With the Whalers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 922, 15 March 1930, Page 8

With the Whalers

NEW ZEALANDER’S STORY

WHALES must eventually be exterminated in New ZeaW land’s Ross Sea Dependency in Antarctica, at the present rate of destruction by the chasers of the huge Norwegian factory-ships. Captain W. Stuart, who spent the whaling season on board the Southern Px-incess, watching the Government’s interests, gives this opinion in a letter from the Ross Sea to an Auckland friend.

An account of life in the whaling grounds by Captain W. Stuart, formerly of Auckland, and now of Wellington, is interesting now that the factory ships C. A. Larsen, Sir James Clark Ross, Kosmos, and Southern Princess are homeward-bound for Norway with fortunes in whale oil. Captain Stuart, during the season, has been the administrator of the Government’s interests in the Roes Sea. He found life in Antarctica an absorbing thing, even in the icy wastes near Scott Island, a grim natural memorial to Captain Scott, the hero of Antarctic exploration. “The Southern Princess is one of the most up-to-date factory ships afloat,” he wrote to his friend. “In boiling and extracting the oil, It can deal with up to 20 whales a day. After leaving New Zealand, there was nothing of event on the voyage, apart from a daily colder temperature, until we reached Ice on November 5. We hove-to under the lee of a moderatelysized iceberg, and refuelled our chasers. The scene down here, for the first impi-ession, is beyond description. Ice as far as the eye can see —a sort of no man’s land. FIRST WHALE CAUGHT “We caught our first whale on November 6—a large blue one, S 4 feet long and about 80 tons. It was just like a submarine, and there was considerable excitement, especially among the boys shipped at Port Chalmers. The flensers and meat-cutters were soon at work. It seems a pity to kill off these harmless beasts. That. must happen at the present rate of killing. The whale has hardly a dog’s chance of escape with the deadly weapons used nowadays.” The harpoon, the captain added, had a point with 201 b of cast iron charged with explosive. When a whale was shot, the cast iron was shattered Inside. It was certainly a drastic way of treating the animals, he said. Were death instantaneous, the position

would not be so bad. but it was quite common for three harpoons to be fired before a whale was actually killed. On the chasers, life was hazardous and trying. They worked In the icepack most of the time, and sometimes were completely covered with ice. The Southern Princess's first week was unsuccessful, and the _ factory ship moved south to a latitude of about 67 degres, and a longitude of 180 degrees. Snow fell every day, and on November S the temperature was 10 degrees below zero. Many icebergs were passed, and a piercing wind swept across them. On November 12 the C. A. Larsen was sighted, and the Southern Princess’s men felt that, after all, they ■were not alone in the waste. CAPTAIN’S CELEBRATION The next day the ship’s captain celebrated his birthday convivially. The saloon table was decked with British and Norwegian flags. Everyone was pleased, because another birthday was shortly to he celebrated. Extremely heavy weather forced the Southern Princess to seek protection in the pack ice on November 17. The ship was under the lee of a tremendous Iceberg, two miles in length. Mention of the hazardous mail delivery employed over the Antarctic ice floes was made by the writer. Referring to a day in December, he noted simply: “The airplane from the Kosmos called in for mail in the afternoon; quaint to see the plane among the floes.” By December 6 the Southern Princess had caught 100 whales, _ an occasion for “dipping the head of the luckles hundredth. Whales were scarce, though, and the chasers had a difficult time. _ On the evening of December 10 the factory ship passed Scott Island, at a latitude of 67i degrees. A dreary, blizzard-swept island, reaching 300 feet above sea-level, and with a depth of 2,000 feet as the nearest recorded sounding.