Chapter XVIII: The Source of Wealth

In the early days when the approaches to the Antarctic began to be used after the first conviction that it was worth while sailing so far, the British and Americans went either after the seals or to look for the right whale. When the rowing-boats were launched in the South Atlantic they left the fin whales strictly alone. The sperm, like the right whale, usually remained some time on the surface and allowed the rowed boat to approach, but the finner is awash only for a time, and sinks after being killed.

When first that squadron of a dozen British sailing-ship whalers went south in the early eighteenth century, they were complete and self-contained to roam all over the world, extract the produce and boil it down into oil. During the first half of the nineteenth century some five or six hundred whalers were thus engaged in the southern hemisphere hunting the cachalot and right whales. But then, owing to the scarcity of this species, and to the fall in the price of oil and the increased working expenses, the number of vessels in this work became fewer and fewer. They were usually of between 200 and 300 tons register, but sometimes even up to 450 tons. Built of wood, with no engines to require fuel, they could keep the seas as long as food and drinking-water were available.

The right whale as found in Arctic waters had by the eighth decade of the nineteenth century become so scarce in the Arctic that the industry up there had practically ceased to be profitable. Therefore one of a trio of whaling brothers named Gray conceived the idea of sending their Peterhead whalers down to the Antarctic in order to find better luck. This hope was based on the account given by Sir James Ross, already alluded to, concerning his voyage of discovery in 1842. We are speaking now entirely of the right whale, and the succession of events which will presently lead up to the southern fin whale industry is something of a romance. Fortified with Ross’s information, an attempt was made in 1891 to form a company for this southern enterprise, but the necessary capital was not obtained.

However, there followed a Mr. R. Kinnes of Dundee, who decided to equip four vessels with the same object, well believing that the right whales were in the Antarctic and that a fortune was awaiting anyone with a little courage and imagination. It was, of course, a somewhat similar scheme, though in a different part of the southern hemisphere, to that which had been attempted by Enderby. Kinnes selected four ships: the _Balæna_, _Active_, _Diana_ and the _Polar Star_. They were all barque-rigged with auxiliary steam and propeller. Of this little squadron the largest was the _Balæna_, being of 260 tons register, length 141 ft., draught 16-1/2 ft., her engines being of only 65 horse-power. Originally she had been the _Mjolnar_, and built in Drammen as far back as 1872. The _Active_ was twenty years older, 117 ft. long, draught 18 ft., with engines of 40 horse-power. Built at Peterhead, she was a barque which had done much good service in the olden days. The barque _Diana_ had also been built in Drammen, and her details were, length 135 ft., draught 16 ft., engine 40 horse-power. The _Polar Star_, another barque, 105 ft. long, was both old and small, with an engine of low horse-power; in fact, all four were rather a relic of the golden age of sail than modern exploring vessels.

But in September 1892 the squadron started out from Dundee, that port famous for so much which concerns whalers and whaling. The ships and men had both been in the Arctic many a time. The rigging was extra strong, with the old-fashioned, reliable dead-eyes and lanyards. The thickness of the planking, timbers and lining was in the case of the _Balæna_ as much as 32 in. There was nothing yacht-like; everything for strength and endurance. By the middle of December they had got into high latitudes and were steering between the South Orkneys and South Shetlands, when great fin whales were seen: but, of course, this species was no concern of the expedition. Seals were taken, and at one time it was thought that the mammal which was sighted spouting was a right whale, but he turned out to be another “finner.”

The Antarctic continent was reached by Christmas, the whale lines were carefully coiled down in the boats ready for those great black whales which Ross had written about. The short-barrelled guns, rather like the weapon you take in a gun-punt, were ready, too; for here was the area that Ross had alluded to as so full of hope. There were three of the four Dundee ships in Erebus and Terror Gulf: but where were the right whales? Was there really a fortune waiting for the asking? Each right whale of the big kind has about a ton of bone in his mouth; and whalebone was worth £2,500 when the ships left Dundee. Supposing each vessel caught only four: that would mean £40,000 to take back home, so every available man was on the keen look-out for right whales. The _Polar Star_, the slowest of the four, had lagged behind, and on the morning after Christmas, whilst the three were at the edge of the pack-ice in lat. 64° 30′ S., long. 55° 28′ W., beating about in the open water, looking for those illusive right whales to show themselves, a strange sail was suddenly sighted. But it was not the _Polar Star_: this was the _Jason_, in which Captain C. A. Larsen, a Norwegian, had arrived. His name is to be noted, for he is perhaps the greatest pioneer of modern South Seas whaling. He, too, had come out for right whales, and for seals, and in the season of 1893-4 he came here a second time with the _Jason_, _Hertha_ and the _Castor_.

Captain Larsen had been whaling ever since the year 1884 when he hunted the bottlenose whale in the Arctic. His knowledge and experience thus link the old days with the new, and recently he affirmed that he has found in southern whales various kinds of harpoons which have been sticking in the animals for a considerable period. In one case he discovered a lance which must have been in the cetacean for ten or twenty years. Now on hearing of the intended Dundee expedition, the Norwegians had sent Captain Larsen out for a similar object. The two expeditions thus met on Boxing Day in that region of white ice, the _Jason_ having already captured five hundred seals but not having sighted a right whale.

Whatever else they were, these two British and Norwegian expeditions represented the greatest body of expert whaling knowledge, and from them must be reckoned the commencement of two distinct enterprises: modern Antarctic exploration, which was presently to attract such men as Bruce, Scott, Nordenskjold, Charcot, Shackleton and others; and the present great whaling industry which the Norwegians have established by licence from the British Government. And it may be stated without further delay that this Dr. W. S. Bruce was actually with this first Dundee expedition that we are considering, being aboard the _Balæna_. With him was also Mr. W. G. Burn Murdoch, an artist, from whose charming narrative I have derived much information for this present chapter.

It is interesting to note how the old Dutch whaling expressions still survived aboard the _Balæna_. The “specksioneer” was always ready for his especial job; every man was prepared to turn out of his bunk as soon as that time-honoured whaler’s cry “A fall! A fall!” should go resounding through the ship, and boats’ crews would rush in wild excitement into their places. The grampus, that prey among whales which will kill even a finner, was seen by the Dundee expedition, but never a right whale; and early in the new year the harpoon lines were taken out of the boats, and the craft were used exclusively for sealing. The _Polar Star_ turned up at last, having left Dundee two days later and proceeded south-about through the English Channel, whilst the other three had sailed round the north of Scotland. But it was the middle of January by the time she had joined up with these others.

The squadron’s instructions had been to seek whales where Ross had found them, and strict obedience was paid to these admonitions. It must be borne in mind that no Antarctic scientific expedition had been down there since Ross’s of 1843, other than some surveys and international circumpolar observations in 1873-4 and 1882 respectively. Therefore for this Dundee venture data were both meagre and fifty years old. During that period Polar discovery had been confined to the Arctic, but the South Polar approaches had been extraordinarily neglected. The _Active_ during the latter part of January did have quite a good day’s excitement. The right whale did not turn up, but the harpooner in one of her boats let drive at a great “finner”--a blue whale. The latter soon began using up the three lines in the boat, then a second boat made fast with three more lines, and next a third boat fired another harpoon into the whale. Presently the ends of all the lines were put aboard the _Active_, the boats made fast to the ship’s stern, and the whale went towing the whole lot until after fourteen hours’ excitement the ship’s engines were reversed, the lines broke and the whale went off.

Sport? Yes. But when the four skippers got together and talked matters over, the sad fact had to be faced that as a whaling enterprise this expedition had failed: not a single right whale had been captured, or even sighted. There was nothing for it now but to devote their energies to sealing. This they did, with the result that some twenty thousand seal-skins and full cargoes of seal blubber were taken back to Scotland. The _Jason_ was the ship which Nansen had used, as mentioned in his _First Crossing of Greenland_. She was a three-masted barque with auxiliary steam-engines, and she was to come back in the next season with _Hertha_ and _Castor_. It was the first of these three vessels which discovered King Oscar Land, and the other two sailed along the west side of Graham Land. Captain Larsen’s efforts, though primarily commercial, resulted in adding to the sum of scientific knowledge. _Balæna_ discovered some mountainous land S.W. of Erebus and Terror Gulf, and Larsen traced it still further later in that year. But the whales? Well, the Dundee expedition, which got back safely in May 1893, had seen three kinds: the finners, which Larsen called “blue whales”; others resembling the Pacific humpback; and the bottlenose whale, in addition to many grampus. Both the British and Norwegian expeditions had set forth owing to Ross’s encouraging statements, though each of these enterprises failed to confirm his supposition. In Larsen’s second voyage of 1893-4 a whale which seemed to be like a right whale was chased but not captured.

That which had been made clearly manifest in these whaler voyages was the fact that there were any number of finner whales in the Antarctic. Now there came to Edinburgh an agent of Mr. Svend Foyn to interview Mr. Burn Murdoch and Dr. W. S. Bruce, who had travelled in the _Balæna_, the latter in the capacity of naturalist. It was suggested that the Norwegian type of whaling (already mentioned) should be employed, but this method was unknown in England, and was rejected before Larsen went on his second voyage. But from 1898 to 1910 there were several Antarctic expeditions of a purely scientific character which must be mentioned in turn. In 1897-9 was the _Belgica_ expedition, which was the first of these Antarctic enterprises to be organized on modern lines. The _Belgica_ was the first vessel, too, to spend a winter in the Antarctic, and valuable knowledge as to scientific and biological subjects was obtained.

And now there came increased interest in the South Polar regions owing to the enthusiasm of scientists. The immediate results were Captain Scott’s British expedition of 1901 and Professor von Drygalski’s expedition of the same year. But our immediate subject of whaling attracts us more especially towards the Swedish expedition of 1901-3 owing to the personality of the sailing master. For this undertaking was led by Dr. Nils Otto Gustaf Nordenskjold (nephew of Baron Nordenskjold, the Arctic explorer), and the name of the vessel was the _Antarctica_, in command of which Captain C. A. Larsen was to go. No better officer among the Scandinavians could have been chosen. Now, fortunately--as it turned out--the _Antarctica_ got crushed by the ice in the Erebus and Terror Gulf during the month of February 1903, whilst going to the relief of Nordenskjold’s land party. After hazardous adventures the crew were rescued by the Argentine sloop-of-war _Uruguay_ in the following November. The immediate result of this was that Larsen was received as an Antarctic hero in Buenos Ayres, his scheme for southern whaling on those Norwegian lines was believed in, the Argentine citizens financed him and there was formed the company known as the Cia Argentina de Pesca, with a view to carrying on whaling operations at South Georgia.

This was the commencement of that great southern whaling industry, which has in twenty years yielded considerable wealth. The company began its operations in 1904, a lease being granted by His Majesty’s Government two years later. This station is on the east side of the island at Grytviken, the terms being 500 acres at an annual rent of £250 for a term of 21 years. Three years later 30 acres at Jason Harbour were leased to the same company for 18 years at a rent of £100; and between the years 1908 and 1911 seven other leases on that island, also for whaling stations, were granted to four Norwegian and three British companies, making a total whaling fleet of twenty-one vessels, each lease allowing the employment of one floating factory.

Thus we have here, in the foundation of these considerable industrial activities on that remote island where Shackleton was eventually to be buried, a direct connection with the failure of Arctic whaling, and those scientific and whale-seeking expeditions to the Antarctic. In the end, as a result of much perseverance, immense financial reward has come. Larsen tried unavailingly to obtain the necessary capital in his own country, but the undertaking might have been started twelve years sooner by British capital after that interview in Edinburgh following the return of the Dundee squadron.

Of this first, and Argentine, company Larsen was made manager. He crossed to Norway, fitted out at Sandefjord a modern steam whaler, and two small sailing vessels to be used as transports, arriving at the east side of South Georgia in December 1904. In King Edward’s Cove, as it is now known, he established a whaling factory on the very site which had been used by the early nineteenth-century sealers for boiling their blubber. Nothing succeeds like success, and the result of this new development was that more companies were formed, further leases were granted, and the largest whaling business in the world is now centred in the Dependencies of the Falklands. Thus also even at Deception Island a licence was granted for twenty-one years in 1912 to a Norwegian company: in fact, up to date eight Norwegian, one Chilian and one British companies have been given licences in the area of the South Shetlands and Graham Land. The season here is a short one, lasting from November to March. In the South Orkneys whales are plentiful, but there is a lack of safe harbours, and it is usually safe for the floating factories to remain in the roadstead only for twelve weeks. Four Norwegian companies were granted licences here in the season of 1914-15, but only one was actually worked. Operations were, however, resumed in 1922-3, when 325 whales were caught. The first attempt here had been made in 1907-8, but the ice drove the expedition to the South Shetlands. In the season of 1914-15 a solid sheet of ice surrounded the South Orkneys for a hundred miles to the north and made them unapproachable till after the middle of January. At the South Sandwich Islands there was whaling in the 1911-12 season, but on these territories some of the volcanoes are still active, the constant emission of poisonous fumes makes it difficult to land, and no shore station has been established.

Were there, after all, right whales in these southern areas? The answer may be made from the statistics which have been issued for the period covering the years 1909-18, during which many thousands of blue and fin whales were caught, but only 396 right whales and 115 sperm whales. These figures are for South Georgia, South Shetlands, South Orkneys and South Sandwich. Some idea may be obtained of the wealth which Larsen’s pioneering brought about, for the value of the oil, baleen and guano in the South Georgian area alone has risen from £251,077 in 1909-10 to £1,100,000 in the 1917-18 season. But according to the very latest Government report there were caught in these Dependencies during the 1922-3 season close on 10,000 whales to the value of £3,056,860. These figures are so remarkable, that it is scarcely necessary to comment on them beyond observing that the possibilities of these valuable British possessions seem not to have been as fully realized as one might expect. When, however, the _Discovery_ returns home from her investigations, doubtless further interest will be taken by British and other investors.