p 495 



(4) Five of the 7 German whalingmen swore they never saw a Panamanian 

 inspector on the flensing deck. ,. , ^^ . ^v. inK^ /kk 



(5) False catch reports were submitted to Sandefjord. During the 1954/55 

 season the Olympic Challenger reported catching 170 hump-back whales. In 

 reality it caught 1,125. To hide this the ship reported 700 more fin whales than it 

 had killed. The baleen-whale oil produced illegally off Peru was reported as sperm 

 oil. It was also necessary therefore to falsify the sperm-whale catch in the 



(6) By sending in falsified reports on the size of the catch the Olympic Chal- 

 lenger caused the 1954-55 season to be declared closed before the 15,500 blue- 

 whale-unit was actually reached. The Olympic Challenger continued whaling 

 after the other expeditions headed home and killed an additional 12 blue whales 

 and 13 fin whales. 



(7) The Olympic Challenger violated the opening and closing dates of the 

 whaling seasons 1950/51 and 1952/53. (Proof of other infractions in these earlier 

 years is lacking.) 



The following procedures, while not infractions in themselves, were enforced 

 on the Olympic Challenger apparently to prevent disclosure of infractions 



(1) It was forbidden to photograph baleen plates. The reason is obvious: the 

 color, size, and shape of baleen plates are reliable indicators of the age and 

 species of whales. 



(2) The entrails of baby whales were processed in cooker No. 8 on the Olympic 

 Challenger before being jettisoned. Unprocessed baby entrails would float for 

 some time and be evidence of illegal whaling. 



As evidence of serious infractions by the Panamanian factory ship became 

 available, the Norwegian government lodged protests with the Panamanian gov- 

 ernment. These overtures produced no results. The Federation of Norwegian 

 whaling companies decided to take independent action because by its reckoning 

 the Olympic Challenger since 1950 had produced illegally some 217,000 barrels of 

 oil worth about N.kr.60 million. The Norwegian companies, through court action, 

 caused the seizure in Hamburg of 9,000 tons of whale oil belonging to the Olympic 

 Whaling Company. The whale oil, they claimed, was the equivalent in value of the 

 damages they had suffered as a result of illegal whaling by the Olympic Chal- 

 lenger. The Norwegian whaling companies, again by court action, had the 

 Olympic Challenger and its oil seized in Rotterdam. The charge here was breach 

 of whaling regulations during the 1952-53 season. Onassis countered by going 

 to court and having the Norwegian factory ship Kosmos III seized as security 

 for his claim of 10 million guilders against the Norwegians, a sum equal to the 

 Norwegian claims against his company. The corporate legal battle that followed 

 was conducted for the most imrt in secret. No trials were held. Anders Jahre 

 representing the Norwegian companies and Onassis representing the Olympic 

 Whaling Company reached a private settlement. The Norwegians paid $1 million 

 and the Olympic Whaling Company paid $3 million to a special fund for the 

 Norwegian whaling industry. This special fund was used to construct a luxury 

 hotel with oflice space for the Association of Norwegian Whaling Companies in 

 Sandefjord, Norway. 



The out-of-court settlement of the Olympic Challenger affair caused considerable 

 discontent in Norway. Whalingmen were angry because they received no com- 

 pensation for the loss in wages they had suffered. Public opinion, as expressed 

 in many newspapers, was almost equally critical. Norway, it was reasoned, had 

 developed the pelagic whaling industry and shown t'he way to others. Norwegian 

 whalers obeyed the rules while others disobeyed them with impunity. During the 

 summer of 1956 the Olympic Challenger and its catchers were sold to a Japanese 

 company, and the Olympic Whaling Company ceased all whaling activities. This 

 was interpreted in t'he Norwegian press as an indicator that Onassis was getting 

 out of the whaling business because of the adverse publicity resulting from the 

 disclosure of so -many infractions committed by his company. Onassis's payment 

 of $3 million to the special fund was also seen as an admission of illegal whal- 

 ing. A more logical explanation for the sale is that Onassis was astute enough 

 to find more remunerative investment opportunities for the funds tied up in 

 his Olympic Whaling Company. There is some indication that after the first 

 few seasons the whaling operation was not regarded by its backers as a booming 

 busine.ss venture. During the 1953/.^4 whaling season the Olympic Challenger 

 was used not for whaling but as an oil tanker. Furthermore, statistics show that 

 the Panamanian whaling fleet was not very eflBcient. While off the coast of Peru 

 the Olympic Challenger killed 680 baleen whales (enumerated above) for a total 



