WHALES IN THE ANTARCTIC

Otago Witness, Issue 3865, 10 April 1928, Page 36

WHALES IN THE ANTARCTIC

NEW NORWEGIAN COMPANY. TO OPERATE NEXT SEASON. WELLINGTON, April 3. The fleets of Norwegian whalers operating the Antarctic regions will be increased next season by yet another large factory ship with her attendant chasers. A new whaling company, Bruun and Von Der Lippe, has been formed with headquarters at Tonsberg, Norway, arid this firm has purchased the New Zealand Shipping Company’s steamed Opawa, which is to be equipped as a whale oil refinery, and the ship will proceed to the Antarctic at the latter end of this year. It is not yet known where the new company will operate, whether in the Ross Sea area, or in the region below Cape Horn and South Georgia. The company which operates the C. A. Larsen and Sir James Clarke Ross was licensed for 21 years by the British Government to catch whales in the Ross Sea area, and pays a royaltv on the whale oil to the New Zealand Government. The company which operates the N. T. Nilsson Alonso and her chasers, makes Hobart southern headquarters. The ships of this company work to some extent in the Ross Sea. but pay no royalty. The Opawa, which was built in 1906 for the New Zealand Shipping Company by Messrs Denny and Bros., Dumbarton, is a twin-screw cargo steamer of 9297 tons gross register, and for some 20 years was regularly employed in the New Zea land trade. More recentlv the Opawa traded between the United Kingdom and Australia.