Whaling (1940-1949)

in South Africa on the western coast of the Cape of Good Hope a little north of Cape Town lies Saldana Bay here there is a short station from which ships set out towards the Antarctic seas in search of whales this is a typical small Whaler steinberg she is a vessel of about a hundred tonnes and has a speed of about 14 knots she carries a crew of eleven well out to sea now the steinberg is kept on a southwesterly course by the man of the wheel he has the ship's compass constantly under his eye we are now in the region where whales may be expected in the focus all the harpoon gun is ready and this is the rope that will be fastened to the harpoon itself a power driven winch is used for hauling in the whales we must be on the alert now here is the lookout he's climbing up to the crow's nest nearly at the top of the tall mast hold tight to that mast the man of the wheel becomes interested the lookouts job is to spot the whale keenly his eyes range over the surface of the sea immediately on sighting a whale he calls down to the bridge whale ho and signals the direction the ship's course is changed the Chase Begins the whale may dive but it usually comes to the surface again in a few minutes the lookout directs the course until the vessel is about thirty or forty yards from the whale the gunner rushes to man the harpoon gun he sights and fires harpoon hurtles out of the gun drawing the length of rope after it at this range the gunner rarely misses the hop on itself is about four feet long and weighs about a hundred pounds it carries an expressive head which kills the whale behind this head are four 12-inch bobs which after the explosion open out inside the whale thus enabling it to be drawn alongside by the rope and which keep the whales floating air is pumped into it through a long pipe it is then either marked with a company's flag so that it can be collected later or if the ship is ready to return it is lashed to the side a small ship like the steinberg may return to the shore station with several whales on the return Jay if you look over the side this is what you would see long return journey is now nearly over the whaler is nearing the station again there are men waiting with winches and ropes ready to drag the whales off the slipway slowly the huge mammals they're not fish are pulled in tail first until they reach the flinching platform this is where they will be cut up by men who use large knives shaped like hockey sticks but first their length is measured and recorded the man walking alongside gives some idea of the huge creatures bulk it is a baleen whale and measures 46 feet in length this kind of whale has no teeth in its mouth is whale bone or baleen this is still used for making brushes in feeding it draws in and then expel seawater baleen holds back small creatures called plankton the whale consumes tons of plankton although the whales head and mouth are huge its eye is small not much bigger than a human eye but the carcass must not be left long the Flint sir sharpens his knife cutting up begins often several men work on one whale they make deep cuts from head to tail this shows the ventral grooves the man working near the head makes a number of v-shaped cuts from these ropes and winches are used to drag the blubber from the body blubber is the layer of fat just under the skin using cleansing knives the men help the winch to pull away the blubber by this method the whole of the outer layer of the whale is removed the flesh bones and organs remain some of the meat is used as food on the station the rest together with the bones and some of the organs will be cut up after the oil has been extracted the residue is dried and made into fertilizers in this whale the length of the strips of gaba is about 40 feet in the largest baleen whale there may be about 60 feet here the blubber is being cut up into smaller pieces which will be fed into chutes leading to boilers in which the oil is extracted the suitable parts of the remainder of the whale are also cut up and by hopper or chute sent to further boilers for the extraction of oil the scenes in the short stage strange at times even grim many people find the strong smell difficult to get used to to obtain oil is the main purpose of this hunting and cutting up of the largest mammals in the world mammals yes they're warm-blooded blubber helps to prevent the heat escaping now for the last stage of the work of the shawl station the oil is stored for a time in large covered tanks until it is taken by ships to the refineries oil of a lubricants oil for soap making and oil for the manufacture of marjorine

Channel: British Pathé

Views: 460,875

Rating: 4.1605563 out of 5

Keywords: harbours, work, Africa, cats, Steenberg, British, seascapes, 1803.01, South, whales, footage, boats, animals, newsreel, Instructional, sailors, BritishPathe, British Pathe, Reuters, documentary, fishing, Capetown, hunting, sailing, Films, DOCS, educational, catering, Classroom

Id: ATLe41T3D7c

Length: 7min 34sec (454 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 13 2014