170 THE WHALE HUNTERS 



worked her engines and her factory and flensed her 

 whales. She carried scientists, meteorologists, men from 

 a film company and a young English doctor not long out of 

 medical college. Her captain and lord over all the fleet 

 of catchers was a burly Norwegian of forty; her chief 

 engineer was a small wiry Scot from Glasgow and the tall 

 mate in charge of the whaling deck could remember the 

 days when the Scottish whalers sailed from his native 

 Dundee; the factory manager was from Tonsberg and 

 almost the whole of the rank and file came from the 

 Westfold district of Norway. 



From the distance the ship herself can be distinguished 

 as a whaler chiefly by the twin funnels abreast her after 

 deckhouse and the huge square port in her stern; but on 

 board it is the uninterrupted expanse of her main deck that 

 is most noticeable. You can stand under the bridge and 

 look aft through the archway in the midships deckhouse 

 as far as the whale slip which slopes down to the sea under 

 the after deckhouse. This broad deck where the whales 

 are flensed and cut is the dividing level between the upper 

 and lower storeys of this floating industrial town. Above 

 are the quarters of the men who work the ship, the wheel- 

 house which contains every modern navigational device, 

 the numerous winches and the derricks which haul the 

 whales, the mechanical saws which cut up the bones and 

 the lifeboats which everyone hopes will never be used in 

 earnest. Below are the great oil-burning engines that 

 drive the ship and supply the power for her plant, the 

 tanks that can be used for storing either fuel or whale oil, 

 the deep holds that contain the sacks of whalemeal and 

 last of all the factory plant itself which stretches nearly the 

 whole length and breadth of the ship on the deck below the 

 whaling deck. The factory is fed with its raw material, 

 blubber, flesh and bones through the rows of circular 

 holes that can be opened in the whaling deck by removing 

 the iron discs that cover them. 



