James Yorkston followed his older brother’s footsteps and did his first whaling season in 1958/1959. His brother had started in 1954 and told Yorkston it was a good job, so he decided to give it a go. Unfortunately, when he arrived at the Bernard Street office in Leith, he was told that there were no jobs available for that season. So he returned to his job driving and delivering chocolate for a chocolate company. A week before his ship sailed, he received a telegram that there was a space and he left his chocolate job with only a few days notice.
In 1960 Yorkston spent the winter ashore working at South Georgia. After his winter trip he came home with a paycheck of £1100 and at that time a house in Edinburgh cost between £500 and £600. It was a great pay off to a young person returning from the whaling. But Yorkston, along with many others, knew the whaling was coming to an end. When it finished, many people were out of work and searching elsewhere, for him it lead to a career at sea. Where he ended up working with the Fishery Protection for 29 years.
He recalls that his favourite part about the whaling was meeting so many different people. Having been a member of Salvesen’s Ex-Whalers Club since its establishment it enabled him to maintain those connections where they otherwise might have been lost.