310 ANTSrUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1942 



with a total loss of a million dollars to the owners. A few of these 

 whaling ships continued whaling after 1900, but the great days of the 

 southern right whale and sperm whale fishery have long since passed 

 into memory. 



The rise, climax, and decline of the whaling industry has been reen- 

 acted time and again as the result of overfishing for particular kinds 

 of whales, not only in the Southern Hemisphere but in all the waters 

 of the world. 



The modern period of whaling, however, began some 72 years ago 

 with the invention of a swivel harpoon gun by a Norwegian named 

 Svend Foyn. It was not the swivel gun alone, but the explosive head 

 which w^as fitted to the harpoon that enabled the whaler to master the 

 huge furrow-throated whales. The rope attached lo the harpoon was 

 strong enough to raise the carcass to the surface where it was inflated 

 with air, so that it would float. 



At the beginning of the twentieth century it became apparent that 

 new methods of operating were necessary, if the industry was to avail 

 itself of opportunities in more distant fields. Hence in 1904 an enter- 

 prising Norwegian operator converted the steamer Adiniralen into a 

 floating factory and began whaling around Spitzbergen. Having 

 found that a floating factory was free to move as conditions required, 

 the Admiralen began whaling operations in the Antarctic near the 

 Falkland Islands in 1905. The whaling tackle used in this fishery 

 during the first few years was not suited for taking such powerful 

 whales as the blue whale, which reaches a length of 100 feet. Soon, 

 however, whale-catcher boats with adequate equipment were built. 



A modern whale catcher is a steamship somewhat similar to a trawler, 

 but equipped with more powerful engines. It carries a crew of 13 to 19 

 men, including the master and gunner, and at least 1 cook, 2 firemen, 

 3 engineers, 6 sailors and a wireless operator, all of whom live in the 

 most crowded quarters imaginable. Mounted in the bow of one of these 

 boats is a maneuverable cannon that fires a harpoon weighing more 

 than 100 pounds, and is fitted with strong hinged barbs that open after 

 it has entered the body of the whale. The head of the harpoon also 

 contains an explosive grenade that is fired by contact with the whale. 

 The gunner, assisted by the lookouts in the crow's nest, scans the ice- 

 filled waters of the Antarctic, the richest of all whaling grounds, for 

 his quarry. Wlien a whale is sighted the pursuit continues relentlessly 

 until the victim is harpooned. 



Once the harpoon has reached its mark, the whale is doomed, and 

 although it may dive to some depth in its death throes, it is slowly but 

 surely drawn to the surface by the steam winches of the whale-catcher 

 boat. Usually the next step is to haul the dead whale alongside the 

 whale-catcher boat where a hollow lance attached to a compressed-air 

 hose is trust into the body in order to inflate the carcass so that it will 



