IN THE ANTARCTIC

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3305, 4 June 1931, Page 6

IN THE ANTARCTIC

THE FIRST WOMAN TO VENTURE.

Women have invaded many of the spheres once the olose preserves of men; but whaling and exploration in the Antarctic were until this year activities in which they had no part. The two Norwegian women who recently arrived in Capetown after a six weeks’ trip through the whaling regions of the Antarctic travelled only as sightseers, and probably would not have gained that privilege if their husbands were not important whaling magnates. None the less, the romantic voyage of Mrs L. Christensen and Mrs M. Wegger marks a new achievement for their sex.

Few men have travelled so far south to the dreaded iceberg regions, where whales, seals, and penguins have the world almost to themselves. Icebergs and icefloes of many amazing shapes were seen by these women, and their colours and formations inspired many expressions of wonder. No other women have seen the black peaks and snoW-covered valleys of Enderby Land, or fed penguins below the Antarctic Circle. Ten penguins were brought back by the ladies, and in feeding them Mrs Wegger damaged her forefinger.

Old whaling men in Capetown docks speak of the “ Roaring Forties ” and the “ Furious Fifties, but it is a new experience to hear of women recalling the fury with which these winds range over the ocean. The women's farthest south was latitude 63 degrees, where the bergs were so high that often they reached far above the bridge of the oil transport Thorshavn, a large vessel of its kind. These and other sights were compared with what the women had seen of Iceland and the Faroe Islands, and they agreed that the Antarctic had more wonders to reveal. WHALING.

For five days these women travelled on a little whaler during a chase for whales, and may be the first women to have taken part in one of these thrilling hunts. While the women were on the ship five whales were harpooned by the gunner, and subsequently towed to the factory ship, where the processes carried out at sea were watched by the fair voyagers. Undfir modern conditions the whale has few chances, but for all that the women in the little steamer ran considerable risk. A blow from the huge tail of one of the mammals is sometimes sufficiently powerful to damage a vessel seriously, but the whale rarely strikes near enough for that. After the harpoon struck, the women saw the water lashed to a creamy lather and later smeared with blood as the whale weakened and the blowhole spouted red. When the catch had been shackled beside the ship a compressed air pipe was driven into the blubber and the carcase pumped up until it floated easily.

-BLEAK REGIONS. These women have probably seen more of whales than other members of their sex. Of course, whales are found in many parts of the world, in temperate and tropic seas as well as in polar waters. But their types appear to vary with the region. The most valuable is the sperm whale, the cachelot of fiction. From its blubber sperm oil is gained, and from the great hollow in the upper section of the skull a form of fat is obtained that, after refinement, provides spermaceti. This is of great commercial value. The cachelot is now never harpooned in northern waters, and for this reason has been seen by comparatively few women. A couple of years ago a few South African women spent an uncomfortable season on windy Kerguelen Island, but in spite of this enterprise and that of the two Norwegian women whose exploit forms the excuse for this article, the fairer sex is not yet likely to make many visits to the cold and bleak southern polar regions. Although these women did not find the temperature unbearably cold, except when the ,wind blew, it is often so. They were fortunate in venturing into the Antarctic during a particularly mild season.