8 Whaling Season 1936/1938
Letter sent October 13, 1937 from St. Nicolaas Aruba, to Norway. Sender was R. Danielsen, who worked as secretary at S / S Sourabaya.
Back of letter, S / S Sourabaya
Between
whaling seasons, the S / S Sourabaya lay in the harbor of Tønsberg. In the
latter part of September 1937, the Norwegian whalers went on board of the
factory ship, and shortly thereafter left for Aruba where they took fuel oil.
In Aruba, the crew had the opportunity to send letters to family and friends.
Afterwards, the ship headed for Arctic waters. The season started on 12-8-1936
and lasted until 3-15-1938. As this letter is not airmail, it was at the post
office awaiting a ship going to Norway / Europe.
Letter sent 23-X-1937 from Oslo, to whale factory “Svend Foyn ”South Georgia. The letter was sent when a transport ship / tanker was about to leave Norway and pass through Aruba / Curaçao. to collect fuel oil and went to the whaling areas via South Georgia to supply Svend Foyn (II) with fuel oil in early 1938. Rate for one letter to foreign countries (by ship) was 30 øre between 1-1-1927 and 9-30-1946.
Whale factory ship "Svend Foyn
II", with whale catchers
Whale
Factory "Svend Foyn II". Built in 1931 at Furness Shipbuilding Co
Ltd, Haverton Hill, Middlesbrough, on behalf of A / S Sydhavet Sandefjord. The
ship was between seasons in Tønsberg and sailed from Tønsberg at the end of
September 1937 to Aruba / Curaçao to collect fuel oil. Then it would sail to
Husvik (harbor) in southern Georgia, where whalers were laid up and repaired
during the Antarctic winter.
Solglimt
Visited on the way to the whaling grounds Cape Town on November 20, 1935. All
the letters from the expedition (factory ship and whalers), destined for Norway
where collected. As long as the letters are in bags landed, Norwegian stamps
accepted, and from one Cape Town Paquebot stamp provided. This UPU regulation
was valuable for the sailors because they got away with Norwegian stamps for every
letter domestic rate (= 20 øre between 1- 6-1932 and 1-9-1942). It rate foreign
was 30 øre between 1- 1-1927 and 1-10-1946. Without the regulation, South
African foreign tariff would have to be used.
Letter sent to Anders Haughem. He
was a mate on board whale catcher Kos 15, belonging to the whale factory ship
“Kosmos II” in the whaling expedition season 1937/1938. The letter was sent
when a transport ship / tanker was about to leave Norway and went to Walvis
Bay, South West Africa. Postmarked Sandefjord 14.2.1938. Rate for one letter to
foreign countries (by ship) was 30 øre between 1-1-1927 and 9-30-1946.
The British company Walfish Bay Whaling Company Ltd ran a whaling station in Walvis Bay South West Africa. Period from 1912 till 1930.
The whaling station in Walvis Bay. In 1923 the whaling station was still active, with 296 whales being caught that year, but in the 1930s, with whaling ships becoming more advanced and processing their catch at sea, Walvis Bay became a repair facility for whaling ships. It was completely destroyed by a fire on 31 May 1950.
Whale factory ship “Kosmos II”, build
in 1931 by Workman Clark and Co Belfast. Owner: Hvalfangerselskapet Kosmos II
AS Sandefjord.
SS
Lancing was a Norwegian whale factory ship, originally the British merchant
ship Knight Errant. Her final sale took place in 1925, when she was acquired by
the Norwegian firm of Hvalfanger A/S Globus. They undertook her conversion to a
whale factory ship and assigned her to be operated by Melsom & Melsom,
Larvik under the name “Lancing”. This was the First factory ship with a stern
slipway, and the first to do pelagic whaling. She was sunk off Cape Hatteras on
7 April 1942 by the German submarine U-552.
Letter
sent to Bjarne Steinsholdt, working on Whale factory ship “N.T.
Nielsen-Alonso”. The tanker “Polartank”, however, was in Larvik ready to depart
for Aruba/Curacao to pick up fuel oil for the “N.T. Nielsen-Alonso” expedition.
Postmarked Steinsholt 8.XI.1937. Rate
for one letter to foreign countries (by ship) was 30 øre between 1-1-1927 and 9-30-1946.
M/T Polartank, built by Barclay Curle
& Co., Glasgow in 1930. Owner Melsom & Melsom, Larvik.
Whale factory ship N.T.
Nielsen-Alonso
Owner:
Hvalfangerselskapet Polaris A/S Larvik Norway. Built by C. Connell & Co
Ltd., Glasgow in 1900 as cargo liner Custodian, T. & J. Harrison,
Liverpool. Sold in 1923 to H. J. Giffin, Leith and renamed Polcevera. Sold to
Norway in 1926 and converted to whale oil factory N. T. Nielsen Alonso. Around
the years 1928-1930 this Norwegian vessel was a regular visitor of Amsterdam,
carrying more than 10,000 tons of whale-oil from harbours like Hobart and
Fremantle.
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