APPENDICES.
171
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
MC.O. 885
23 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
170
APPENDICES.
In classifying the whales dealt with in the reports just summarized I have followed the results obtained from Major Barrett-Hamilton's work at Leith Har- bour in the case of the humpbacks and blue whales. The report of the Southern Whaling & Sealing Company, Limited, mentions a finner, killed on 9th December, 1913, which, although only 57 ft. long, was pregnant with a foetus 5 ft. long; therefore, for this species, I have taken a lower figure for the minimum length of sexual maturity than that used above when dealing with Major Barrett-Hamilton's
measurements.
The following table shows the total number of measured and sexed whales, together with the percentages of mature and immature individuals of each of the three species dealt with in each of the four reports
Company.
Tonsberg Company
Southern Company
:
Homplacks.
Number.
Mature, per cent.
69
'100
100 | 84
Finners.
Immature, per cent.
Number.
Mature, per cent.
113
16
1101
...
Immature per cent.
Number.
36
Blue Whales.
Total.
Mature, per cent.
Immature, per cont.
Number.
Mature, per cent.
Immature, per cent.
144
249
62.4
37.7 1100
98.6
1:39 100 66.6
33.3 100
84
16
31
96
45
172
100
73
27 100
13:3
86-7 100
59.3
40-7
36
163
99
1 100
72.2
27.8 100
85-3 14.7
48
287 !
88-8 11-4 100
39-6 604 100 77.7 22-3
900
Sandefjord Company
26
100 50
50
'100
Ocean Company
29
210
.100 62 38 100
66
The facts brought out in this table reveal, in my opinion, the second chief reason, and the one peculiarly applicable to the season of 1913-14, why the amount of oil actually obtained by certain of the companies (e.g., The Southern Whaling & Sealing Company, Limited, and The Ocean Whaling Company) should be so strikingly less than the yield estimated as probable from the description of the catch, or else should show such a marked decline in relation to the estimated yield when compared with the result obtained in the season of 1911-12. The larger part of each catch consisted, in the season of 1913-14, of finner and blue whales; the two companies just named appear to have taken half-grown calves of these larger species in preference to the adults.
The Southern Whaling & Sealing Company had the smallest percentage of immature animals in its catch of humpbacks; but 27 per cent. of its finners, and no fewer than 86-7 per cent. of its blue whales, were immature. One of its captures is admitted on the face of the report to have been in contravention of the Whaling Regulation, South Georgia, No. 1, 1913; on 17th December, 1913, a female blue whale 92 ft. long and a male calf 35 ft. long, which is stated to have "accom- panied" her, were killed. On the 7th January, 1914, a female humpback 55 ft. long and a male calf 15 ft. long (obviously newly-born) were killed; the entry relat ing to the calf immediately follows that relating to the cow, and a note which was written in the column headed " Accompanied by young has been scraped out. In the same report are to be seen entries relating to large female blue whales and large calves under the dates of 15th January and 6th February, 1914. It seems to me to be abundantly clear that the servants of this Company have deliberately selected young whales for their attacks: as regards the humpback, perhaps in order the more easily to kill the adult female (cf. letter from the Stipendiary to the Colonial Secretary, dated 8th April, 1912, and cited at p. 160 above), and as regards the blue whales, to a large extent, perhaps, on account of their smaller and more convenient size.
The Ocean Whaling Company has also killed numerous young whales. The humphack catch of this Company includes 38 per cent. of immature individuals,
and in its report there are four instances in which female humpbacks of from 40 to 45 ft. in length have been taken on the same day as calves 26 to 28 ft. long (31st December, 1913, 13th January, and 8th February (two cases), 1914). As regards the larger species, the finner and blue whale catches of this Company show 114 per cent. and 604 per cent. of immature individuals respectively. Entries in the report show that on 6th January and 2nd April, 1914, female finners 73 ft. to 75 ft. long and calves of 45 and 46 ft. in length were killed; other entries (16th and 27th February, 1914) relate to the capture of female blue whales, 93 and 88 ft. long, and of large calves 68 and 60 ft. long respectively.
The Tönsberg Company killed a female humpback of 48 ft. and a calf 28 ft. long on 22nd January, 1914; on 24th December, 1913, a finner calf 49 ft. long was killed, as were two adult females 73 and 70 ft. long. Half of the small catch of humpbacks made by the Sandefjord Whaling Company were immature, but they seem to have been taken from schools composed mostly of large calves.
In his Journal Major Barrett-Hamilton wrote on 31st December, 1913, as
follows:-
"The harpooners receive per whale :-
"Each humpback, 25 Kr.; each blue whale, 80 Kr.; each finner, 50 Kr.; each right whale, 100 Kr.; each sperm whale, 100 Kr.
A Kroner being value at the rate of 18 10 Kr.-20s.
"Naturally the harpooners bring in the bigger whales, but the management would prefer humpbacks, all their tackle having been arranged for the latter. The humpbacks seem to be getting a slight rest, but there is also no doubt that there are not very many of them. This new scale of pay came in at the beginning of last season; before then the harpooners were paid at a uniform rate for each whale. They often lose a large blue whale owing to the weight, but it usually rises before long and is towed in, the harpoon identifying it."*
I cite this paragraph to show that the tackle of at least some of the stations at South Georgia is too weak for the treatment of large finners and adult blue whales; the conversation which Major Barrett-Hamilton had with Mr. Henriksen on this point (see p. 155 above) may also be recalled. The fact that the tackle was arranged for dealing with humpbacks may be a perfectly good reason, from the whaler's point of view, why a deficiency of humpbacks should be made up from adolescent finners and frankly immature blue whales.
In the following table a comparison of the estimated and actual yields of oil is given respecting the catches :-
(1) of the season 1911-12 nade at the Antarctic stations (chiefly South Shet- lands and Graham's Land) as described in the Colonial Office Memoran-
dum.f
there is no
* I am aware that this extract from Major Barrett-Hamilton's Journal is capable of bearing a construction adverse to the view, advanced above, that the humpback stock has, in fact, been most seriously reduced. It might be said from a first sight of this paragraph that the reduction is an apparent one only, caused by the fact that the harpooners now receive more pay for the other kinds of whale. I feel sure that this was not the view that Major Barrett- Hamilton intended to convey; even in the paragraph itself he points out that doubt there are not very many" humpbacks, and there is, moreover, the passage in his letter of 11th January, 1914, to Mr. Fagan, cited on p. 155 above. In any case there is such a solid body of evidence, derived not only from South Georgia but from the Antarctic and African stations, of the growing scarcity of the humpback that this passage from the Journal cannot possibly be made to serve as a counterpoise.
the real cause of this
The whale-men of South Georgia would not have debated often upon continual scarcity of the humpback" if the scarcity were due to the new differential scale of pay. I think this new scale is the direct outcome of the scarcity of the humpback and certainly not the converse. Mr. Henriksen said that finners and blue whales are hard to kill and only manageable in fine weather (see p. 155 above). The following paragraph from Mr. J. E. Hamil. ton's report on the Belmullet Whaling Station will show, I think, why the killing-off of the humpbacks would necessitate & revision of the harpooner's remuneration, and why, even with the new scale in force, the harpooners would prefer to hunt humpbacks if they could get them :- Of all the species which it is profitable to pursue the whalers state that the blue whale is the wildest, and they will not hunt this species if other game is to be had. A blue whale, on perceiving the pulsations of the propeller of the approaching steamer is usually startled, and, if alarmed, at once rushes off at full speed. Since this represents something like twenty iniles per hour, it is quite useless for the boat to pursue the fleeing animal, the speed of the steamer being only ten or twelve miles per hour. When the whalers are bent on catching a blue whale, it is sometimes necessary to accompany the animal for three or four days, until it becomes accustomed to the presence of the steamer, which can then approach within range, and the whale is speedily disillusioned as to the harmlessness of the now familiar object,'
No. 43 in Miscellaneous No. 278.
172
APPENDICES.
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