VESSELS
Whale catcher (or catcher) – Refers to whaling catcher ships. These were built to go fast and could do about 17 knots.
Factory ship (or pelagic ship) – Factory ships were supported by whaling catchers. These ships were floating whaling factories and had all the means to process whales on board the ship. Would have been home to around 200 men.
Motorboat – Small boat which would take whales into the shore. These boats would operate in the harbours of the whaling stations, taking items between boats and shore.
CLOTHING TERMS
Oilskins – Type of outerwear material, mostly waterproof. Usually made into trousers and jackets.
Plan-boots or Flensing – Boots with spikes on the bottom. Worn on the flensing plan which was slick with water and fluids from whale.
Sou’wester – A type of hat commonly worn. Made from a similar oilskin material for use in the rain, shaped so it can easily fold and so that the rain runs away from the neck.
Canvas jacket – Jackets made from thick canvas. Sometimes handmade by the whalers. These would be lined with thick fur, or blanket material.
EQUIPMENT TERMS
Accumulator springs – Used in the hull of the whale-catcher to reduce the strain on the whale line. Even the strongest rope would snap if the whale and boat moved in different directions. The increased strain was taken by the springs. The winch operator would also let out more line. This is the same principle as the angler playing a fish with a flexible rod.
Air-lance – Used along with the air-needle to fill the whale with compressed air.
Air-needle – Used to fill the whale with compressed air. This was done after the whale had been caught to ensure it would float. Was done by the mess boy.
Ammunition – Various ammunition was used inside the harpoon grenades. Ammunition (gun powder and later smokeless powder) was also used for the powering of the harpoon cannon gun.
Blubber-cutter – From large rotating blubber cutter which cut blubber into smaller pieces before going into the blubber cooker.
Blubber-hook – Wooden implement with metal hook, used to move blubber around.
Blubber-knife – Wooden handle with hooked blade used to cut blubber.
Blubber toggle – For attaching a winch cable to a strip of blubber so it could be stripped from the whale carcass.
Bone saws – believed to have been used for the first time at Grytviken in 1921 – 22. They were manufactured in the station workshops.
Bogies – open trucks or v-tipper trucks on rails
Bone-saw – Large saw used to cut up whale bones. Usually steam powered and made from metal. Blade about 2-3 metres in size.
Crow’s nest or barrel – placed high on the mast of a whale catcher. Used for sighting whales.
Fairlead – device to guide rope
Foregoer – The first 220 metres of line which was attached to the harpoon which was shot from the harpoon gun into the whale. Made of flexible, elastic nylon rope. foreløper in Norwegain
Flensing-knife – Knife with large, curved blade used to cut blubber from the whale. From Norwegian flense (Shetlandfelnshin) – to cut or strip blubber from an animal.
Harpoon – Harpoon was fired into the whale using harpoon cannon. Grenade was fixed to the tip of the harpoon. The harpoon often got bent when it was fired into the whale and had to be fixed by the blacksmiths.
Harpoon-cannon-gun – Cannon gun developed in the late 19 century and used throughout 20 century whaling. Powered by gunpowder and later smokeless powder. This apparatus was loaded with harpoon and grenade and fired into the whale from the bow of the whaling catchers.
Harpoon-grenade – These were filled with ammunition and would have exploded inside the whale on entering it. Was fired from harpoon using a harpoon cannon. Grenade would have detonated and killed the whale almost instantly. Initially a pointed grenade was favoured but later in the 20th-century a grenade with an indented tip was favoured.
Meat-hook – Wooden handled implement with metal hook. Used to move the meat around.
Squeegee – Squeegee was used to remove fluids from whale on the flensing plan.
Syringe – Used to administer medicine to people in the whaling hospitals.
Time fuses – screwed into the head of the harpoon. They detonated three seconds after the cannon was fired, exploding the charge of about 400 grams of powder in the grenade and sending shrapnel through the whale’s body.
Transfer-basket – Used to transfer goods and people between ships and the shore.
Whale line – Made of manilla. Up to seven 220 metre lengths followed the nylon foreløper making a total length of over a mile.
Whale line guide – Used on board whale catchers to guide and brake the line of rope that went into the harpoon into the whale.
Whale-beacon – Attached to whale to locate it again. Light-emitting ones were used to aid in the finding of whales that had been caught.
Whale-claw – Used to drag the whale onto the flensing plan. Attached to a winch. Large metal clawed instrument that would have clamped onto the tail of the whale.
Whale-mark – Used to identify whales which had been marked by the Discovery Investigations. These were metal tubes with a conical shaped head with writing to identify who the mark belonged to and each had an identifiable number.
Whale-plug – Wooden plugs inserted into the hole that was made when the whale had been killed and filled with air to ensure it floated.
Whaling-spade – Metal blade, shaped like a half-cylinder tapering to a point at the tip which would have had a wooden handle. Used to pierce a hole in the whale. Skjølp in Norwegian.
Wire strop – This lay at the bottom of the slot when the harpoon was in the cannon and which moved to the bottom when it was fired so the rope did not drag the harpoon off course.
Wood and fibre wads – wads or baklådninger were loaded in the cannon’s barrel between the cartridge and the harpoon to make a tight fit.
PROCESSING TERMS
Ambergris – Naturally occurring product found in the intestines of sperm whales. This is highly valuable and was sold for many purposes, one being for use in perfume. It is a solid and waxy substance.
Antibiotic – Antibiotics were produced to ensure whales stayed fresher for longer. They were inserted into whales after they had been killed.
Baleen – Found in baleen whales. Filter-feeding system located in the mouths of whales. This was a popular product at the start of the whaling industry and was used to create many objects, especially clothing.
Bone-Cookery – Where the bones were boiled in a pressure cooked. Cylindrical in shape. Bones cooked for roughly 12 hours.
Bonemeal – Product made from the remnants of the cookeries. It was sold as animal feeding and fertiliser. It could be made in various sizes of flakes.
Bovril-plant – Name used for the plant where meat-extract was made. Whaling products were an important food source.
Blubber (spick/speck in Norwegian) – the fat of sea mammals, especially whales and seals.
Blubber-cookery – Where the blubber was boiled in a pressure cooker. Cylindrical in shape. Blubber cooked for roughly 4-6 hours.
Blubber press – A mechanical device used on a factory ship to extract oil from blubber by compression
Flensing – The process of stripping blubber from the whale carcass.
Flensing-plan or plan – Ashore, a large wooden decked area next to the sea which was open to the elements. Where whale was drawn up to when it came ashore, and the carcass would have been worked on from the flensing plan. On the ship the plan was the main deck, divieded in fore-plan and after-plan
‘Full cook’ – Term used to describe the factory when it was operating at full processing capacity.
Galley – Kitchen on board ships.
Glue-water – Viscous liquid left over from the boiling process of the whale.
Grax – The residue from the cooking process which normally went to waste
Guano – Used to refer to the residue left over from the boiling process of the whale. Also used to refer to the bonemeal product.
Guano Factory – An installation on the factory ship or shore station used to convert meat and bone into meat meal, bone meal or a combination called ‘whale guano’. Meat meal and Guano was used as an agricultural feed and bone meal as a fertiliser.
Hartmann cooker – Horizontal cylindrical cooker which rotated material as it was being cooked. An efficient cooking blubber, meat and bone for extracting high yields of oil. The residue, or guano, left was utilised into meat or bone meal. Used at Grytviken and Leith harbour, German made.
Hell’s-gates – Colloquial term for the ramp where the whale was winched onto the factory processing ship.
Kettles – term for cookers
Kvaerner cooker – Horizontal cylindrical cooker which rotated material as it was being cooked. An efficient cooking blubber, meat and bone for extracting high yields of oil. The residue, or guano, left was utilised into meat or bone meal. Used on Savlesen’s ships, Norwegian made.
Lemming – the process of removing the back meat, separating from the bones of the rib cage and skeleton
Meat-cookery – Where the meat from the whale was boiled in a pressure cooker. Cylindrical in shape. Meat cooked for about 5-8 hours.
Mess – Where people would eat and socialise. Common term on board ships and within military.
Skrott – The flensed carcass of a whale from which the blubber had been removed.
Skott Factory – A factory ship that dealt with the ‘skrotts’.
Sperm-oil – Waxy liquid found in the head of a sperm whale. Also referred to as spermaceti.
Tail Strop – wire lengths with an eye splice at each end, used to secure dead whales
Whale-meal – Another name for bonemeal
Whale-oil – The oil produced from the whale carcass. After 1918 this was made from not only the blubber of the whale but also the meat and bone. Describe the different grades?
Whale oil separator – Device which purified whale oil by removing foreign matter to produce a high-grade product.
BUILDING TERMS
Ammo Hut – Ammunition hut, where the explosives were stored. Usually built a few hundred metres away from the main factory area.
KEP – Acronym for King Edward Point.
Kino – Norwegian word for cinema. There were cinemas at many of the whaling stations.
Villa – Used to describe the houses that people with higher rank lived in. Such as Manager’s Villa or Foreman’s Villa.