William Loftus, was an English Helicopter Pilot for Alan Bristow for two seasons on Southern Harvester between 1954-1956. Helicopters were added to the whaling factory ships in order to go on scouting missions to locate whales. They would use the factory ship as a base and fly out from there to the surrounding area to survey and report to whale catchers in order for them to find whales.
His time at the whaling was not all smooth flying – being in a helicopter accident in his second season on 5 November 955, near Brazil. The unfortunate accident led to the death of the pilot and Loftus, being co-pilot, made a recovery. Within his collection donated to South Georgia Museum there is also a copy of his accident report. From a letter within the collection sent to Mrs. Loftus, Loftus was not injured from the crash and was picked up by a Norwegian factory ship Kosmos III. All this was while on their was south for the 1955 – 1956 season, and the flight had simply been a test one.
While working in the whaling industry Loftus captured his memories with 8mm film. He was also an artist, mostly working in watercolours and sketching. Many of his works depict whales and highlights how important it would have been for him to recognise those different blows that they produced.
In addition to his diary there are various cables, a Christmas 1956 Menu for Southern Harvester, pay chits, and letters from Salvesen. This all adds to his legacy and helps us to understand what it was like for a pilot working in such difficult conditions.
After his experiences in the whaling industry he moved on to working for Alan Bristow.