Underwater Pile of Bones:
Those that lived far North on the Faroe Islands had to fish for food. A staple component to their diet was whale meat. English travellers noted that whale meat and whaling were a normal part of life in the Faroese What was also noted as a strange phenomena was that there was a submerged bone yard of whale skeletons that literally extended out several miles Eastward from the islands. Apparently one could vaguely make out the piles of bones underwater on a clear day.
Whale Meat Diet
The newspaper noted the huge underwater bone yard and the revealing assumption: good fishing grounds were impossible to over fish. They simply believed that if they did not catch the fish they would continue to devour each other. Apparently the Faroese people had quite a reputation for the amount of whale and whale fat they consumed. A newspaper article noted: “The quantity of fat consumed by them is enormous; and it is said that, after the Faroese have feasted on fresh whale for a fortnight, their faces, hands, and even their hair, glance with the blubber, which seems as if oozing from every pore.” It is a curiosity how many other places in the 19th century ended up becoming underwater bone yards at the height of the destruction of whales.
References:
Staffordshire Gazette and County Standard, Thursday 02 September 1841, pg. 4. - Description of the Faroese diet.
Fife Herald, Thursday 06 October 1842, pg. 4. - Account of the bank of bones East of the Faroe Islands.