WHALER’S DEATH.

Kaikoura Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 62, 10 August 1944, Page 3

WHALER’S DEATH.

FALLS INTO VAT OF HOT OIL. i Called in from Cook Strait to pick |up an employee of the Te Awaite i whaling station who had been severely scalded, a fast whale-chaser on Sunday made a dramatic dash to Picton to attempt to save a life. When Gilbert Jones, of Picton, was feeding a digester with chunks of whale he overbalanced and fell into a I vat of hot oil. A wireless call to the .mother ship of the whaling fleet, which was out in the straits, resulted in the prompt dispatch of a chaser. Picking up the casualty at the works in Tory Channel, the boat sped on to Picton, stopping off Dieffenbach Point long enough to pick up a doctor who had set out in a launch to meet the injured man. Although the chaser made Picton in under an hour the mother ship had received the SOS, Jones died in the hospital on Monday. Mr Jones, who was a married man with one daughter, lost his balance when the hook he was usino- to shift pieces of whale carcase into the digester suddenly pulled free. He fell feet first into the vat below him which contained about four feet of hot oil.