WITH THE WHALERS.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 April 1924, Page 1

WITH THE WHALERS.

IMPRESSIONS OF TASMANIAN. DUNEDIN, April 9. The Sir Janies Ross Clark, back from a whaling expedition to the Antarctic, berthed at Port Chalmers this morning to bunker and take in water before leaving for Europe with the season’s catch. She is a big steamer, of 7630 tons gross register and is a capacious cargo carrier. Captain Larsen is the commander of the expedition, and Captain Kaldager is the navigating master of the vessel'. A party of Tasmanians joined the vessel at Hobart, anil one of their number, Air T. Young, was not averse to telling the story of the trip as he experienced it. Eleven men joined the ship in Tasmania. “The Australmn eleven,” they wire afterwards called. The weather was fine at the start, but the second day out the ship struck one of the storms the “roaring forties” are noted for. Big seas crashed- on hoard and large steel ventilators were smashed on the foredeck. One of- the “Tasios” was knocked unconscious, a big wave sweeping him into the scuppers, where his Irish mate saved his life by a bit of smart work. The two star whalers IV. and V., which wore in tow, broke their wire hawsers and wore cast-adrift. Then they followed under their own steam. The following day (Tuesday) the weather moderated, and on Wednesday the fleet anchored at Maequarric Island, where three other star whalers wore picked up. Tho Sir Janies Ross Chirk coaled and provisioned the whole fleet anil they all set out for the frozen south. The first iceberg was sighted fourteen days after leaving Hobart. It was about 150 foot high and was passed a few hundred yards distant. Next day the whole fleet entered the pack i’ee. ‘The mother ship took the five whalers in tow and the big stoamei smashed a passage through the ice, making a canal for the smaller boats in the ice pack. Anout the fourth da\ the ship ran into a very thick pack ieo and was jammed again and again. The engine went full speed ahead and astern, hut to no avail. The ship did not move. The boatswain then took a gang of twenty men and with huge saws cut a passage through the ice. While they were doing that a good gallic of Rughv was played by the “Tasies” and odd members of the Norwegians, Swedes, Dimes, Dutchmen and Germans on the ice. Alter six hours in the pack ice the fleet got through, though very slowly. Whales were sighted alter the sixth day and open water was met, hut no whaling was attempted here. On Christinas Day the fleet, with the exception. of Star which bail been missing for several days, entered A\ hale Bay. Provisions were landed on the ice" for Star 2. and she turned up six davs afterwards. THE FIRST CATCH.

On December 27 Star 2 reappeared and next day secured the first whale. Star 2 had been jammed in the pack, ice and had miraculously escaped. The first catch was a blue whale about Soft long, the blubber, alone producing about HH barrels of oil, valued at about £6 pet barrel. Discovery Inlet was entered on December 29 and the anchors lowered in 30!) fathoms of water, l’igat under the’great ice hairier. On New Year’s Day the anchor i> its weighed as a hljzxaid was driving the ship on to the ice cliffs. which rose to a height of IOOTt above the water. She steamed out. into open water clear of the harrier, hut had to return owing to the heavy sea outside which made whaling impossible. Later fishing was started in earnest. 1 1 ut whales were rather scarce at first. SOME GOOD HAULS. By the first of February only 7.5 whales had been caught, yielding 6000 ban els rf nil. Prospects. however brightened and the winders brought in nine whales. Star 1, which was the tug Imat for the whalers, began to bring in eight, nine, and ten whales at a time, but it slackened off again toward the. end of February when the weather became extremely cold. By the end of February all the whales had disappeared and nine were caught after March 1. The most whales alongside the mother ship at one time was thirtytwo. worth about £15,000. On March f; anchor was weighed and the big ship smashed her way through the newly formed ice to clear Discovery Inlet. Coming out of the Ross Sea no pack ice was sighted. The take on the first trip was 17,299 barrels, a number of blue whale teeth about sixty tons are also oil hoard. Immediately the whale is sighted the "dialing; captain knows what kind o' a whale it is. ‘Hie blue whale sends up a big broad spray, about thirty feet in the air, spreading as it ascends. The fin whale sends up a. narrow stream, net so high or white. The blue whale is a solitary whale, and is seldom if ever found in schools. He is also very shy. The boat must go slowly in pursuit. The man on the look-out calls out the position of the whale. The captain is always the gunner and the mate is at the wheel oil till' bridge of the whaler. AA’lien the whale is about 100 yards away tho men on the look-out" can catch glimpses of him, under the water. The boat then goes more slowly towards its prey. AA hen some 100 ft right ahead a break in the water is followed by a big round nose, then a neck. Swish. Up .goes a big double stream of water, a bubbling white fountain of spray. Tho gunner gets a sight, click goes the trigger, bairn goes the gun, and then with a swish the harpoon breaks its light lashings, uncoils the rope and gathers way. Striking the whale behind the fm. it goes about 3ft into flip body. A muffled explosion is head, and up goes a big spray of hlooil. A few move spouts of hlooil. a. kick with the mighty tail, and the whale expires. He is then hauled alongside, compressed air pumped into him, his flukes cut off, and he is made fast and towed to the mother ship, tail first.- There lie is flenched and turned into oil. The blubber is cut off the carcases in large slabs, heaved up to the deck, and then sliced up into *.smaller slabs, about a foot square. Tt is then put into the big boilers. These boilers are the result in construction of twenty years’ research, and cost £65.000 in Germany. In less than a minute the oil ; is running from the boilers into the tanks in the ’tween decks, where it is cooled anil afterwards run into the big storage tanks in the body of the ship. There are twenty-two storage tanks, with a total capacity of 64,000 barrels. AVhaiing, is still a romance of the sea. with much drudgery attached to the procuring of the precious oil.