Bert goes on to point out, with his stick of course, how Old Tom’s teeth are worn down and he explains how if a harpooned whale looked like sounding and getting away, Old Tom would grab hold of the rope and try to stop him. Trying to hold onto ninety ton of whale with a bit of four centimetre rope doesn’t do your dental gear much good.

Newspaper cuttings telling stories of piracy, mutiny and shipwrecks adorn the walls; there are displays of shells and antiques, ships’ bells and skeletons, and Bert can tell you a yarn about each one of them. He can also tell you about the aborigines and how this place must have truly been a garden of Eden. Shellfish abounded and the aborigines could sit on the back of a dead whale and spear the fish and sharks that came to feed on the blubber. Bert’s eyes become wistful as he describes the life of the natives and he looks through the window at the incredible sapphire blue of what is one of the world’s most beautiful harbours.