubber house, created in Revit based off of the documentation done by the terrestrial laser scanning.

Architectural plans of the blubber house, created in Revit based off of the documentation done by the terrestrial laser scanning. Photo source: Capture2Preserv project.

East and West elevations of the blubber house, created in Revit based off of the documentation done by the terrestrial laser scanning.

3D view of the southeast corner of the blubber house, created in Revit based off the documentation with the terrestrial laser scanner.

3D view of the northwest corner of the blubber house, created in Revit based off the documentation with the terrestrial laser scanner.

3D view of the northeast corner of the blubber house, created in Revit based off the documentation with the terrestrial laser scanner.

3D view of the blubber house, created in Revit based off the documentation with the terrestrial laser scanner.

Digitally Capturing the Blubber House

The Pacific Steam Whaling Co. blubber house was first digitally captured in July, 2018. The exterior was documented with a Z+F 5010X scanner (red dots) and mounted paper targets, using 11 scanning locations situated roughly in a circle around the building. In anticipation of later capturing the interior of the building, a scanning location was positioned in front of an open door to capture portions of the interior. In 2019 the interior of the building was scanned with a Leica BLK 360 scanner (blue dots) using an additional five scanning locations. No targets were used to capture the interior of the building, and scans were registered together using cloud-to-cloud registration in AutoDesk ReCap Mobile and Pro. The interior and exterior scans were registered together in AutoDesk ReCap Pro using cloud-to-cloud registration based on the common data from the doorway scanning position.