COMMERCIAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS 



may remain here to the end of the season, about 

 April 1 2th. (See Figure 7.) 



Each year the ships concerned in whaHng are being 

 made bigger and more powerful. Thus the "Sir James 

 Clark Ross," the factory ship in the Ross Sea, is 12,450 

 tons. Even as late as 191 1, it seemed impossible to 

 us on the ''Terra Nova" to get an iron steamer through 

 the pack ice, yet these whalers have suffered no disaster 

 to date. The Norwegians now have three land stations 

 in the Antarctic, eighty-five whale catchers and twenty- 

 four floating factories. Some factories do not ap- 

 proach land at all, but drag the one hundred foot whale 

 right on board for flensing and cutting up. One of 

 these boats is said to be 22,000 tons register. 



It is difficult to say how long the industry will last 

 under this terriflc onslaught. The humpback was the 

 chief prey till 191 2 as it was the easiest to catch, but 

 it is now much less abundant. The blue whale and the 

 finback are the mainstays of the Antarctic whaling 

 to-day. Last season whale oil worth three and a half 

 million dollars was brought back from southern waters. 

 The oil sells at about 100 to 150 dollars a ton and 

 is used for soap and lubricants and to replace tallow, 

 lard, and margarine. The yearly output is still increas- 

 ing, and between 1906 and 1927 the following was the 

 harvest of oil : South Georgia, 3,830,000 barrels; South 

 Shetland (Deception Island), 2,645,000 barrels; and 

 Ross Sea, 199,000 barrels. It is stated that twenty 

 thousand whales have been killed in the Antarctic seas 

 in recent years. Suarez in his report to the League Qf 



223 



