WHALING OF TO-DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1435, 9 May 1912, Page 2

WHALING OF TO-DAY.

REVIVAL OF THE INDUSTRY. MODEIiX .METHODS. Willi the decay of llw Uritish whaling industry—Diimk'c is now I lie only port in Great Britain which still possesses ;i whaling fleet—ninny people (says the "Jlanchestfr Guardian , '; .suppose that the ivlialniß industry itst-ll has shrunken, but Mr. J'liradorc E." .Salvvwn, our f-rcatost authority on the subject, said on March 27 at the Royal Society of Arts, in the course of ,-, fu<:cinntinjr address on "The Whaling Industry of To-day," that during the Inst Ihrpo or four years the indusiry, conducted on ihqdern lint's, has developed enormously. This is chiefly due to two causes. One is the discovery by the Norwi'giim Svend I'oyn and the subsequent improvement of a contrivance for killing and securing tho large fiiiner wlnile, which up to ISB6 was not limited kreuuse when dead it sinks am! its weight would haui under any rowing boat secured to it. The other cause is the development within the past eight years of the whaling industry in the Southern Hemisphere. The tirecnlaiid whale is now hunted by only five baiijiie-rigye.'l, wooden, mixiliury steam, ice-protected i vessels of about 4110 tons gro.-s. About fifty vessels, mainly saiiers, hunt the bottle-nosed whale in the .Norwegian Sea, but'last year's take was only !H)l) tons of.oil. Iceland HMids out 27 steam whalers belonging to six companies, but the industry is declining, and the same may be. said of whaling off the Fame 1.-lanris and .Sjiitzbergcii. Eleven steamers' work Øog Shetland and Hie. Hebrides, and in 190!) two stations were erected on the west of Ireland with licenses lor five whalers, but the return has boon unsatisfactory. Across the Atlantic only five whalers remain of tho large Newfoundland fleet, itn<l various recent efforts in the St. Lawrence Hivcr and the. Davis Straits have had little success. In tho North Pacific, Sun Francisco, and New Ilcdfoi'd have still a number of old-fashioned wooden barques—nil that is left of the 827 sail that" worked these seas in 1840. Ten modern liritish Ciihi!iibii:i whalers, however, have had prosperous seasons oil the Aillska coast. A HARVEST IN SOUTHERN SEAS. The great increase in the whaling industry has come from the Southern Hemisphere. The island of South Georgia, where it van initiated :ibout eight years ago, has disclosed the most lucrative grounds yet known. Eight coiujmijies are working twenty-one whaling steamers. At the South Shetland? nnu Graham Iximl (en licenses have been granted by the British Government for thirty steam whalers. In the Falkland Islands a British company operates five whalers. In the South'of Chile, in the Magellan Straits, one company has its station and factory, and two others are situated on the west coast of Chile. African whaling was started about four years ago in Durban, and the success was so striking that we have companies operating at Lobita, three in Klephnnt Day, one in Mossamedes (a Portuguese company), one in Port Alexander, and one in Tiger Day— a!} in Portuguese West Africa. .Concessions have l>een granted for Wnlfisch May, and probably whaling will be begun there during the coming season. Two companies work from Suldnnha Bay, one from Slossd Bay on the south coast, and three from Durban. Altogether thirty whalers were employed off South Africa, but during the coining season this number will be greatly augmented. Alrendy several largo ventures have been, started fo exploit the water o round the Australian continent, Tasmania, New Zealand, and other islands. A WHALE HUNT. The lecturer gave an exciting account of the hunt, of the large fiiiner whale. Tho vessel is a little- over 100 ft. long, with a breadth o$ about 20ft., decked all over ■ find cut away fore and aft. The harpoon, which is about 6ft. in length, and weighs about a hundredweight, lias four prongs which spring out at. right; angles while the line is tightened after the harpoon is in the whole's body. On the top of the harpoon is an explosive shell. A )arge steam winch -iseyfitted sibnft the mast, and along "Flic-"keelson aro arranged double rows of steel springs. When the whale is killed it sinks, drawing with it the whale line paid out from the winch. The vessel is brought to a standstill, and when the lino is vortical it is wound in and the whale brought to the surface. The steel springs compensate for the rise and fall of tire whaler on the waves. To make tho carcass float and lessen the towing weight a hole is pierced into the lungs or stomach, and the whale is inflated l>y ■ a steam air Bump. If the whale is not shot dead on ie spot, the gunner has to play it like a. salmon by manipulating the steam winch and the steamer's engine. Very oftea the line is snapped, and this is as often the case with a record whale as with a record salmon. Killing and taking whales by rowing- boat is still practised, by the way, by some Dundee whalers.

.As to the value of (ho industry, Mr. Ralvesen mentioned (hat last season the total capture of al! the 120 strain whalers in the ''Northern Hemisphere was 5000 whales, .yielding about 15G,000 barrels of oi! of n value of ,£625,000. In (he Southern Hemisphere the nineteen South Georgia whalers alone caught 7000 whnks yielding 200,000 barrels, or nearly 40 per cent more oil than the combined captures of the whole of the. Northern fleets.