GREAT WHALING SEASON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20365, 20 September 1929, Page 14

GREAT WHALING SEASON.

INCREASE IN ACTIVITIES.

REMARKABLE FACTORY SHIP.

[BY TELEGRAPIT. —OWN" CORRESPONDENT.]

WELLINGTON, Thursday,

Whaling operations in the Antarctic during the coming season will be on a much larger scale than ever before. Three expeditions at least will operate in the Ross Sea region. , The number of Norwegian whaling companies, and companies managed by Norwegians, operating within the Antarctic Circle will bo 23, possessing 30 factory Ships, 145 whalo-chasers, three shore stations and four transports. There will-bo seven companies not Norwegian with seven factories, 47 whale-chasers, three shore stations and three transports. Nearly 9000 men have been engaged from Norway. • •• „ y' Three whaling expeditions will arrive in New Zealand in the- next few weeks, en route to the Ross Sea. In addition to the Rosshavet Whaling Company's factory ships" C. A. Larsen and Sir James Clark Ross, with their ten chasers, the. Southern Whaling Company, a British concern in which Lever Bros., Ltd., are largely interested, is sending ships, and the Kosmos Whaling Company, a Norwegian concern with British backing, has its huge factory ship Kosmos, with seven chasers, on the way to the Dominion. » It is probable that the unlicensed factory ship N. T. Neilson Alonso, with hor five chasers, which has gone South from Hobart for the last two seasons, will also be operating in the Ross Sea this year. Advice has been roceived by Burns, Philp and Company, Ltd., that the Kosmos Whaling Company's Kosmos, with seven chasers, is due,at Wellington from Sandefjord, Norway, on October 5. It is understood that the Kosmos will undergo some minor repairs and take in fuel oil and fresh water before proceeding South.

The Kosmos is a remarkable vessel and is notable as being the first ship specially designed and built as a whaling factory. She is also the largest ship of her type in the world. She is a single-screw steamer of 19,000 tons gross and 17,270 tons net register, 552.7 ft. in length (between" perpendiculars), 77.4 ft. in breadth and 49.6 ft. deep. When fully loaded she displaces over 32,000 tons. Her steam is supplied by oil-fired boilers. Ample living accommodation is provided for over 300 men.

The whaling factory itself is sitnated in tho upper 'tween decks, which are over 15ft. deep, and is equipped with'a wonderful plant for rendering down tho blubber and extracting the last oupco. of oil ,from the whale carcases.