Tivilight in the South 325 



Compania Argentina de Pesca in 1903 to exploit the whaling grounds 

 around the South Georgia Islands (see map page 327). His primary 

 objective at that time was to get the Norsk chasers to work in places 

 where whales were more numerous than in the North Atlantic. 

 This he accomplished, and his initiative resulted in an extension 

 of these enterprises to the Falkland, South Shetland, South Orkney, 

 and South Sandwich Islands. These activities, however, constituted 

 nothing more than another step in the world-encircling progress 

 of the Norwegian whaling monopoly in its primary phase of 

 shore-based operations. Similar moves were being made through- 

 out the world, as we have already seen, but about this time they all 

 began to concentrate on the Antarctic Ocean. The whales — specifi- 

 cally the rorquals — were already diminishing in numbers progres- 

 sively from the north to the south. Then came the First World War. 



By the end of the war the age-old problem had again arisen. 

 There were already insufficient whales, not only in the north, but 

 even in the south, to keep the shore stations economically employed. 

 What was worse, there were so many stations, while the ships they 

 employed were, by that time, so efficient and could range so far, 

 that their activities had become almost contiguous all around the 

 southern oceans. Only two alternatives remained. Either a truly 

 efficient factory ship had to be developed and paid for, or a new 

 supply of whales had to be found. As we have seen, the very idea of 

 the former had overwhelmed the industry. Thus, at that time, only 

 the second alternative seemed to remain. 



In 1922, Captain Larsen took up the challenge and at the same 

 time tackled singlehanded the first alternative. He raised the capital 

 to finance the assembly in Tasmania of a small fleet, consisting of a 

 twelve-thousand-ton freighter, which he bought from the British 

 Government, and five little whale chasers commanded by the best 

 gunners he could find. The latter came from as far away as Alaska 

 and Norway. He had converted the freighter into the first real float- 

 ing whale factory, using the very best equipment then known, and 

 he sailed the whole fleet to the Ross Sea within the antarctic ice. 

 This was the first modern whaling expedition and the true begin- 

 ning of the last phase of both Norwegian whaling and whaling his- 

 tory as a whole. It was of enormous significance but was itself a 

 complete failure both from an economic point of view and, to a 



