Factory ships, the Jan Wellem  - Whales and Whaling pictures 51

It is difficult for those not associated with shipping to imagine the size of the vessel from the usual descriptions, particularly of tonnage. This is a small ship as factory ships go, here seen undergoing a refit from passenger ship to whaling factory ship just before the second world war.

These pictures give a better idea of the size of the ship involved from the scale of the workmen in the pictures in just a small part of the ship. The "Factory" part of the ship really does relate to a very substantial factory if it were based on land.

This ship was:

147m (482ft) long
21.68m (71ft) across the beam (widest part)
11,700 tonnes