WHALING IN THE ANTARCTIC

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20895, 26 November 1937, Page 15

WHALING IN THE ANTARCTIC

A HUGE INDUSTRY 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 legs. 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 fist could not be forced down it. Whale food abounded in the Antarctic, where many currents united. In the oil-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 Spltzbergen. 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 Spltzbergen, 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 wholes 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 became the most popular hunting ground. After a while the cod fishermen protested, as they believed that the blood of slaughtered whales prevented the cod from spawning, and the thinningout 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 thirty 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. “A Mere Baby” The C. A. Larsen, In which the speaker made his trips, was in 1927 the biggest factory ship 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 ship 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 whale 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 1501 b, ano had in Its head b time bomb set at

all the records come to the General Post Office. They are recorded on the punched cards, which can be put through the tabulator to ascertain the financial results of a particular period, or the sorting machine may be set to select the transactions of a particular office, when the cards containing entries from that point will infallibly be selected from the great pile of Dominion records at the rate of 25,000 an hour, and the details are ready for tabulation.

One can only touch the fringe of the possibilities of financial analysis by the mechanical system, and actually conducted by the Post Office In its close watch on the cost and revenue from all phases of its great public service. The extent of the work in the mechanical section of the G.P.O. finance branch is to be gauged from the use of five million record cards in the tabulating machines annually—five million transactions each involving more than one entry. Not only for accountancy, but for costing and statistical purposes the machine is producing results at a pace which leaves the manual system so far behind that, leaving out the consideration of the cost of the necessary armyof book-keepers, the old method could only get the same results too late to be of effective use In checking up the progress of business, and long after the figures required in the PostmasterGeneral's Annual Report have to be submitted to Parliament.