The whaler Hope at work in polar waters

The auxiliary steam whaler Hope was built for Captain John Gray of Peterhead by Alexander Hall of Aberdeen and launched in February 1873. Registered at 452 tons gross (307 net), she measured 149½ feet in length with a 28 foot beam and carried a full ship rig. On her maiden voyage in 1873, she found the Greenland Sea empty of whales but caught instead some 9,000 seals from which 200 tons of oil were extracted. In one of the best subsequent seasons, 1878, she caught nine whales, equalling this in 1881, whilst in 1885 she took the largest number of seals by any Scottish vessel, In 1891, Hope was sold to new owners in Newfoundland and in 1894 and 1899 took record catches of seal. The 1901 season began well but at the beginning of April, she was driven ashore by storms in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and became a total loss although all aboard her were rescued.