WHALING CREWS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 83, 31 December 1937, Page 6

WHALING CREWS

Norwegian Monopoly CHANGE FOR. NEW SEASON LONDON, Dec. 11. The hazardous job of whale-hunting in the Antarctic will be begun in earnest this month by 10,000 men of sevep nationalities. The season will start without the serious labour difficulties of last year, arising from the dispute between the British and .Norwegian Governments on the output quota, which led to the Norwegian unions declaring a blockade of English boats, and the English companies retaliating by threatening to take on British crews for their whalers, whose personnel had hitherto been praetically 100 per cent. Norwegian. As a result of the agreement the 12 "factory", §hips operated by British whaling companies will have crews composed of 25 per eent. British sailors, while 75 per cent. remain Norwegian, states the Evening Standard. Monopoly Broken. A director of a big British whaling company stated that the important positions carrying the money were still held by Norwegians, and that this was likely to be the case for some years, "We have some good British sailors in our expedition," he said, "but the Norwegians have been at it all their lives and it takes a long time to train a man for whaling. Still, the Norwegian monopoly has been broken." Japanese expeditions, he said, were using Japanese gunners this year, and there was no reason why British companies should not use British seamen. The question of training them had not been shelved by any means. Commenting on the reported shortage of expert "gunners" . for the 'catcher" boats this year, he said: — "There has been an all-round increase in the number of catchers attached to mother ships this season, an increase from 180 catchers to 250. As a result there is a shortage of expert gunners to fill the extra boats "

"Gunner's" Wages. A harpooner, or "gunner" can .earn from £1000 to £2000 a season. In the "boom" years of 1920-21 Norwegian experts earned as much as £15.000 a year on the bonus basis. A question worrying the industry is the shortage of whales. An expert stated: "Whereas in past seasons we have been allowed to take blue whales over 65ft. in length, this year, by international agreement, the minimum length has been increased to 70ft. "The difficulty is whether a gunner will be able to tell the diiference of 5ft. before he harpoons the animal." The season ends on March 15.