WHALING FLEET

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19137, 5 October 1936, Page 12

WHALING FLEET

EfcCTORY AND CHASERS

Latest equipment

SHIPS

. Equibpeil :with alt tlifc latest gear Cor the' Scientific capture .and treatment ol the British-owned factory-ship Anglo-Norse with her fleet of six swift chasers arrived at Wellington last week. '! -Like; many vessels engaged it:, the whaling'industry, the Anglo-Noise is-a converted'ship. She was originally built in 1914 as an oil tanker, being christened Majricopa. For several years* she plied her trade, as an oil-carrier, but some time ago was altered to conform with the idea of what a modern whaler should be,...;„... .'....:... . ■:. ;.

"Ay-isthe. case with most up-to-date. whaTmg" snips, she has a large slipway bnilfe iinto'heY stern up which the carcases of whales are drawn by powerful wrochesto a special deck where flensing And' cutting the blubber in preparation for the"'boiling-down process are carried 6nt<.

*TrhY- small, swift chasers, somewhat resembling mine-sweepers, are used to taut-down the whales, and when they are -within striking distance the gun is discharged, sending its powerful harpoon into the- great mammal. The whaling gun was invented in 1864 by a Norwegian sailor, Svendi Foyn, but its cababilities were not at first rea-lised, and it was not until about 1380 that any considerable development took place. Following the general adoption of the gun, whaling developed with remarkable rapidity. .::;:_ less risk now ;'/2he gun is mounted at the bow of the chaser, and shoots a harpoon to which,a' rope is attached. The harpoon is'itipped with a hollow point called the,bomb. The bomb bursts after the ' harpoon .strikes the whale, and often kills -it instantaneously. Ooiled on a pan in.' the bows is a quantity ol especially strong rope, the foreganger. Prom this pan the rope passes aft to a. winch, which serves to haul in the whale,, when it is dead. The chasers do not" carry out any of the cutting or . boiling-down operations on the whales, but—bring them to the mother-ship, where" they are hauled up the slipway and" treated. .* "Whaling to-day with equipment such as is possessed by the Anglo-Norse and her • chasers is a very different matter .fr^tHUthe', hazardous "calling of earlier years. Scientific invention has now resulted in the chasing of whales being attendant with less risks than previously*,* although it is still a hard life, with its full share of solid toil. However, life--on a modern ship of 8000 tons is Vary different from that experienced on a- small wooden sailing vessel of several hundred tons, into which were crammed it. mixed crew of half a hundred tiationalities. . .

4 "Xhe development of the modern chaser has banished for ever the former fear of the; small rowing craft being dashed to pieces by an ocean giant, and if a chaser is" fist Jhese.days, an occurrence which liirysry rare, it is almost invariably /through contact with ice. 'jWhde the Anglo-Norse is in Wellington'the opportunity will be taken to place.the six chasers on the patent slip, where they will be overhauled and painted in preparation for their long Slay-'ih the Antarctic regions.