Nine men standing on beached sperm whale

whale_beached

Nine men standing on beached sperm whale at Leith Harbour, South Georgia, 1913

“Although the results of the Dundee Antarctic Expedition of 1892-93 inevitably led to the conclusion that whaling in the Antarctic seas was not then a viable economic proposition, improvements in equipment did eventually lead to the development of a briefly thriving industry in that region. Scottish interest revived, but switched from Dundee to Leith, where three companies were involved: the New Whaling Co. (1908), the South Georgia Co. Ltd. (1909), and Christian Salvesen & Co. (1911). The South Georgia Co. established a factory at Leith Harbour in Stromness Bay, South Georgia, where this 1913 photograph shows a female cachalot or sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) at the flenching platform, on which it would be cut up to remove the commercially valuable parts.”

Royal Scottish Geographical Society

About Ernest Shackleton

Polar Explorer. Leader of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914-1917.
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