STEEL SHIPS AND HELICOPTERS I7I 



The Wanderer put into Leith in Scotland to complete her 

 final preparations at the whaling company's headquarters 

 and then with all the paraphernalia of modern whaling 

 heaped upon her spacious deck she steamed south to take 

 on fuel oil at Fawley in the Southampton Water. 



Down channel she groped her way through a dense 

 November fog and in mountainous seas in the Bay of 

 Biscay was joined by two of the catchers which had been 

 undergoing repairs in South Shields. 



There was no mistaking those fast cheeky little four- 

 hundred-ton ships with their catwalks reaching from 

 bridge to gun platform and their narrow hulls low in the 

 middle and rising steeply to the bows. Carl knew only 

 too well how uncomfortable life must be on board those 

 catchers at that moment as he watched them plunging 

 into waves that sometimes seemed to wash right over them. 



During the passage the whole area of the Wanderer^ s 

 broad whaling deck and every other deck and alleyway 

 where the spiked boots of the whalemen would tread 

 during the fishing season were covered with a protective 

 layer of planking to avoid damaging the permanent 

 wooden decks. 



The big ship with two of her children at her heel sailed 

 over the blue sea of the tropics and through the Roaring 

 Forties till she found the rest of her brood waiting for her 

 off the island of New Georgia. There was a big tanker 

 with them, ready to refill the Wanderer's fuel tanks. 



Catcher No. 9 waited her turn and then came alongside. 

 Carl with all his belongings climbed into a huge basket 

 which was swung by a derrick off the Wanderer's deck and 

 down to the catcher lying under her tall iron sides. 

 Between the two a large newly killed sperm whale acted as 

 a fender. On the catcher's bridge Carl was greeted 

 warmly by the bearded mate who handed over command. 

 Then when the catcher had taken the rest of her crew, 

 her harpoons, ammunition, food and other stores Carl 



