WHALING FLEET

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 2 October 1936, Page 2

WHALING FLEET

ARRIVAL AT WELLINGTON (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, Ist October. Equipped with all the latest gear for the scientific capture and treatment of whales, the British-owned factoryship Anglo-Norse with her fleet of six swift chasers arrived at Wellington after dark last night and anchored out in the stream. Like many vessels engaged in the Whaling industry, the Anglo-Norse is a converted ship. She was originally built in 1914 as an oil tanker, being christened Maricopa. As in the case with most up-to-date whaling ships, she has a large slipway built into her stern up which the carcases of whales are drawn by powerful winches to a special deck where flensing and cutting the blubber in preparation for the boiling down process are carried out. The small, swift chasers, somewhat resembling minesweepers, are used to hunt down the whales, 'and when they are within striking distance the gun in discharged, sending its powerful harpoon into the great mammal. The whaling gun is mounted at the bow of the chaser, and shoots a harpoon to which a rope is attached. The harpoon is tipped with a hollow point called the bomb. The bomb bursts after the harpoon strikes the whale, and often kills it instantaneously. Coiled on a pan in the bows is a quantity of especially strong rope, the foreganger. From this pan the rope passes aft to a winch, which serves to haul in the whale when it it dead. . . , While the Anglo-Norse is in Wellington the opportunity will be taken to lilace the six chasers on the Patent Slip, where they will be overhauled and painted in preparation tor their long stay in the Antarctic regions.