Southern Harvester

The build

Launched at the Furness Shipbuilding Company yard in Haverton Hill in May 1946, the 15,364grt Southern Harvester and sistership Southern Venturer were ordered by Edinburgh-based Christian Salvesen to replace tonnage lost during the war.

Deployments

The two ships operated on a seasonal basis, heading south from the UK – via South Georgia – to spend the Antarctic summer months hunting. They were equipped with extensive equipment to process the whales they caught, which meant they were not dependent upon shore-based whaling stations and could follow their prey into deep seas. The ships also had big refrigerators to store meat, fats and oils. In its 17 years of service, Southern Harvester is estimated to have produced more than 2m barrels of whale oil.

Operating with up to 380 seafarers, catchers, 'gunners', and processors onboard, the ships also carried a Westland Whirlwind helicopter to locate and track whales – along with Kelvin Hughes ASDIC (Anti-Submarine Detection Inspection Committee) sonar technology. In their later years, the ships also carried scientists who analysed the catches.

Early concerns

Concerns about over-fishing and the depletion of stocks had been growing since factory ships had come into widespread use in the 1930s. British and Norwegian seafarer unions, including the Nautilus predecessor union MNAOA, had been involved in negotiations since the 1950s on substantial reductions in the whaling fleet to ensure sustainable operations.

Drop in demand

UK demand for whale oil slumped during the 1950s, and attempts to encourage whale meat consumption had struggled for some time. In its final season, Southern Harvester caught 'just' 500 whales, and early in 1963 the ship was sold to Japanese owners who wanted to acquire the catch quotas which came with the vessel. Southern Harvester was laid up near the Norwegian whaling port of Sandefjord for three years before returning to Salvesen, which sold the ship to the Oslo firm Akers. Its plan to convert the vessel to a drill ship failed to materialise, and in June 1971 it was sold for scrap and broken up in Spain.