ANTARCTIC WHALING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23362, 30 November 1937, Page 11

ANTARCTIC WHALING

A HUGE INDUSTRY THE VANISHING MONSTER The history of the whaling industry, and the beginning and operation of the great expeditions of to-day which travel to the southernmost parts of the earth in search of whale oil, formed the subject of an address by Mr E. Aargaard, of Palmerston North, at a Wellington Rotary Club luncheon. In introducing Mr Aargaard, Mr F. Campbell Spratt, who presided, said that the speaker had made three voyages to the Antarctic in a whaling ship, and that his heart was still in the whaling game. Mr Aargaard said that, while most raw materials were only to be obtained in certain parts of the world, the whale was a wide traveller. The blue whale was known as the " cosmopolitan of the seas," and had been found almost everywhere where there was sea. This was the species which was most sought after to-day. The whale was a mammal, and differed from the fish in many particulars. In some points it was close to the prehistoric animals, such as the brontosaurus, and there were indications that its fins had once been leg's. But an animal of that size would be almost helpless on land. The whale had probably been driven into the sea in the struggle for existence. The blue whale, the biggest species, often attained a length of 100 feet and weighed over 100 tons. It fed on small prawns or whale food, owing to its having a gullet so small that a fish could not be forced down it. Whale food abounded in the Antarctic, where many currents united. In the off season, however, these whales travelled countless thousands of miles. ANCIENT INDUSTRY Whaling dated back many hundreds of years. It was quite a big industry in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but actually was being carried on three or four hundred years before that. The Spaniards and the Portuguese started maritime exploration on a large scale, but could not consolidate their gains. The English and Dutch went to the front in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In 1598 the Dutch discovered Spitzbergen, and later great schools of whales were found there around the fiords. Battles took place between the Dutch and English whaling fleets, and at first the Dutch were driven off. Later they returned with a small armada and drove off the English. While the fighting was going on, the Spanish boats profited greatly, but finally the Dutch and English drove them out, though the Spaniards had taught them all they knew about whaling. For about 150 years the trade went on about Spitzbergen, and it was estimated that 100,000,000 guilders worth of oil was taken out of the waters. Right and Greenland whales were the species caught in those waters, these being slow and able to be caught from rowboats. But these whales were so thinned out after a while that the search spread to many parts of the world. The industry did not wholly revive again, however, until 1868, because the other species were too fast to fall to the old weapons. In 1868 the explosive harpoon was invented, and the Norwegian coast be-

came the most popular hunting ground. After a while the cod fishermen protested, as they believed that the blood of the slaughtered whales prevented the cod from spawning, and the thin-ning-out of the whales stopped the seasonal runs of cod to the shallow waters. They were instrumental in having a Bill passed which prohibited whaling along the northern coastline of Norway., This was at first disastrous, but soon expeditions were sent to the Antarctic, and the industry built itself up into truly vast proportions. The first expedition went south about 30 years ago. Since then the vagaries of the sea currents made the introduction of a sea factory necessary. The first to be introduced was a huge tanker which was fitted out largely as an experiment. The C. A. Larsen, in which the speaker made his trips, was in 1927 the biggest factory shi" in the world, and the only one which could accommodate in her hull the entire carcass of a whale. Hence she was two or three times as efficient as the others. With her 17,000 tons she would now be only a baby, however, as the biggest factory shin afloat measured 30,000 tons „ The whales, were killed from small chasers, propelled by steam. The chasers were about 140 feet long, and measured about 360 tons. Their engines were very economical, and their speed was 13 to 14 knots. The whales were shot at by a gunner, who was also captain. Fitted with a pistol butt, the gun swivelled through 180 degrees. The harpoon weighed about 150ib, and had in its head a bomb set at three seconds, so that the explosion took place when the harpoon had been driven in. In eight cases out of 10 the kill was immediate, but when the hit was made well back the gunner had to play the whale like a big-game fish, using the chaser's foremast as a rod and the steam winch as a reel. Sometimes a whale ran out as much as a mile of line. Once killed, the whale was hauled to the surface and blown up by compressed air. When this was done it could be left to be picked up later, as internal decomposition would keep up the air pressure. The gunner's job was both interesting and remunerative. In three or four months he could earn between £3OOO and £4OOO. A good gunner was born, not made, as the secrets of the craft were kept in the old gunners' families and passed down from father to son. Only the gunner knew where the whale would break water next. He also knew that after a while a whale would travel in one direction only, and had to gauge the speed necessary to keep within effective range behind it. In this the gunner was helped by the man in the chasers' crow's-nest. The factory manager, on whom devolved the entire responsibility for the expedition, was the only one who was paid more than the gunner. His wages for about four months' work would be between £6OOO and £IO,OOO. On the factory's deck the whale wis " tried out" by means of superheated steam. Oil was worth about £25 i ton. Other parts of the whale worth about £2 to &i « ton had to fo»

dumped overboard to save space. The oil was mostly used for soap, and ono big soap concern maintained a fleet valued at £70,000, besides buying oil from Norwegian companies. The oil was also used for a variety of purposes, from candles to explosives. In conclusion, Mr Aargaard said that the industry was being very much overdone to-day, and that it was only a question of how long the whales would last. The Spitzbergen whales were extinct, and the same would happen to others unless the international conferences bore fruit.