The Shore Station

ANATOMY OF A SHORE STATION

Shore stations, such as Grytviken in South Georgia, were self-sufficient hubs critical to industrial whaling.

In the factory, processing a whale also took a great many men. There were workers for every part of the operation. From stripping the whale of its blubber, to operating the press boilers, to bagging powdered whale bone.

A vast number of tradesmen were employed to carry out a wide range of tasks. There were engineers, welders, riveters, blacksmiths, carpenters, painters and electricians. Purpose-built, well-equipped, workshops around the station ensured that the factory and the whale catchers were in good working order and operations could run continuously.

Purpose-built workshops housed tools and machines for maintaining factory equipment and vessels. Notably, the blacksmiths straightened harpoons, and foundrymen created ship components. Supplies were stocked in massive storage areas, such as the Main Store, which carried everything from food to machinery parts. Key facilities included the flensing plan for processing whales, the engineering workshop for machine maintenance, and the rope store for essential whale line replacements. Unique storage like the potato store highlighted the importance of provisions to the whalers’ morale.

The Plating Shop was where they made parts for the ships and the factory. This building was eventually demolished in 2003, during the clean-up of the station, but some of the machinery from it can still be seen to the right-hand side of the catcher Petrel.

The welding machine dates from the 1940s and was used in the Plating Shop here in Grytviken.

The carpenter’s workshop was a crucial part of servicing the construction and maintenance of the entire station. Grytviken station had its own carpenter and during the 1920s this position was held by a Swedish man named Teodor Anderson. Some of the tools of his trade are on display in the museum.

Radio communication, radar and ASDIC (a British made version of sonar developed at the end of WWI) became important for whaling operations. The workshop was purpose built to accommodate the sensitive equipment which demanded maintenance and constant attention.

Radio was used in Antarctic whaling from 1911, though it was 1925 before the first radio station was built on South Georgia, at Grytviken. The use of radio transformed the industry by making it easier to maintain contact with the outside world. Companies could keep in touch with their home country, and individuals with their families.

Radar was introduced onto whaling ships after World War 2, the first wartime naval sets soon being replaced by better models. These reduced the dangers of navigation as ships and icebergs up to 10 miles away could be detected.

Stores served a vital role to the whaling industry. These ranged from provisions for the men who worked here, to the final whale products of oil and bone meal. Specialist materials and supplies also had to be stockpiled for the repair, maintenance and construction of the whaling factory and the fleet of whale catchers.

Stores supervision also covered food and by far the most important was the potato. It is said that the whalers would tolerate shortages of meat, butter, even coffee, anything but potatoes. If the potatoes ran out there would be mutiny.  There is a store dedicated to potatoes in Grytviken, built half way into the hillside to keep crates well-ventilated and cool throughout summer to last the whole season.

Stores were often integrated and located next to the workshop or activity they supplied. The Main Store, in which you are standing, was alongside the catcher jetty surrounded by workshops all ideally placed for maintenance of the whale catchers and the factory. You can still see the remains of the steel plating workshop, the engineering workshop, the forge and blacksmiths.

PROCESSING A WHALE

Efficiency was paramount, particularly after 1914, when whole carcass utilization became mandatory. This meant that all parts of the whale, including bones, meat, and blubber, were used. Nothing was left to waste.

The industrial processing of whales was a highly organized and efficient operation requiring a large, skilled workforce. At Grytviken, up to 30 whales could be processed daily, involving butchers, meat processors, factory workers and technicians maintaining the machinery. The work was gruelling, often operating heavy equipment in challenging conditions.

Once a whale was caught, it was towed back to the shore station being transferred from the whale catcher to smaller buoy boats or motorboats. Whales were individually winched from the water, tail first up the slipway, onto the flensing plan. A large wooden platform, open to the elements and located at the heart of the station.

Many of the skills and practises of modern whaling have their originals in Norway. ‘Flense’, meaning to strip, was a Norwegian technique for removing blubber from a whale.

The extraction of oil from the blubber, the meat and the bone took place in three separate processes. The blubber was then rendered into oil. This involved heating it in large tanks to separate the oil from the solid fat.

Two main methods were used to extract oil: the open cooker and the pressure cooker. There were only two main designs for the meat pressure cookers: the Hartmann cooker (German design) and the Kværner cooker (a Norwegian design).

1. Chopped blubber was fed into the cooker from an upper level by conveyor until the boiler was full.
2. Steam was vented from a pipe at the bottom of the cooker. The pipe continued as a spiral within it and cooking continued for 6 – 8 hours. In this time most of the oil separated from the blubber, rising to the top of the boiler. The residue (called gluewater) settled at the bottom of the cooker.
3. The oil was drawn off using taps set at various levels in the boiler. After this was done the waste gluewater was also drawn off.
4. The oil was sent to settling tanks for final purification prior to storage and transportation.

From all three cookeries, residual by-products, including grax (solid remains) and gluewater (liquid residue), were collected for further processing. These were sent to the recovery and separator plants to be purified before being piped to the whale-oil storage tanks. The solid remains from the cookers were sent to a fourth process of the factory, the whale meal or guano plant. This material was dried, milled and bagged. To be stored in a large warehouse for transportation back to Europe, often processed into fertilizers or animal feed.

In later years of operations, the shore stations produced meat extract and experimented by processing the meat to be canned or frozen.

During the peak of the shore station whaling operation in Grytviken, up to 400 men lived and worked in Grytviken during the summer season. Around 90 would remain over winter – undertaking essential maintenance work on the factory and the ships.

The men would work 12-hour shifts and even had the option for overtime. They worked Monday to Saturday and had one day off. The men worked from six in the morning until six at night. There was a half hour break for breakfast at 8am, an hour for lunch at 12:30 and another half hour break for coffee at 3pm.

Although the season was short, it was incredibly hard work and the salaries were lucrative. In addition to the basic salary a bonus system supplemented it. The whale catcher crew would get a bonus depending on the species of whale, the size and the number of whales caught. The land crew bonus system was based on barrels of oil produced and sacks of guano.