263 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



oil is extracted from the blubber, flesh, viscera and bones. Further back from the 

 beach are a number of large tanks used for storing the oil. Various other buildings, 

 such as living quarters, workshops, forges, store sheds, etc., bring the station up to the 

 dimensions of a moderate-sized village. Altogether two or three hundred men are 

 employed there. 



Near the flensing platform is constructed a wharf or jetty for the accommodation of the 

 whale boats and transport steamer. The latter is usually an oil tanker of about 8000 tons 

 register which brings coal and other stores out to South Georgia and oil back to Europe. 

 Two trips are generally made each year. The transport leaves South Georgia at the 

 end of the season (usually the middle of May) with a full cargo of oil and with the 

 majority of the men employed on the station. A few are left behind over the winter 

 to take charge of the station and to prepare for the next season's work. In the following 

 October the ship returns and within a few days whaling commences. 



The floating factories are vessels of about 10,000 tons or more, and are equipped 

 with all the necessary plant for the treatment of the carcasses. Their working expenses 

 are less than those of a shore station, but their capacity is also less, and they are not 

 able to utilize the carcass to the fullest advantage. The subject of floating factories, 

 however, may be dimissed for the present as our own work has been conducted ex- 

 clusively at land stations. 



At King Edward's Cove four whale boats are employed by the Cia Argentina de 

 Pesca. These boats spend nearly their whole time at sea, though they return to the 

 station with their catches after an absence of from one to about three days. Usually 

 they arrive during the night and are away again before dawn. Whales are generally 

 to be found between ten and forty miles from the coast, and one or two at a time are 

 usually brought in by the boats, though if they are only to be found a long way off 

 the boats stay out longer and bring in a larger catch. It is desirable, however, that 

 a whale should be brought back fairly soon after it is killed as decomposition sets in 

 very rapidly, and, owing to the higher percentage of fatty acid which is formed, the 

 value of the oil is seriously reduced in a whale which has been dead for several days. 

 When whales are first brought in they are moored temporarily near the flensing plat- 

 form, and when work starts in the morning they are hauled out of the water one by 

 one and cut up with flensing knives aided by steam winches. By this means the biggest 

 whale can be completely disposed of in little more than two hours. Work at the station 

 commences at 6 a.m. and continues until 6 p.m. with intervals for meals. In the course 

 of a day about twelve average sized whales can be dealt with, since work can be started 

 on a second whale when the first is half finished. 



The method of dealing with the carcass is as follows. A steel hawser connected with 

 a powerful electric winch is attached to the whale's tail, and the body is drawn up 

 until it is completely out of the water. It is now almost invariably lying half on its 

 back and half on one side. Three long slits are cut in the blubber from the head to the 

 tail, one from near the eye down the shoulder and flank (now the top of the whale) 

 and the other two from the chin on one side and near the blowhole on the other side, 



