WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 19 



seas in numbers, and big Finners or Rorquals in the Antarctic 

 seas by the thousand. So we blow big smokes in the chart- 

 room and draw plans in the sketch-book of a new type of 

 whaler. And she will be a beauty ! 



The Haldane we are on is second to none of the modern 

 kind of steam-whaler, and we have killed many whales with 

 her up to seventy or eighty tons in weight. But she requires 

 to be frequently fed with coal, and has to tow her catch 

 ashore, possibly one or two whales, or even three at a time, 

 for thirty, forty or even ninety miles to leave them to be cut 

 up at the station. 



We plan a vessel that shall be able to keep the sea for a 

 long time without calling for fuel like these Swedish motor- 

 boats, and that will hunt whales and seals round the world, 

 and carry the oil and bone of its catch on board. 



Can there be any drawing more fascinating than the de- 

 signing of a new type of vessel for whaling round the world, 

 for warm seas where the grass and barnacles will grow on 

 her keel, and for high latitudes where cold seas and perhaps 

 ice will polish her plates all clean again ? 



So after some more whaling and planning, round the 

 Shetlands in fine weather and storm, the writer goes south 

 with rough plans, and in a few days two good men and true 

 have agreed to be directors of a little whaling company ; 

 and, the whaling season over, Henriksen goes home to Norway, 

 and with a shipbuilder they draw out our plan in detail, for 

 a new patent Diesel motor- whaler for hunting all kinds of 

 whales and whaling-grounds round the world, a combination 

 of the old style and new, with sails and motor to sail round 

 the world if need be with never a call at any port for food 

 or fuel. 



All winter Henriksen the whaler and another Henriksen 

 a shipbuilder toiled at the planning and building of the St 

 Ebba, Henriksen driving every day from his farm five miles 

 into Tonsberg with his sleigh behind slow Swartzen ; and the 

 writer pursued his calling in Edinburgh, receiving occasionally 

 fascinating drawings or detail plans of the whaler in white 

 line on blue paper, and then he joined Henriksen in summer 

 in South Norway and both together they drove out and in to 



