The re-fitting of the Jan
Wellem, whaling factory ship.
The invention of the exploding
harpoon fired from a heavy gun meant that catching the fast swimming
baleen whales was not only possible, but possible in huge quantities. In
the 1923/24 season, the very first "Factory Ship" the Sir
James Clark Ross was used in Antarctica and though this first
expedition was not a great financial success in itself, it taught the
whalers a great many valuable lessons about how to go about the task of
catching and processing great numbers of whales in a short period of time
- the Antarctic summer.
Before long many similar
factory ships had been built and industrial whaling in the Antarctic was earning
great amounts of money at the expense of the unfortunate whales. Kitting
out such an expedition was a hugely expensive undertaking however,
requiring a factory ship of at least 20,000 tons and a small fleet of 5 or
more catcher boats to keep the factory busy and supplied with whales to
process. Nevertheless it was expected that the initial capital outlay for
such a factory ship and catcher boats could be recouped in the first
season. From there on it was all profit other than consumable items such
as harpoons and in particular rope which surprisingly perhaps was a major
expense.
Here the German ship,
the 11.770 tonne Jan Wellem is seen being re-fitted as a factory ship for
whaling. It was first used for whaling in the 1936/37 season.
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