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Hokitika Guardian, 8 April 1924, Page 3

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AUitWAi H TIAJ-iEiLS. IN v EuD-vuGi jli,, April 5. 1 ue aim at ai j'ateisoil’s mice, art lsiand, on Thursday, or uie -Norwegian wlialo expedition to Ross Sea manes an interesting revival ot whaling activities. the expedition which

consists oi me parent ship, James Clark floss, and a licet of whale eliaseio, is working on a three year permit from ilie New Zealand Government and is to nntsn up in Die cold icebound southern waters. Alltogether the fleet consists of six vessels. The James Clark floss, the parent ship, is of 13,000 tons. I lie vessel is known familiarv as " l lie Factory.” There are five wnale chasers named respectively Star 1,2, 3, and I. Star lis the biggest, a compact little craft of 133 tons, fitted with 550 horse-fiower engines and capable of attaining a speed of 11 knots per hour. The other four are slightly smaller, the smallest being about 53

tons register. hourly in 102,3 the Larsen Company ot Norway, decided to embark on this enterprise, which is to extend over a period of three years. The company utter had a factory ship and two whale chasers which laid up at Sundesjord. Norway. They purchased from a United .States whaling company the small boats known as the Stars 1, ”, and 3. which left Seattle for Hobart four months later, where they met the James (’lari; Ross, which had come from Norway round Cape Horn, and the other Stars, 1 and 5, which had taken the Slice, route to the Tasmanian port. At the beginning of November, 1923,

the fleet let t Hobart for Mact,hinrrie Island, and from there proceeded to Ross Sea, and lor live months whaling operations have been actively carried on. Lying in calm waters of Paterson's Inlet, the fleet makes a romantic picture tar surpassing any of the scenes of the old whaling days. Interviewed, . Captain Larsen stated that they had been unfortunate in striking a very cold spell in Ross Sea, which drove the whales away from their usual feeding grounds owing to the fact that the small fish on which they feed were not present in any quantity. I he temperature of the w ater was .several degrees below zero. Of course they had some experiences during their live months’ sojourn in the Antarctic neighbourhood, the most notable being when Star 3, while drifting in a mist, ran right under an ice harrier. The collision resulted in the smashing ofTof a mast. The James Clark Ross also got into difficulties on one occasion, when drifting, being finally brought to anchor in 390 fathoms of water.

During the voyage, he said. 221 blue whales were captured. The blue whale the captain explains, is the biggest of the family. Numbers of finbacks were also caught. The blue whales were valuable prizes, as they varied in length from St to 9S feet, and in weight from 75 tons to 15(1 tons. The biggest mammal was taken alone, and yielded ISO barrels or 30 tons of oil. Tho total quantity of oil saved was 17.000 barrels. Then, in addition there were the by-products, including the commodity known ns ••whalebone” used in the manufacture of brushes, combs, etc..

and a. fertiliser prepared from the remainder of the carcase.

A visit to the factory ship does not fail to impress on one the difference between the old and the new methods of saivng oil. In the earlier days of the industry, the ship’s deck, during the trying out operations used to virtually disappear beneath a sea ot oil arid refuse, tiie boiling down being tone in huge retainers on the open deck. All ibis has now been eliminated and the modern erpiipemnt on the factory ship reverts the great strides made in the methods ot production. The whales, nowadays, are shot with deadly harpoon guns, the huge, ungainly victim being brought alongside the taotory ship and cut up into slabs uid hauled <>u deck. 1 here it is slashed into smaller pieces which are shovelled on to an endless elevator, and carried to the digesters. There the blubber is boiled down, the oil being drained off into barrels. Tbc by-pro-Iliets arc steam dried and prepared I’rfr storage. The. lactory boat. of course, is in a very oilv condition, and t<» a landsman's nostril-- t li<- odours therefrom are anything but agreeable. Tlie iron deck of the factory ship is covered with wooden sheathing which serves to provide some protection Against the intense r-olil of the Ross Sea. and also enables the choppers io lie used freely on the . timber. The .lames Clark Ross will proceed to Pori Chalmers. In the course of a dav or two. but the live chasers will i,./laid up in the inlet till November of this year, when the expedition will turn southward once more. In the meantime the little vessels will he thoroughly overhauled and cleaned. Coming up from Ross Sea a call was made at Campbell Islands. Four settlers were found living there, the lonely guardians of some 45,000 sheep. Three of these men. were brought up to the Bluff together with some HO bales of wool, which is going oil to Fort Chalmers. They lmvo had the wool waiting for over a year for a vessel to call and pick it up.