WHALING INDUSTRY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 423, 6 January 1933, Page 2

WHALING INDUSTRY

ROMANTIC DAYS GONE fv- t ' ; _ ' i : ■ , scientific methods replage thrills of hazarfious : undertaking FROM HARPOONS TO EXPLOSIVE In the romantic days of old, whaling was a thrilling and hazardous occupatioii which appfia'led strongly to me'n possessed of adventurous spirit. To-day, however, whales are not ■ pursued and eaptured by intrepid harpooners in small boats. Whales • are now slaughtered by modern •scientific impletments, and w'haling is strictly a commercial undertaking. So efficient has the industry become that whales may be extinet by the end of the next decade unless protective measures are- taken. One giant boat captures more than a thousand whales in a year, and has | a productive eapacity of two thousand [ five hundred barrels a day. The boat I is actually capable of carry'ing orie • hundred and thirty five thousand bar- | rels. It is of twenty-two thousand tons | fie hundred and fifty ft. long, with a I beam of seventy seven feet. Whales j can be lifted on to the boat through j an ingenious slip astern. j The development of the industry I can be judged by c'oihparing the size ! of this immense whaler with that of ; a typ'ical vessel used for whaling toj wards the end of the Gighteenth cenI tury. ! In 1709, when the British South : Sea fishery was flo'urishing, whaling | vessels were from three hundred to i four hundred tons burden. They were ! equipped for a three years' journey i and carried six small Whale boats. j These boats were usually less than thirty feet in length, and were furn- | ished with masts and sails and a : couple of two hundred fathom whale i lines. i When whales were sighted from ! the vessel three of more of the small boats were sent off in pursuit. Each hodt carrid a crew of six men, comprising a steerer, four rowers, and a headsman in the stem. The boat steerer carried harpoons with which to make the first attack on the quarry. As soon as the boat •v^as made fast to a whale by means of a harpoori and a length of line, the headsman continued the attack with long slender lances. A single blow from a whale's tail would immediately wreck one of these boats, so whenever a number of Whales were seen, the- boats would keep together and make a combined attafck. In ihe early days of the Greenland whale fishery, vessels of three hundred and fifty tons were employed. They were of extremely strong construction to resist the pressure of the ice. A crew of about fifty were carried together with "six or seven whale boats. Whales were approached from the rear, and silence was always maintained until the harpoon was dispatched. If a boat' crew experienced difficulty in dealing with a wounded "vyhale they would hoist a distress sigrial to give notice to the "parent" vessels that assistance was required. It was important to see that the line did not become tangled — for if this happened, the boat and its crew might easily be drawn under the water. Sometimes if the whale tetruggled fiercely below the surface of the water six of seven hundred fathoms of line would be used. On rising to the surface the whale was attacked with lances aimed at vital parts bf its enorinous body. The lance employed was a six-feet iron rod flattened at one end in the form of a lance-head with sharp cutting edges. ' . As the end of the struggle approached, torrents of bloOd spouted from ,the whale's blow-hole. Immediately the whale was dead its tail would be pierced and the carcase made fast to the boats by means bf cables. Whaling weapons improved gradually over a long period of years, but it was not until 1865 that the first explosive harpoon was invented. This took the form of a eannon mounted o"n a pivot, and capable of dischalging a five feet harpoon of one hundred pounds iii weight. A Kollow iron cap filled with blasting powder was screwed to the tip of the harpoon, and a timed fuse discharged a bomh inside the body bf the whale. The harpoon carried a stout cable connected to a powerful winch. The introduction of this gun ied to great changes in the whaling industry. Bigger vessels were built, and by using explosive harpoons the number of whales secured steadily increased. The commercial use of whale oil and other whale products extended, and the whole industry became efficiently organised. Now the problem is to locate a sufficient number of whales to inaintain the prosperity of the industry. The migration of fish and birds can usually be traced by ringing or marking a number of specimen of each species. But it would be a formidable task to capture b few whales, mark them and then releas'e thdln into' the' sea. It has been found practicahle however to fire "marking" shots at whales. These "identity marks" consist of pieces or iron made in the shape of a large dratving pin,( and fif ed into the whale's body. Satisfactory results haVe been secured by this system of marking. The migrations bf whales can be traced with- a fair degte'e o'f accutacy. Sut the systbm is not yet sufficiently comp'Teliensive, and experts are still ehdeavouring to solve the problem of preventing the extinction of whales and bf preservihg the whdlih£ iiidustry.