THE DOOMED WHALE

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 13 September 1930, Page 16

THE DOOMED WHALE

Science in the Ross Sea

JJA R south, on the edge of the ice- i pack in the Ecss Sea a few' months j ago, the wireless operator, with ear-p-nones strapped to his head, was sitting in a eatnn on a little steam whalecatcher. when lie caught the message : “SOS, SOS, SOS, Southern Queen. We’ve struck an iceberg. Can’t last more than an hour. Call off catchers and come to our help! Our position is

To-day all he- need do, if the excitement of the hunt takes him too far afield, is t> radio the shore station on South Georgia Island and tusk tor his ’bearing*. One’ whaler recently broke down Avith four whales last alongside. Her engines had given out- when she Avas far out at. sea. The gunner spoke through the wireless phone to another whaler, which at once went to her aid. and towed ship and whales to land, saving many; thousands of dollars to crew and company. Recently operating on the whale herds in the Ross Sea was the giant. Kosmos, a whale-ship which has actually only 500 tons less displacement than the Ounard liner Mauretania. She is the last word in'scientific machinery. Wireless and aeroplanes aid her to spot and capture the whales, while whaleshooters go out. in seven boats. She

The mother ship. Southern Queen, was about thirty miles away, a good two hours’ steaming, and, to make matters more difficult, fog and ice mist soon covered the sea. A little more than an hour later the operator on the sinking steamer flashed 1 a- last dramatic message: “Can’t hold on longer. Decks nearly awash. Taking to lifeboats.” Fifteen minutes after the last bubbles had ceased to rise from the sunken steamer the catchers had reached the

.spot and were pickup; up the survivors. In 1930 tire Marconi Company 'began installing its new whaler radio telephone. with a wave-length of 600 metres, in addition to the usual SCO metres (says a writer in “Popular Mechanics”). The alternative wave-length give* the operator a double line of communication. with a range of from 250 to 300 miles under average weather conditions. Before the wireless compass came along the gunner of a whale-catch-er would not run the risk of fog, since when chasing a whale any distance from his base he would lose his bearings.

has a. crew of 200 to catch and prepare the killed monsters. The inflated carcases are drawn aboard to the floating factories through big portholes or a great landing stage at the stern. The most valuable man on the modem whaler, next to the navigator. i« the gunner. He can earn a salary of £SOOO in an average '.season, and as much as £IO,OOO in a good one. “A I'-r.eod wliale-shooter is worth his weightin gold,” said one of the largest Norwegian whate fleet owners. ‘‘We can’t do' without him, even in this day of . aeroplanes and wireless.”