WIRELESS IN ANTARCTIC

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 273, 2 November 1932, Page 4

WIRELESS IN ANTARCTIC

WHALE CHASERS AND MOTHER SHIP. SEVEN VESSELS EQUIPPED. Seven Norwegian whale chaser vessels employed in the whaling industry of the Antarctic Ocean are having their wireless equipment overhauled by Amalgamated Wireltss (Australasia), Ltd., at Stewart Island. During the season these vessels are attached to the Norwegian factory ship Sir James Clark Ross in the Southern Seas. Prior to the days of wireless the chasers were chn of following their prey too far free the mother ship. As can well lie imagined, exactness in navigation is not a feature of the excitement of the chase, and should one of these tiny vessels fiipd itself too far

from home, it might, in those desolate and stormy seas, be in an awkward predicament Thanks to wireless, distance from the mother ship is no longer a matter of consequence. When a whale is sighted, a wireless message to the mother ship indicates the fact, and if there is a “school” other chasers are informed by the same medium. When, at the end of the chase, the time conies for the chasers to return with their catch to the factory ,there is no question as to where the latter may be found. Navigation by the old method of sights and calculations is unnecessary. A wireless signal from the factory, or mother ship, is picked up by the direction-finders carried in the cnasers, and it becomes only a matter of steering the tatter towards the point from which the signal emanates. After the last successful season, during which the wireless installations were buffeted in the rough seas, the chasers returned to Stewart Island. It is, of course, very important that this equipment be in first-class order for the ensuing season, and Amalgamated Wireless dispatched a radio engineer to make sure that everything shall be right, This engineer has now reported that, despite the fact that wireless operators are not carried in the chasers, the gear is in excellent condition, and very little actually requires his attention.