324 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



An early attempt, perhaps the earliest, at true pelagic whaling in the Antarctic ap- 

 pears to have been made at the beginning of the season 1912-13, when the factories 

 began fishing on the ice-edge before the pack had cleared away from the land and ob- 

 tained about two thousand barrels of oil before reaching harbour. 



Table I shows the Norwegian Companies actually working, together with the floating 

 factories which they employed, during the first four seasons of whaling at the South 

 Orkneys. 



The 'Falkland' and 'Normanna' were torpedoed and lost during the war. 



One company only, the Tonsberg Hvalfangeri of Tonsberg, held a permanent base 

 at the South Orkneys during the ten seasons of the period 1920-30.^ A transport or 

 floating factory was sent annually to Borge Bay on the north-eastern side of Signy 

 Island, where whaling was carried on for some time in conjunction with a small land 

 station but latterly by floating factory alone. This company achieved greater success 

 than any of its predecessors, partly owing to its more up-to-date equipment and partly 

 because the seasonal catch of whales was generally augmented to a greater or less extent 

 by pelagic fishing at the ice-edge while waiting for the islands to become clear. The land 

 station built in the season 1920-1 was only of secondary' importance. By dealing with 

 carcases already stripped of their blubber by the attending transport or floating factory 

 it was able to augment the quantity of oil produced on board. It was never very effi- 

 cient, and had apparently ceased to operate in the season 1925-6 when a floating factory 

 arrived with an equipment more complete than that of her predecessors and the land 

 station became no longer necessary. During these ten years the Tonsberg company sent 

 three different vessels to Borge Bay : first the transport ' Teie ' followed by the converted 

 transport 'Orwell' (now 'Congo'), and latterly the present larger and more up-to-date 

 'Orwell', which replaced her earlier namesake in the season 1925-6 and continued to 

 fish annually at the South Orkneys until the season 1929-30 when territorial whaling 

 was abandoned there. 



The species of whales commonly found in other parts of the Dependencies were taken 

 at the South Orkneys, viz., Blue and Fin whales and Humpbacks, with a very occasional 

 Sperm, Right, or Bottlenose. As a rule Fin whales predominated, especially in the very 

 open or ice-free years, while Blue whales were generally in the majority when the islands 

 were much congested with pack. The Humpback formed quite an important constituent 

 of the catch during the first three seasons (191 1-14) of the pre-war period, but thereafter 

 very few were taken. "^ 



1 Other floating factories, however, both British and Norwegian, notably the 'Lancing', 'Southern 

 Queen ', ' Sevilla ', ' Saragossa ' and ' Solstreif ', began to fish in a pelagic or semi-pelagic way in the neighbour- 

 hood of the islands during and immediately after the season 1925-6 when pelagic whaling was in the initial 

 stages of its development. 



- For whaling statistics see Report of the Interdepartmejital Committee on Research a?id Development in the 

 Dependencies of the Falkland Islands, Appendix v, p. 61 ; and also Harmer, S. F., 1928, The History of Whaling, 

 Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond., p. 93. 



