164 THE WHALE HUNTERS 



them concessions to operate from South Georgia, one of 

 the Falkland Island Dependencies. Every season the 

 Norwegians sent more and more catchers down there. 

 At first they brought their whales to the shore for flensing 

 and the blubber was boiled in the factory on the shore in 

 the old-fashioned way. But as the area became scarce of 

 whales and they had to go further afield they began to 

 use ships of about ten thousand tons which carried the 

 factory on board. The factory ships usually had to find 

 a quiet anchorage in some bay on the Antarctic coast 

 because the open water was too rough for them to receive 

 whales and flense them alongside. Then small catchers 

 were still not fast or manoeuvrable enough to keep up with 

 the fast swimming rorquals. So they lay in wait in a 

 likely area and harpooned them as they broke surface and 

 after a bit of a battle got them alongside and took them 

 to the factory ship. They did not kill a lot by modern 

 standards and the factory ships wasted a great deal 

 because of their limited plant. By now the world wanted 

 whale oil for the newly invented margarine as well as for 

 other things Hke soap and explosives. A better kind of 

 factory ship was wanted to cope with the demand. Then 

 someone suggested that if a ship could cut her whales on 

 her decks instead of alongside she would not have to sit 

 in the quiet bays but would be able to work anywhere 

 no matter how rough the sea. So the shipbuilders went 

 to work and we moved on to the modern age of whaHng — 

 deep-sea or pelagic whaling as it is sometimes called. 



'It so happened that I went south in a catcher in 1924 

 with the first factory ship to have a whale slip built into its 

 stern. You can imagine the excitement when the first 

 whale was hauled on deck. Then there was the improved 

 factory plant and to match all this we had bigger and 

 faster catchers that were quicker on the helm. For the 

 first time we found that we could keep on to the tail of a 

 blue or a fin whale. 



