1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:05,120 This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting. 2 00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:09,280 A few hundred years ago, the oceans were home to millions of whales, 3 00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:13,600 but then we discovered that they were incredibly useful animals. 4 00:00:13,600 --> 00:00:16,520 Every single minute of people's days 5 00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:19,640 would have been surrounded by whale products. 6 00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:23,520 Whales were seen as commodities, to produce benefits for people. 7 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:28,880 Mention whaling today and most of us think of Moby Dick 8 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:31,400 or menacing Japanese factory ships. 9 00:00:31,400 --> 00:00:34,480 But it's an important part of British history... 10 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:39,360 ..carried on right up to the 1960s. 11 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:42,120 We did it to produce something for this country. 12 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:47,280 When we worked out that whales could be used to make soap and food, 13 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:50,600 a vast industry emerged on the edge of the world. 14 00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:55,040 When industrial whaling took on the whales of the Antarctic Ocean, 15 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:58,200 the centre of the business was on a British island. 16 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:01,680 Here, on South Georgia, 17 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:05,960 there are the extraordinary ruins of a complete whaling town. 18 00:01:05,960 --> 00:01:08,200 Look at the scale of this! 19 00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:10,560 Knowing that the whales were decimated, 20 00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:14,520 it's hard to imagine the mindset that would want to kill them. 21 00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:18,000 I wouldn't like to do it now and I wouldn't do it now. 22 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:21,280 But if I'm going to understand this important industry, 23 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:24,720 I have to put our environmental guilt to one side. 24 00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:29,280 With the help of the last of the many Scottish whalers, 25 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:32,280 I examine it through the eyes of its own time. 26 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:37,160 It was a way of life. And it was a respected way of life. 27 00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:39,960 You went away as a boy and you came back a man. 28 00:01:39,960 --> 00:01:43,280 Why do people embark on this difficult and dangerous thing? 29 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:47,040 What were the gains? What were they after? What were the dangers? 30 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:50,760 What was it actually like to be a whale hunter? 31 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:55,040 Nowadays, I'm one of the youngest whalers alive. 32 00:01:55,040 --> 00:02:00,760 There won't be many of us left to tell the story about whaling. 33 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:03,440 I think it should be done... 34 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:06,640 ..before it's too late. 35 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:20,040 This is the west coast of Scotland 36 00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:22,760 and I've been coming here since I was a boy. 37 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:26,040 Nowhere in Britain is more alive than this place. 38 00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:29,960 It's absolutely throbbing with the natural world. 39 00:02:29,960 --> 00:02:33,040 And the thing that they've relied on for their lives here 40 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:35,040 has been the sea. 41 00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:38,280 I've always known they've eaten limpets and obviously fish 42 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:41,040 and shellfish, sea birds, 43 00:02:41,040 --> 00:02:46,400 but what I hadn't realised is that they also hunted the whale. 44 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:54,040 Until just a few hundred years ago, large numbers of whales 45 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:58,040 of many different species inhabited these waters. 46 00:02:58,040 --> 00:03:01,520 It's the realisation that today's lack of whales 47 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:04,520 must be the result of a long and sustained effort 48 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:08,800 that has prompted me to find out more about British whaling. 49 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:15,360 It's a history that's almost been lost, but luckily, many whalers 50 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:20,240 recorded their industry and some are still alive to tell their story. 51 00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:23,760 It was part of our heritage. 52 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:28,240 I mean, whaling had gone on since, erm...God knows when. 53 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:34,480 People had always done opportunistic whaling - 54 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:38,280 eating, cutting up whales that washed up on the shore, 55 00:03:38,280 --> 00:03:43,040 but what I hadn't realised is that, about a thousand years ago, 56 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:45,040 the Vikings arrived 57 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:48,040 and began a completely different way of doing this - 58 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:50,640 of actively chasing and hunting whales. 59 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:54,480 I'm sailing to a place where the Viking approach to catching small 60 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:59,520 whales was still being practised less than 200 years ago. 61 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:03,040 This is Stornoway harbour, in Lewis, in the Hebrides 62 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:05,560 and I'm just coming into the harbour now. 63 00:04:05,560 --> 00:04:11,040 I've read an extraordinary account in this book by Osgood Mackenzie - 64 00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:14,640 a 19th century account of a pilot whale hunt, 65 00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:18,520 and what's fascinating is that they're doing exactly 66 00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:22,040 what the Vikings have been doing all over the North Atlantic 67 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:24,240 for the last thousand years. 68 00:04:28,280 --> 00:04:31,720 So, out here, there would have been one line of boats 69 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:36,040 outside the pilot whales, with everyone in them throwing stones 70 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:40,280 into the water, shouting, and so slowly, slowly 71 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:44,360 they drove them into this narrowing head of this loch here, 72 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:47,520 with the idea that when they get to the head of the loch, 73 00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:50,520 in the shallows there, they could jump into the water 74 00:04:50,520 --> 00:04:52,360 and slaughter them. 75 00:04:57,040 --> 00:05:00,520 The oil from these pilot whales was invaluable to the people 76 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:04,240 living here, providing lighting and oiling machinery, 77 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:08,040 while the cured meat would help feed them through the winter. 78 00:05:14,280 --> 00:05:16,520 This is where it all ended up, 79 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:19,880 right at the head of Stornoway harbour, in the shallows here. 80 00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:27,000 The whole of Stornoway was out here with knives, broad swords, 81 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:29,120 roasting spits, 82 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:32,040 stabbing away at these things, 83 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:34,320 and the blood was horrific. 84 00:05:35,320 --> 00:05:38,280 It's rather weird to think of all this killing going on 85 00:05:38,280 --> 00:05:41,760 in a town in Scotland, but in fact, it was part of something 86 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:45,920 that was going on all over the North Atlantic, the Viking North Atlantic. 87 00:05:48,280 --> 00:05:53,040 This was a civilisation dependent on what the sea could give it 88 00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:56,520 and the sea could give nothing better than the whale. 89 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:06,760 From the late 17th century, 90 00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:09,480 a more commercial form of whaling developed, 91 00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:12,040 to supply Britain's growing cities. 92 00:06:12,040 --> 00:06:17,720 That shift to a refined urban life created an ever-expanding market 93 00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:19,480 for whale products. 94 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:23,920 I've come to Spitalfields, in London, to a merchant's house 95 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:27,960 that has been restored to how it was in the 18th and 19th centuries. 96 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:31,120 And I am interested to find out how much of what is in here 97 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:32,520 was made of the whale. 98 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:38,840 - Callum. - Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you, too. 99 00:06:38,840 --> 00:06:42,400 Professor Callum Roberts is a marine biologist, with a special 100 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:46,480 interest in how our seas have been exploited over the centuries. 101 00:06:46,480 --> 00:06:49,720 - Wow, that is a room, isn't it? - It certainly is. 102 00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:53,360 It's just like the inhabitants have just walked out the door. 103 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:57,880 There is a classic, classic whale product in here, isn't there? 104 00:06:57,880 --> 00:06:59,800 That's right, the corset, 105 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:03,560 which was supported by these stays inside the material... 106 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:06,480 - Can you feel them? Yes, you can. - ..which were made of whalebone. 107 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:10,640 And it was a wonderful plastic material - 108 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:13,320 it was flexible and bendy, but it was very, very strong. 109 00:07:13,320 --> 00:07:16,360 Now, what about this? Oh, look at that. 110 00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:18,640 And that is the whalebone. 111 00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:23,840 - And carved to this incredibly precise millimetre thing. - How fascinating. 112 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:26,520 Look at that. Now, that is intriguing. 113 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:29,880 Is that whale oil that is burning in there? 114 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:32,520 It would have been at the time, because it became completely 115 00:07:32,520 --> 00:07:36,120 standard for people to light their rooms and houses 116 00:07:36,120 --> 00:07:37,760 with this kind of fuel. 117 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:41,200 And out in the streets, by about 1740, 118 00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:45,080 London had 5,000 streetlamps that were fuelled by whale oil alone. 119 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:49,080 And that's why there was such a surge in demand for whales. 120 00:07:49,080 --> 00:07:54,320 - Was there any feeling that somehow this wasn't quite right? - Not at all. 121 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:58,600 Whales were simply seen as commodities that could be hunted 122 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:00,760 to produce benefits for people. 123 00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:05,160 Ships from London, Hall, Whitby 124 00:08:05,160 --> 00:08:09,360 and Dundee flocked to the Arctic in search of whales. 125 00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:11,800 In 1788 alone, 126 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:16,680 247 British ships set sail for the ice. 127 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:20,800 There, they chased down whales in light rowing boats with 128 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:22,640 hand-held harpoons. 129 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:27,440 The most famous of all the whalers who went up to the Arctic was 130 00:08:27,440 --> 00:08:30,720 a man called William Scoresby from Whitby. 131 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:34,800 And he wrote this account of whaling in the Arctic regions. 132 00:08:34,800 --> 00:08:37,920 "Those employed in the occupation of killing whales," 133 00:08:37,920 --> 00:08:42,200 he says, "when actually engaged are exposed to danger 134 00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:44,640 "from three sources - from the ice, 135 00:08:44,640 --> 00:08:48,080 "from the climate and from the whales themselves. 136 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:49,240 "And of the three, 137 00:08:49,240 --> 00:08:52,640 "it was the whales that were the really dangerous things - 138 00:08:52,640 --> 00:08:55,720 "boats, together with their crews and apparatus, 139 00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:57,840 "projected into the air." 140 00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:01,320 Christ! 141 00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:03,400 Some of them must have been terrified. 142 00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:07,800 Maybe they had been capsized before or something like that, 143 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:10,920 you don't live long in either Arctic or Antarctic waters, 144 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:12,400 you only have a few minutes. 145 00:09:12,400 --> 00:09:16,400 In the old days, it was wooden ships and iron men. 146 00:09:16,400 --> 00:09:19,600 Now it is iron ships and wooden men. 147 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:21,920 Well, there must've been iron men in these days 148 00:09:21,920 --> 00:09:25,600 to go out in open boats and harpoon whales. 149 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:32,200 So, what effect did this huge demand for whale product 150 00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:34,320 have on the whales themselves? 151 00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:38,200 The particular whales they were after then were things called right whales. 152 00:09:38,200 --> 00:09:41,440 The reason they were the right whales is cos they moved slowly, 153 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:46,120 they were quite docile and they had a big layer of blubber, 154 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:48,760 which meant that, after they had been killed, they floated. 155 00:09:48,760 --> 00:09:52,080 And that was important, because when you have got something as heavy 156 00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:54,160 as a whale on the end of a line, then, 157 00:09:54,160 --> 00:09:56,240 if it sank, you'd be in trouble. 158 00:09:56,240 --> 00:09:59,960 And being so valuable meant that they were pursued relentlessly, 159 00:09:59,960 --> 00:10:03,880 so that, after a couple of hundred years of exploitation, 160 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:07,840 they essentially were driven extinct in the North Atlantic. 161 00:10:07,840 --> 00:10:11,880 And this is the wrong kind of whale. This was the blue whale. 162 00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:14,240 These were also abundant in those waters, 163 00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:17,480 but they weren't hunted, and the reason was that they were too 164 00:10:17,480 --> 00:10:22,040 fast - they couldn't be approached by rowboats or in sailboats. 165 00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:23,960 But there was another important reason. 166 00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:27,320 If you were to harpoon one, it would sink, 167 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:29,480 and that would be a major liability. 168 00:10:29,480 --> 00:10:32,680 - OK, so the blue whales were uncatchable. - There were. 169 00:10:32,680 --> 00:10:35,680 So, would we have seen these species around our coasts? 170 00:10:35,680 --> 00:10:37,720 We would certainly have seen many. 171 00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:39,480 Not the Greenland right whale, 172 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:43,680 but all of the others were common sightings from just... 173 00:10:43,680 --> 00:10:46,360 You could see them from the cliffs of Dover, for example. 174 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:49,240 - And not a single one now. - No. 175 00:10:51,560 --> 00:10:55,240 As the easily-caught right whales in the Arctic were brought 176 00:10:55,240 --> 00:10:57,880 close to extinction in the mid-19th century, 177 00:10:57,880 --> 00:11:00,440 British whaling went into steep decline. 178 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:06,480 The centre of the whaling world shifted to South Norway, 179 00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:09,520 where there was a drive to find a way of hunting the species 180 00:11:09,520 --> 00:11:11,200 that was still plentiful. 181 00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:15,200 Small towns, like this one in Vestfold, 182 00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:19,880 became centres of innovation and engineering excellence. 183 00:11:19,880 --> 00:11:22,760 The question is, how did they do it 184 00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:26,000 when the rest of the industry was dying on its feet? 185 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:34,560 The answer lies in this man's famed find - the inventor 186 00:11:34,560 --> 00:11:39,360 of modern whaling, who became the richest man in Norway, as a result. 187 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:44,680 Look at him. He is a great, fat, substantial, no-nonsense figure. 188 00:11:44,680 --> 00:11:49,040 But can one man really have transformed an entire industry? 189 00:11:55,360 --> 00:11:59,480 I've been invited to Norway to join a group of Scottish whalers. 190 00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:02,640 They're on their annual visit to meet their old Norwegian friends 191 00:12:02,640 --> 00:12:04,320 from the industry. 192 00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:06,320 It's still quite mobile, isn't it? 193 00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:12,240 They've brought me to a restored whale-catching ship, 194 00:12:12,240 --> 00:12:16,880 that illustrates Svend Foyn's technological revolution. 195 00:12:16,880 --> 00:12:21,480 So, what were the big changes that Svend Foyn made to whaling? 196 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:24,840 He invented the whale catcher. 197 00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:29,280 He invented a new type of whaling gun, which he made bigger. 198 00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:32,600 It is a harpoon, with an explosive head on it. 199 00:12:32,600 --> 00:12:36,760 - And the system he invented lasted? - Yeah, it still does. 200 00:12:40,400 --> 00:12:43,280 Foyn's bold idea was to harness steam power 201 00:12:43,280 --> 00:12:47,440 and modern explosives, to allow him to catch the wrong whales - 202 00:12:47,440 --> 00:12:51,160 the blue and fin whales that swam fast 203 00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:53,280 and sank, once they had been killed. 204 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:07,360 Generally, I think that whales were mostly spotted 205 00:13:07,360 --> 00:13:10,280 from the barrel about 70 feet above the deck. 206 00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:13,800 When you were going up to the barrel, 207 00:13:13,800 --> 00:13:15,960 as the ship was rolling to one side, 208 00:13:15,960 --> 00:13:17,520 you'd just hang on. 209 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:18,800 Once you got in there, 210 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:22,240 you had binoculars and you started looking for whales. 211 00:13:25,120 --> 00:13:27,520 If I'm up in the barrel and I saw a whale, 212 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:30,400 you just blew the whistle, then you started pointing. 213 00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:33,720 Of course, as soon as you shouted, the catcher went full ahead. 214 00:13:33,720 --> 00:13:35,840 The telegraph goes. 215 00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:38,400 I answer the telegraph 216 00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:42,640 - and then open up the valve, to full. - For full-on. 217 00:13:42,640 --> 00:13:44,760 Because you were going, then, you were on a chase. 218 00:13:44,760 --> 00:13:46,280 You could tell you were on a chase. 219 00:13:46,280 --> 00:13:48,600 You could see everything shaking, the whole barrel 220 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:50,240 and everything was shaking. 221 00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:56,120 You need your gun loaded up, so I get down... 222 00:13:57,560 --> 00:13:58,760 Christ, that is... 223 00:13:58,760 --> 00:14:02,040 So, seas are coming over you at this point, are they? 224 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:06,000 I feel the boat is going down again, right? Uff! Grab on! 225 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:07,720 Slow up again, right? 226 00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:10,680 What I have to do, coil it properly, because if this 227 00:14:10,680 --> 00:14:14,040 went in a kink when he fired the gun, it could be dangerous. 228 00:14:19,720 --> 00:14:22,880 If you had spotted a whale, it might last for an hour. 229 00:14:22,880 --> 00:14:24,920 The excitement would mount. 230 00:14:24,920 --> 00:14:26,320 I'll tell you something, 231 00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:29,720 there's nothing more exciting than being on a catcher, chasing. 232 00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:34,160 When the whale goes down... 233 00:14:35,280 --> 00:14:37,800 ..you're all on your toes, looking all over the place. 234 00:14:37,800 --> 00:14:40,040 It's just exciting. 235 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:44,600 Once you got coming up to the whales, maybe about... 236 00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:49,240 ..maybe 100 yards ahead of you, 237 00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:52,720 the gunner would leave the bridge and go to the gun. 238 00:14:52,720 --> 00:14:57,000 When I fire, I don't want to close my eyes, cos I want to see 239 00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:59,960 the trajectory of the harpoon. 240 00:14:59,960 --> 00:15:04,000 Going at full speed, the gunner really had very little time, 241 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:07,920 maybe a couple of seconds, to make up his mind whether to shoot or not. 242 00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:23,200 You did... Well, I did... 243 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:26,760 You know, when a whale was harpooned, you couldn't help 244 00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:30,080 wincing when that harpoon went in, because that was a living animal. 245 00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:33,480 It had feeling, just the same as we do, 246 00:15:33,480 --> 00:15:35,360 as far as pain is concerned. 247 00:15:46,880 --> 00:15:48,200 Yeah, that's... 248 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:51,920 It was a brutal way of life. There is no getting away from the fact. 249 00:15:56,680 --> 00:15:58,800 They seem so friendly. 250 00:15:58,800 --> 00:16:01,360 And they'd make a noise and... 251 00:16:01,360 --> 00:16:03,800 Like, when you hit them, 252 00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:05,440 they cried really. 253 00:16:05,440 --> 00:16:07,560 And that... I felt that. 254 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:17,640 The grenade tip of Foyn's harpoon was designed to deliver 255 00:16:17,640 --> 00:16:19,680 a fatal explosion after impact. 256 00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:26,040 But if the whale was just injured, another innovation was needed 257 00:16:26,040 --> 00:16:28,920 to play it on a long, spring-loaded line. 258 00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:37,320 After the gun has been fired, when you start to reel the fish 259 00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:40,240 back in, the line starts to come down here. 260 00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:44,280 - Right. So the other end of that is attached to the harpoon? - Yes. 261 00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:47,280 Yeah. And what length of line would you be having in here? 262 00:16:47,280 --> 00:16:49,440 Must be near a mile, I would think. 263 00:16:51,360 --> 00:16:55,320 It could be dangerous, yes, if the whale wasn't shot properly 264 00:16:55,320 --> 00:16:58,000 and took out a lot of line and there was a lot of strain 265 00:16:58,000 --> 00:16:59,560 and that line was really stretching. 266 00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:04,920 There was one young chap, he fell when he tried to get out, 267 00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:10,480 a kink went in this line and he lost the foot off his leg. 268 00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:15,520 The second mate's job was to put on the brakes. 269 00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:19,840 And he also had to keep an eye on how far down the mast this block came. 270 00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:23,720 So, when the whale is putting tension on the harpoon line, 271 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:27,640 this, kind of, like, the spring of a fishing rod, takes that tension up 272 00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:31,360 - and releases it slowly, with no jerks. - That's correct. 273 00:17:31,360 --> 00:17:35,360 Is this one of the inventions made by the Norwegians 274 00:17:35,360 --> 00:17:37,600 - in the 19th century? - It is, yes. 275 00:17:37,600 --> 00:17:41,240 - Svend Foyn. - Svend Foyn was responsible for this one. 276 00:17:48,360 --> 00:17:51,280 We, then, had to pump air into the whale, 277 00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:55,520 because a whale could...sink. 278 00:17:57,280 --> 00:18:01,920 The mess boy's job was to take a long, wooden pole 279 00:18:01,920 --> 00:18:05,800 and a hose, with something resembling a huge hypodermic needle, 280 00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:08,280 and then pump air into it. 281 00:18:10,520 --> 00:18:13,640 Then, we had to flag the whale, because, throughout the day, 282 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:17,280 we might be chasing for the next eight, ten, 12 hours. 283 00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:21,080 So coming back, we wanted to make our job a little easier 284 00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:22,200 to find them again. 285 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:27,960 - You were a whaler for 30 years. - Yes. 286 00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:31,680 And you became a gunner? You were a gunner in the end? 287 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:33,840 I became a gunner when I was 25. 288 00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:38,320 And do you know how many whales you shot in your career? 289 00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:40,640 - Well, plus or minus 6,000. - Really? 290 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:44,200 - Yeah. - That is quite a body of whales. - Oh, yes. Oh, yes. 291 00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:49,080 And the thing was to catch as many whales as you could. 292 00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:52,320 That is what we were there for, that is what we concentrated on. 293 00:18:55,760 --> 00:19:00,320 It takes being on a catcher like this to see just how good 294 00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:03,960 Svend Foyn's changes were - how incredibly effective they were. 295 00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:05,880 It changed everything. 296 00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:09,600 The second thing is what extraordinary teamwork 297 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:10,920 is going on here. 298 00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:15,240 Everything has to be incredibly finely tuned, in this very, 299 00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:18,960 very hostile, dynamic, dangerous environment. 300 00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:25,200 But there is some mismatch between that skill in the service 301 00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:27,320 of something that isn't entirely good. 302 00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:30,200 There is something that doesn't quite fit there. 303 00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:35,480 With Foyn's new whale-catching ships, 304 00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:39,120 the blue and fin whales along the coasts of northwest Europe 305 00:19:39,120 --> 00:19:42,240 could now be caught and towed ashore for processing. 306 00:19:45,280 --> 00:19:49,200 Modern whaling quickly spread from the waters of northern Norway 307 00:19:49,200 --> 00:19:53,360 to Iceland, the Faroes and Scotland. 308 00:19:55,520 --> 00:19:58,400 The new catching technology coincided with 309 00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:00,920 a lull in demand for whaling products. 310 00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:04,920 Coal, gas and, then, electricity had taken the place of whale oil 311 00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:09,800 for lighting and no-one wanted whalebone corsets any more. 312 00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:12,080 There was some demand for whale oil, 313 00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:16,920 but the prices were so low that the enterprise would only work 314 00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:20,840 where the whales were really densely concentrated. 315 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:26,160 It was then that whaling entrepreneurs remembered 316 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:29,360 old explorers' reports of abundant whales 317 00:20:29,360 --> 00:20:33,320 at the other end of the world - the Antarctic Ocean. 318 00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:40,840 I went whaling at the age of 16. 319 00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:44,000 Coming off a croft in Shetland, you went down to Aberdeen 320 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:46,880 and you saw your first double-decker bus and your first train. 321 00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:53,560 I'd never been off the island before. 322 00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:57,920 I went to Leeds and joined the Southern Harvester in South Shields. 323 00:20:57,920 --> 00:21:00,400 And headed down to the ice. 324 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:05,120 With a history of whaling and a reputation as seafarers, 325 00:21:05,120 --> 00:21:08,840 Scotsmen became a part of the industry Norway pioneered 326 00:21:08,840 --> 00:21:11,160 and joined them in the south. 327 00:21:14,240 --> 00:21:18,240 When I left, I was a bit seasick and also a bit homesick, as well. 328 00:21:18,240 --> 00:21:19,760 But I soon overcame that. 329 00:21:22,360 --> 00:21:26,200 I chose whaling because it was an adventure. 330 00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:29,880 It was folklore here 331 00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:32,400 and whalers were famous. 332 00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:33,520 When they came home, 333 00:21:33,520 --> 00:21:35,360 everybody had a new car 334 00:21:35,360 --> 00:21:37,240 or a new motorbike 335 00:21:37,240 --> 00:21:39,480 and...or a new boat. 336 00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:45,960 So I thought, "I fancy a bit of this myself." 337 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:55,160 For me, two months at sea is reduced to a comfortable 16-hour flight 338 00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:57,280 to the Falkland Islands. 339 00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:04,320 Port Stanley, the capital of the Falklands, 340 00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:08,280 was the British colonial outpost nearest to the new whaling grounds. 341 00:22:09,360 --> 00:22:14,120 There is no doubt that I am getting close to the heart of the matter. 342 00:22:14,120 --> 00:22:15,520 Wow! 343 00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:21,320 This... I mean, all you can think is just - really, really big. 344 00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:24,680 These are two sets of the lower jaw, 345 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:27,840 just this bit, of two blue whales. 346 00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:32,560 You could... You know, you could comfortably drive a really big truck 347 00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:34,040 through here. 348 00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:37,880 They're the biggest animals that have ever lived. 349 00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:40,800 Bigger than any dinosaur. 350 00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:45,080 And you have to imagine, of course, that this is just the head here. 351 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:49,480 And the rest of the body is going on down underground another 80, 352 00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:51,200 90 feet. 353 00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:56,040 You know, the Leviathan, the Colossus of the ocean. 354 00:22:56,040 --> 00:22:59,320 The new southern centre of the whaling industry 355 00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:01,520 developed on another British island 356 00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:06,960 900 miles across the stormy Southern Ocean - South Georgia. 357 00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:16,360 To get there, I am hitching a ride on a ship 358 00:23:16,360 --> 00:23:20,000 taking 120 tourists on an Antarctic expedition. 359 00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:33,280 There are fantastic albatrosses out here. Look at that. 360 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:37,120 Oh, my God, that's a beautiful thing! 361 00:23:37,120 --> 00:23:38,680 Oh! 362 00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:44,080 Whoa! 363 00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:49,760 That is one of most beautiful things I've ever seen. 364 00:23:50,920 --> 00:23:53,400 It would be fantastic to see a whale. 365 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:03,320 All my life, I had wanted to see the Antarctic. 366 00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:07,200 I suppose this was my way of doing this. 367 00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:11,480 The reason I wanted to go to South Georgia, Antarctica, 368 00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:16,520 was that I had read from the age of ten about Shackleton and Scott, 369 00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:19,480 and that fascinated me, as a youngster. 370 00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:23,320 In 1892, a full ten years before Scott 371 00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:26,440 and Shackleton first set foot on Antarctica, 372 00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:30,440 two whaling expeditions from Norway and Scotland were already 373 00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:34,960 exploring this last frontier of the known world. 374 00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:39,400 They reported back that there were thousands upon thousands of blue, 375 00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:41,760 fin and humpback whales. 376 00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:47,120 We're just crossing the Antarctic Convergence, which is 377 00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:50,880 the point where quite warm - relatively warm - Atlantic water 378 00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:55,200 comes down and meets very much colder Antarctic water. 379 00:24:56,760 --> 00:25:01,360 As those two water bodies meet, there is incredible turbulence 380 00:25:01,360 --> 00:25:05,520 and upwelling in the ocean and so, it becomes very, very fertile. 381 00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:08,880 We get a lot of birds and also whales. 382 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:12,800 If you were a whale hunter, this is where you'd come hunt them. 383 00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:16,280 This is it. This is whale central. 384 00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:19,560 But there isn't a single one here. 385 00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:36,320 The first time I seen South Georgia, I just... The most beautiful, 386 00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:38,840 still, calm, frosty morning, 387 00:25:38,840 --> 00:25:41,160 and I thought it was the beautifulest scenery 388 00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:43,240 that I was ever seeing, anywhere at all. 389 00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:45,400 It was absolutely unbelievable. 390 00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:49,520 South Georgia is an absolutely spectacular place. 391 00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:51,280 It really is mind-blowing. 392 00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:54,360 And that is an impression that has lasted with me all my life, 393 00:25:54,360 --> 00:25:55,720 actually. 394 00:25:57,160 --> 00:25:59,200 So, we have arrived. This is South Georgia. 395 00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:01,520 And it is, honestly, one of the most dramatic places 396 00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:03,320 I have ever seen in my life. 397 00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:05,240 Out there, the wild Southern Ocean, 398 00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:08,000 the wind howling through these gaps here. 399 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:12,960 These fantastic, sort of, sheared Alpine faces of these mountains 400 00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:16,040 disappearing into the clouds. The beaches over there, 401 00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:21,120 with these giant elephant seals. Albatrosses nesting all over there. 402 00:26:21,120 --> 00:26:23,240 God knows what is going on down there. 403 00:26:23,240 --> 00:26:26,720 This is, kind of, you know, the Earth as excitement, isn't it? 404 00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:28,720 Look at it. It's just... 405 00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:31,520 I don't think I've ever arrived in a place that feels 406 00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:33,680 sort of... Rarrr! ..like this. 407 00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:35,200 It's just pumping! 408 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:39,960 Lying outside the pack ice, 409 00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:43,680 South Georgia was better known than the Antarctic mainland. 410 00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:48,560 The first person to land here was Captain Cook, in 1775. 411 00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:50,440 He named it after George III 412 00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:56,040 and thought, at first, he had found the great southern continent itself. 413 00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:10,280 So, here, already, what is it? 414 00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:15,480 Six young, male elephant seals, just lying out there on their own. 415 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:19,560 But the really extraordinary thing is up here... 416 00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:24,400 Crowds and crowds and crowds of penguins. 417 00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:27,480 Isn't that fantastic? 418 00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:31,560 All the grown-ups in the foreground and there, behind, 419 00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:35,560 are hundreds and hundreds of little brown babies. 420 00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:41,280 It is like an army of hot water bottles standing to attention. 421 00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:45,840 Within ten years of Cook having found the place, 422 00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:48,360 there were people down here going for the seals. 423 00:27:48,360 --> 00:27:51,560 It was fur seals to start with and, within about 20 years, 424 00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:53,320 they'd effectively wiped them out. 425 00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:57,280 The only ones that were left were these great big elephant seals. 426 00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:02,280 And here are some of the pots in which they boiled up the blubber. 427 00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:08,520 So there would have been a, kind of, seal blubber processing plant here. 428 00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:12,560 There is another building there. Bits of timber from the floor. 429 00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:14,240 And another place over there. 430 00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:18,200 I mean, this was, incredibly, an inhabited place. 431 00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:23,240 A lot of other seal species you can't get too close to. 432 00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:26,440 They'll flee and they'll go away, so this is pretty wonderful. 433 00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:28,680 It's a great time to be here. 434 00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:32,120 Brent Stewart has been studying the changes in the elephant seal 435 00:28:32,120 --> 00:28:35,680 population for the last 20 years. 436 00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:37,680 Do you think they are beautiful? 437 00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:41,760 I wouldn't say they're not beautiful, in all ways. 438 00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:45,920 They're some of the smelliest animals I've ever been around. 439 00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:47,440 They're pretty obnoxious. 440 00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:51,360 Seal blubber oil was put to the same uses as whale oil. 441 00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:55,520 And regulated hunting carried on through the whaling years, 442 00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:57,160 until the 1960s. 443 00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:01,800 It was a harvest, a managed harvest, and pretty well managed. 444 00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:04,160 So, the population then was not declining. 445 00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:06,960 So, at the end, they hadn't hammered the elephant seal... 446 00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:09,280 No, cos they were doing it sustainably. 447 00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:13,120 You know, it was an accessory to the whaling industry for that oil. 448 00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:14,600 And it... 449 00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:17,160 When the whaling stopped, the sealing stopped, because it 450 00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:21,360 really wasn't commercially viable to just have elephant seal sealing. 451 00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:26,680 Could you now have sustainable seal sealing here? 452 00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:28,360 Um... 453 00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:32,880 I... It would be possible. 454 00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:35,480 The question is whether humans could ever do that. 455 00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:40,240 I think, theoretically, you could probably have some sustained sealing, 456 00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:45,080 at a small level, but whether we'd actually do that is unclear. 457 00:29:45,080 --> 00:29:48,160 And it is not needed. There is no reason for it. 458 00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:50,200 We've got the oil replacements. 459 00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:58,680 My lift on the cruise ship is over. 460 00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:02,880 - See ya, bye! See you. - Bye-bye. - Take care. - Good luck. - Thank you. 461 00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:05,160 Take care, good luck. 462 00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:09,040 I need to transfer to a new base, so I can start exploring 463 00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:13,200 the remains of the whaling industry on the island. 464 00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:15,880 Our other ship is over there. That is the Farus, 465 00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:20,320 which is the South Georgia Fishery Protection vessel, 466 00:30:20,320 --> 00:30:22,520 where we are going to be spending the next few days, 467 00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:26,000 exploring this amazing island. 468 00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:32,240 In 1904, the captain of the Norwegian recce a decade earlier, 469 00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:35,920 CA Larsen, came back to the desolate island 470 00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:40,760 of South Georgia and set up a prefab processing station. 471 00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:44,520 He found so many whales that his catchers never had to leave 472 00:30:44,520 --> 00:30:47,720 the bay and could rely mainly on the inquisitive, 473 00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:50,440 easy-to-shoot, humpback whale. 474 00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:54,200 His gamble to find a densely-populated hunting ground 475 00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:57,120 immediately began to pay off. 476 00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:01,680 The British Colonial Office was surprised to hear 477 00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:05,960 of this new venture, set up without their permission. 478 00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:09,760 But spotting a source of tax in this wilderness, they first charged 479 00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:15,840 him for a belated licence and, then, offered further licences to others. 480 00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:19,800 I've woken up this morning in this incredibly beautiful bay. 481 00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:23,320 It is a marvellous Alpine scene - 482 00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:26,760 sort of, three Matterhorns on the horizon. 483 00:31:26,760 --> 00:31:29,960 And it has these other bays off it. 484 00:31:29,960 --> 00:31:33,920 And I know that, somewhere in there, at the head of those bays 485 00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:38,120 are some of the whaling stations that we're going to explore. 486 00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:41,080 So, what I'm hoping for 487 00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:44,640 is whaler life in a, kind of, capsule over there. 488 00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:51,960 I'm getting a ride ashore to the largest of the stations 489 00:31:51,960 --> 00:31:55,360 with a team who are surveying it for the government of this 490 00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:57,600 British Overseas Territory. 491 00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:14,360 This is Leith Harbour, 492 00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:18,000 one of the biggest whaling stations here on South Georgia. 493 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:20,920 And it was made by a man called Salvesen, 494 00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:24,120 who was living in Edinburgh, and he had set up whaling stations 495 00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:28,480 in Shetland, in Iceland and even over in the Falklands. 496 00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:31,880 But none of them were quite in the heartland of the whale. 497 00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:33,720 And that was South Georgia. 498 00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:40,480 When I think of the number of lives that are soaked into this place... 499 00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:50,600 Imagine what it was like arriving here, as a young guy from Scotland. 500 00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:53,400 Extraordinary! I mean, this is extraordinary! 501 00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:58,400 Very excited. You wondered what was going to happen. 502 00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:01,760 You know, what job you would get? How would you cope with it? 503 00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:03,600 We were just young boys. 504 00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:07,000 You had no idea what the future might bring for you. 505 00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:12,440 Impressed by Larsen's catches a few miles down the coast, 506 00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:15,560 the Salvesen family were quick to apply for a licence 507 00:33:15,560 --> 00:33:19,640 for this bay and started building in 1909. 508 00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:25,080 Leith Harbour, named after Salvesen's homeport in Edinburgh, 509 00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:28,760 was to run until 1965 and became 510 00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:33,560 the year-round hub of the company's entire Antarctic operation. 511 00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:41,200 Leith Harbour was a very, very busy place. 512 00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:44,680 And I was absolutely astounded with the number of vessels 513 00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:48,560 that were berthed there, ready to take part in the whaling industry. 514 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:52,600 So, "Landing prohibited." 515 00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:58,200 It is an offence to use any jetty, to land here, to approach within 200 516 00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:03,920 metres of the station, all because of unsafe structures and asbestos. 517 00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:06,640 And that is by order of the Government of South Georgia. 518 00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:10,400 Well, the only reason that I can be here today is that we've got special 519 00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:12,680 dispensation from the government, 520 00:34:12,680 --> 00:34:16,120 but under certain, quite carefully, controlled conditions. 521 00:34:16,120 --> 00:34:17,960 So, I have to wear this suit. 522 00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:21,720 And if ever I enter a particularly sensitive and asbestos-rich 523 00:34:21,720 --> 00:34:25,520 building, no hat and I have to put on the hood 524 00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:28,760 and I've got a mask, which I would also wear, 525 00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:31,120 just so I won't die. 526 00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:37,800 Well, the whole place is just littered with junk. 527 00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:42,120 There is a forklift truck there. This is a giant lathe. 528 00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:46,000 Some, kind of, other machine-making tools there. 529 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:48,360 When you left that area and walked up, 530 00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:51,520 there was a little... The street was called Pig Street. 531 00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:53,760 I don't know why I've just remembered about that. 532 00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:57,080 So, this is the piggery here. 533 00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:00,960 Quite a nice, big, 534 00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:04,160 handsome building for the pigs. 535 00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:06,400 Very, very collapsed. 536 00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:11,800 Pig Street led you up through, past all the workshops. 537 00:35:11,800 --> 00:35:13,400 So... 538 00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:18,280 Well, look at this. 539 00:35:18,280 --> 00:35:21,960 This is a complete, preserved world in here. 540 00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:24,680 How amazing. 541 00:35:24,680 --> 00:35:28,160 OK, so this is obviously the forge, 542 00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:35,040 the hot forge, where they could make pieces of new iron, steel equipment. 543 00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:39,360 The challenges of building an entire industrial complex 544 00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:43,960 in such a remote and hostile location were huge. 545 00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:46,800 The early whalers had to be completely self-sufficient, 546 00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:48,200 with the materials 547 00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:52,400 and skills for everything, from engineering to animal husbandry. 548 00:35:54,240 --> 00:35:57,720 I think, maybe, this is the powerhouse here. This one. 549 00:35:57,720 --> 00:35:59,960 That was my place of work. 550 00:35:59,960 --> 00:36:02,920 On top of the power station, there was an outside stair 551 00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:05,040 and that was the electrical workshop. 552 00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:09,400 These must be the stairs that John was talking about. 553 00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:20,080 This must be the workshop. 554 00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:24,720 This is where he must have worked, exactly here. 555 00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:30,040 It's almost 50 years since the whalers left and visiting 556 00:36:30,040 --> 00:36:34,000 naval ships and fishermen have ransacked many of the buildings. 557 00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:40,000 So, here are all the different voltages and wattages of bulbs. 558 00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,280 Hundreds and hundreds of them stacked up here. 559 00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:46,680 "Osram - the wonderful lamp." 560 00:36:47,840 --> 00:36:52,280 It is very like a, kind of, Tutankhamen experience, this. 561 00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:55,680 The grave robbers have been in and have left the chaos 562 00:36:55,680 --> 00:36:57,480 and anarchy on the floor. 563 00:36:57,480 --> 00:37:01,040 But still, there is so much kit. 564 00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:03,960 An absolutely perfect time capsule. 565 00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:09,000 Oh, hang on a second. 566 00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:13,840 I've seen exactly this view. 567 00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:16,320 I think, exactly this view. 568 00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:19,760 Somewhere, I've got this...a photo. 569 00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:22,560 There it is. That is exactly it. 570 00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:24,680 That's extraordinary! 571 00:37:24,680 --> 00:37:30,520 That is as close as you could get to time disappearing. 572 00:37:30,520 --> 00:37:32,320 Amazing. 573 00:37:36,520 --> 00:37:40,120 The harsh weather here has also taken its toll. 574 00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:47,080 Before the buildings fall down any further, 575 00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:51,040 the South Georgia Government has commissioned a highly-accurate 576 00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:53,160 3-D survey of each of the stations. 577 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:04,800 - Is it doing it now? - Yeah, so you can see, if you look over here... - OK. 578 00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:07,480 OK, there it is. Oh, I see, OK. 579 00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:10,720 Russell Gibb and his team are using laser scanners, 580 00:38:10,720 --> 00:38:13,000 to record the whole of Leith Harbour. 581 00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:18,920 You're going to end up with a total snapshot of the whole place, 582 00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:22,000 - the whole settlement, at this one moment? - Yep. 583 00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:25,120 So, essentially, what we are doing is we are creating an archive, 584 00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:28,720 a three-dimensional archive, of the station, as it stands today. 585 00:38:29,880 --> 00:38:33,160 - It's a melancholy place, though. - It is, very much so, yeah. 586 00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:37,760 You do feel lives are, in a way, soaked into the place. 587 00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:41,880 A lot of people's experiences and struggles and triumphs, 588 00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:43,440 they are all here, aren't they? 589 00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:46,080 Oh, yeah. I mean, you have got the graffiti... 590 00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:48,960 You probably haven't been down to the plant to see the graffiti yet. 591 00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:52,360 They're is wonderful graffiti with... where people who have been working 592 00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:54,400 here have left their names and the dates. 593 00:38:57,200 --> 00:38:59,600 - It's bloody noisy in here, isn't it? - Yeah. 594 00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:02,000 - Is it always like this, when the wind...? - Yeah. 595 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:04,240 As soon as the wind is up - loose iron everywhere, 596 00:39:04,240 --> 00:39:06,280 just bang, bang, bang, clatter, clatter. 597 00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:13,280 For the whaling companies, the gamble of investing 598 00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:17,680 in South Georgia coincided with the recovery in their market. 599 00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:21,760 Europe's growing industrial population needed 600 00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:26,600 ever-increasing quantities of hard fats, for soap and food. 601 00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:31,480 And the supply from the American meat industry couldn't keep up. 602 00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:34,280 When a new invention called hydrogenation 603 00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:38,320 promised that cheaper liquid oil could be turned into hard fat, 604 00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:44,120 the demand for whale oil immediately started to rise. 605 00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:47,880 So, this is it. This is the heart of the whole operation here. 606 00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:51,640 This is what they call the flensing plan, 607 00:39:51,640 --> 00:39:54,960 the place where they drag the whales in and chop them up. 608 00:39:55,960 --> 00:40:00,320 Now, this is not somewhere designed for some little cottage industry. 609 00:40:00,320 --> 00:40:03,480 I mean, look at the scale of this! You could fit... 610 00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:05,440 You could fit ten whales on here. 611 00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:13,040 Well, this is where the business begins, right at the sea edge. 612 00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:15,240 They would have caught the whales out there - 613 00:40:15,240 --> 00:40:17,800 the Southern Ocean is just past those headlands - 614 00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:19,960 pulled them in. Probably, if they caught a lot 615 00:40:19,960 --> 00:40:22,920 of whales, they would keep them on buoys out there 616 00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:27,040 and then, tug boats, like these that are up here, on the plan, 617 00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:29,440 would pull them into this shoreline. 618 00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:37,800 The big winches in that low shed there would have cables drawn 619 00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:41,440 all the way out here, to the sea edge, hooked onto the whales. 620 00:40:41,440 --> 00:40:46,320 They would haul them up this shallow slope onto the flensing plan. 621 00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:50,400 Flensing is the process of peeling away 622 00:40:50,400 --> 00:40:53,640 the whale's outer blubber layer. 623 00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:57,800 As it's being heaved up, 624 00:40:57,800 --> 00:41:01,040 the flenser just stands there 625 00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:04,840 and lets the winch do the work, really. 626 00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:08,080 He stands there, with a knife in the blubber. 627 00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:10,360 They were fantastic butchers, really. 628 00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:17,520 There's three cutters. 629 00:41:17,520 --> 00:41:21,360 One walks up the top and two cutting along the side of it. 630 00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:26,840 They put toggles, wires and toggles, really, in through the holes. 631 00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:31,760 The skin was peeled back, just like peeling a banana. 632 00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:41,160 There might be four or five whales being cut up here, at one time. 633 00:41:41,160 --> 00:41:45,240 Now, one whale, they analysed exactly what it was made of, 634 00:41:45,240 --> 00:41:50,600 and it was 89-feet long and lay here, ten-feet high, 635 00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:54,200 its body standing higher than I can reach. 636 00:41:54,200 --> 00:41:55,960 And the weights. The weights. 637 00:41:55,960 --> 00:42:00,800 There is 26 tonnes of blubber, 56 tonnes of meat, 638 00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:03,560 22 tonnes of bone. 639 00:42:03,560 --> 00:42:07,920 The tongue, alone, weighed three tonnes. 640 00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:13,400 In that whole body, the blood weighed eight tonnes. 641 00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:19,720 And this, I know, is the blubber processing plant. 642 00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:25,040 And somewhere, they brought it inside, to be chopped up 643 00:42:25,040 --> 00:42:26,640 into little pieces. 644 00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:29,880 I don't know if I'm going to be able to find that. I mean... 645 00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:32,120 Well, maybe here. 646 00:42:32,120 --> 00:42:34,840 Maybe here. There is a hole here. 647 00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:38,320 Oh, yeah, with a chute going down there. 648 00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:40,920 So, they slid the blubber down through there. 649 00:42:46,520 --> 00:42:49,320 Yeah, that is the blubber chute. 650 00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:54,440 Ah-ha. 651 00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:59,520 So, the blubber would've come in here, down underground there, 652 00:42:59,520 --> 00:43:03,680 and then, there is this big elevator here, which then rises up 653 00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:05,480 through the building. 654 00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:12,120 You can imagine that just sloppily full of minced blubber. 655 00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:13,960 So, it is a very intense process. 656 00:43:13,960 --> 00:43:18,600 Steam is bring driven into these boilers under high pressure. 657 00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:21,760 And that steam blows the oil out of it. And it's... 658 00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:25,200 It's not a, kind of, gentle, careful bubbling. 659 00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:27,360 This is, "Give me the oil!" 660 00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:32,280 In the 1907-8 season, the three companies 661 00:43:32,280 --> 00:43:38,200 already on South Georgia caught 2,300 whales, mostly humpbacks. 662 00:43:39,480 --> 00:43:43,080 The oil in the blubber layer was easiest to extract 663 00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:45,720 and so, when they were faced with such abundance, 664 00:43:45,720 --> 00:43:49,600 the whalers simply left the rest of the carcass to float away. 665 00:43:54,240 --> 00:43:56,480 So, I think this is a film 666 00:43:56,480 --> 00:43:59,920 taken in the '50s. 667 00:43:59,920 --> 00:44:02,680 I'm interested in what Russell and his team think 668 00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:06,640 about the activities of the station they have spent weeks surveying. 669 00:44:08,160 --> 00:44:12,320 Do you recognise that, you guys? Do you recognise that? 670 00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:16,440 It's actually lovely to see these films of the stations, as they were, 671 00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:20,040 compared to what we see them as now, when they are just, you know, 672 00:44:20,040 --> 00:44:21,760 sort of, tragic ruins. 673 00:44:29,800 --> 00:44:34,400 - Look at the volume of the meat down there. - There's flesh everywhere. 674 00:44:34,400 --> 00:44:35,800 It's unreal. 675 00:44:37,680 --> 00:44:40,600 Had you not thought it was like that? 676 00:44:40,600 --> 00:44:42,840 I thought it might have been more streamlined 677 00:44:42,840 --> 00:44:45,600 and animals pulled up and it's cut up and not... 678 00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:51,480 I didn't, sort of, think there would be flesh lying everywhere. 679 00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:55,160 You know what it was used for, but it's not until you actually see it 680 00:44:55,160 --> 00:44:59,800 in action that you go, "Oh, my God!" 681 00:44:59,800 --> 00:45:03,960 - It's brutal, though. That's the thing. It's so brutal. - It's a sin. 682 00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:07,080 It's seems like a sin. Such a beautiful animal 683 00:45:07,080 --> 00:45:08,600 and we're doing that. 684 00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:10,200 Man is doing that, you know. 685 00:45:19,080 --> 00:45:21,680 By the 1910-11 season, 686 00:45:21,680 --> 00:45:24,440 Salvesen's operation at Leith Harbour had become 687 00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:27,280 the largest whaling concern in the world, 688 00:45:27,280 --> 00:45:29,960 sending home over 8,000 tonnes of oil 689 00:45:29,960 --> 00:45:34,840 and paying their shareholders 100% dividend on their investment. 690 00:45:35,920 --> 00:45:42,000 These are the huge tanks that the whale oil was stored in, 691 00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:47,240 these vast great cylinders. And even more over there. 692 00:45:47,240 --> 00:45:52,480 I mean, it's an industrial technology and it takes a minute 693 00:45:52,480 --> 00:45:57,120 to realise that what's in here is not an industrial product, 694 00:45:57,120 --> 00:45:58,280 but whale oil. 695 00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:05,320 In a way, it's an extraordinary triumph, to be able to gather 696 00:46:05,320 --> 00:46:11,440 this quantity of oil from the sea and that triumph is, itself, tragic. 697 00:46:11,440 --> 00:46:15,760 It's terrible to gather that much oil from the sea. 698 00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:18,840 So, this is... 699 00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:24,360 This is really everything that Leith Harbour adds up to. 700 00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:28,360 Incredibly well done and incredibly sad. 701 00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:42,400 In 1912, the same year that Scott reached the South Pole, there were 702 00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:47,160 seven whaling companies up and running on South Georgia. An island 703 00:46:47,160 --> 00:46:52,200 entirely uninhabited eight years earlier was now home to 1,200 men. 704 00:47:22,440 --> 00:47:24,600 It was a piece of cake, really, you know. 705 00:47:24,600 --> 00:47:26,400 The only thing you missed is a woman. 706 00:47:31,600 --> 00:47:35,560 Look at these lovely girls. Fantastic. 707 00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:43,440 We've got the real thing here. There's a lovely one. 708 00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:46,640 HE LAUGHS 709 00:47:46,640 --> 00:47:48,680 La Parisienne. 710 00:47:48,680 --> 00:47:51,400 This reminds me of something I've got here, 711 00:47:51,400 --> 00:47:55,640 which is a letter from Tam, to his wife. 712 00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:59,200 Probably one of the least-diplomatic letters 713 00:47:59,200 --> 00:48:00,720 ever sent from South Georgia. 714 00:48:00,720 --> 00:48:05,680 He writes on the back of it, "Here I am sitting on Danny's bunk. 715 00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:10,920 "Hope you like the pin-ups. Best love, my dear, from your Tam." 716 00:48:10,920 --> 00:48:12,960 HE LAUGHS 717 00:48:12,960 --> 00:48:17,800 I'd say the camaraderie was terrific and that's where you learn to do it. 718 00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:23,600 You've got to make a joke in life to survive things like that. 719 00:48:26,960 --> 00:48:28,920 Of course, we used to distil our own booze, 720 00:48:28,920 --> 00:48:31,920 which I shouldn't be telling you, should I? 721 00:48:31,920 --> 00:48:35,760 If you were ever catched with any of that in your cabin or anything, 722 00:48:35,760 --> 00:48:39,760 that was your bag. You'd never be back at the whaling again. 723 00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:43,720 Every chance you were sent home on the first transport that called. 724 00:48:43,720 --> 00:48:46,000 That was the punishment if you got caught. 725 00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:51,080 Alcohol was a very, very prized commodity, 726 00:48:51,080 --> 00:48:52,440 I'll tell you that for nothing. 727 00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:57,520 A night's booze like that usually took away a lot of tension. 728 00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:01,680 It kept them going for another long while. 729 00:49:07,960 --> 00:49:11,240 I've got a photo that exactly matches this. 730 00:49:11,240 --> 00:49:15,640 They're making illegal hooch out of all this equipment. 731 00:49:15,640 --> 00:49:19,360 The girls on their lockers exactly like that. 732 00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:21,400 Isn't that fantastic?! 733 00:49:21,400 --> 00:49:26,160 I think that is what this hooch business is all about - 734 00:49:26,160 --> 00:49:29,760 having a laugh. Come in from the blood and guts out there 735 00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:33,920 and, at least, in here, you can have a few girls on the wall, 736 00:49:33,920 --> 00:49:38,760 have a drink, have a good time, have a joke, have a smoke. 737 00:49:38,760 --> 00:49:41,680 Getting a brew on, is what they called it. 738 00:49:41,680 --> 00:49:43,760 You'd do anything for a tin of yeast. 739 00:49:43,760 --> 00:49:45,640 Yeast was the main ingredient. 740 00:49:50,160 --> 00:49:55,320 Look at that. Best for baking, eh? 741 00:49:56,320 --> 00:49:58,840 You didn't tell people where you hid that. 742 00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:00,520 It was pretty secretive stuff. 743 00:50:00,520 --> 00:50:04,280 My God, what about in there? There we go. 744 00:50:05,480 --> 00:50:08,240 This is the remains of a still in here. 745 00:50:12,200 --> 00:50:15,240 In here, under this bed, is something even better. 746 00:50:16,320 --> 00:50:18,320 That's the party scoop there. 747 00:50:19,480 --> 00:50:22,320 That's what you welcome your guests with. 748 00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:31,160 By 1914, South Georgia was such a well-supplied 749 00:50:31,160 --> 00:50:35,800 outpost of the industrial world, that Ernest Shackleton stopped here 750 00:50:35,800 --> 00:50:40,320 to restock, at the start of his Endurance expedition. 751 00:50:40,320 --> 00:50:41,840 Before he left London, 752 00:50:41,840 --> 00:50:44,600 prominent scientists were voicing concerns that 753 00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:49,440 the depletion of whales in the north was now being repeated down south. 754 00:50:49,440 --> 00:50:52,880 Keen to encourage a long-lived whaling industry, the government 755 00:50:52,880 --> 00:50:56,960 set up an inter-departmental committee to investigate. 756 00:50:56,960 --> 00:51:00,440 The committee asked Shackleton if he could take a scientist with him 757 00:51:00,440 --> 00:51:03,600 to study what was happening to the whales down here. 758 00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:07,520 A young biologist called Robert Clark joined the expedition 759 00:51:07,520 --> 00:51:09,440 and came here to talk to the whalers. 760 00:51:09,440 --> 00:51:14,000 From their figures, it appeared that the humpback, in particular, 761 00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:19,320 was in steep decline. From something like 5,000 whales in 1910, 762 00:51:19,320 --> 00:51:23,520 it had dropped to 474 only three years later. 763 00:51:25,160 --> 00:51:28,240 The committee suggested a ban on the taking of humpbacks, 764 00:51:28,240 --> 00:51:32,200 but the stations had already moved on to blue and fin whales 765 00:51:32,200 --> 00:51:34,360 to make up their catch. 766 00:51:34,360 --> 00:51:38,680 Broader regulations stipulated that the whole carcass 767 00:51:38,680 --> 00:51:40,640 of the whale must now be used. 768 00:51:42,240 --> 00:51:45,280 This tallied with Salvesen's thrifty ideals 769 00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:48,240 and, unlike the earlier Norwegian-owned stations 770 00:51:48,240 --> 00:51:51,880 that took just the blubber, Leith Harbour installed plants 771 00:51:51,880 --> 00:51:53,800 to process the meat and the bone. 772 00:51:54,920 --> 00:51:59,200 The meat came over here and the way they did it was to haul it 773 00:51:59,200 --> 00:52:02,640 over to these giant bucket slides here. 774 00:52:07,440 --> 00:52:11,440 My job was to take the guts out of the whale. 775 00:52:14,360 --> 00:52:18,440 It was not a bad job if you had a fresh whale, 776 00:52:18,440 --> 00:52:21,640 because you could warm your hands in the warm blood. 777 00:52:23,400 --> 00:52:28,040 But it wasn't a nice job when a whale was a week old. 778 00:52:28,040 --> 00:52:33,160 For the work it was, it was bloody. Bloody and hard work. 779 00:52:33,160 --> 00:52:37,840 And if you go up to the plant - I can still picture it - 780 00:52:37,840 --> 00:52:41,160 there is a winch there, a steam winch, and a green door. 781 00:52:47,760 --> 00:52:50,920 A-ha! He said, "Look for the green door." 782 00:52:50,920 --> 00:52:54,200 Inside there, there is this big cylinder 783 00:52:54,200 --> 00:52:56,160 which is covered with asbestos. 784 00:52:56,160 --> 00:53:01,120 This is the great big cooker that Jimmy was talking about. 785 00:53:01,120 --> 00:53:05,320 When there was a break in the whale, we used to get underneath 786 00:53:05,320 --> 00:53:10,000 the cylinder, with our whaling boots on and all the gear, and sleep! 787 00:53:11,400 --> 00:53:16,400 This is where Jimmy used to have a kip. Under there. 788 00:53:19,640 --> 00:53:21,360 Can you imagine that? 789 00:53:26,520 --> 00:53:28,640 When the First World War broke out, 790 00:53:28,640 --> 00:53:32,240 whale oil was in even more demand for the manufacture 791 00:53:32,240 --> 00:53:37,240 of nitro-glycerine in explosives and all regulation was dropped. 792 00:53:37,240 --> 00:53:39,760 The Norwegian company found it difficult to operate 793 00:53:39,760 --> 00:53:43,320 during the war and, seeing an opportunity to steal 794 00:53:43,320 --> 00:53:48,840 a march on their rivals, Salvesen's invested further in Leith Harbour. 795 00:53:48,840 --> 00:53:52,200 Everything was used. There was nothing wasted. 796 00:53:55,480 --> 00:53:59,000 You'd cut the jawbone off, cut the ribs out, 797 00:53:59,000 --> 00:54:04,120 cut the backbone out and that's heaved onto the bone loft. 798 00:54:15,280 --> 00:54:19,080 There is a bone management area here. This is exactly it. 799 00:54:19,080 --> 00:54:21,720 Here's the saw. Oh, my God! Look at that! 800 00:54:24,400 --> 00:54:26,280 What a monstrous object that is. 801 00:54:28,960 --> 00:54:35,200 This is whale spine-cutting machinery. 802 00:54:35,200 --> 00:54:39,040 The bone sawman, he'd have two boys working with him - 803 00:54:39,040 --> 00:54:41,680 one chap for dragging out the hook, 804 00:54:41,680 --> 00:54:46,720 and the other chap for holding the saw, so it didn't whip 805 00:54:46,720 --> 00:54:48,480 back and forward too much. 806 00:54:48,480 --> 00:54:51,160 It was "Doomp! Doomp! Doomp!" 807 00:54:51,160 --> 00:54:54,880 Steam-powered, jiggering its way through the bones 808 00:54:54,880 --> 00:54:58,880 and cutting them into two three-foot, lengths which they could 809 00:54:58,880 --> 00:55:01,520 then dump down into these pots here. 810 00:55:04,760 --> 00:55:09,440 Once the bone was in there, then the last of the whale was gone. 811 00:55:11,280 --> 00:55:15,440 When I went to Leith Harbour and seen my first whale up on the plant, 812 00:55:15,440 --> 00:55:19,880 I thought, "Good God, what a size of an animal! Massive." 813 00:55:19,880 --> 00:55:23,120 Within about 20 minutes, there was nothing of the poor thing left. 814 00:55:23,120 --> 00:55:25,880 It was all chopped up into cookers. 815 00:55:27,320 --> 00:55:28,800 After the First World War, 816 00:55:28,800 --> 00:55:32,560 catches from South Georgia stations continued to climb, 817 00:55:32,560 --> 00:55:37,080 reaching their peak of nearly 8,000 whales a year by 1925. 818 00:55:39,840 --> 00:55:44,920 They processed whales like Ford made cars. This is what this is about. 819 00:55:44,920 --> 00:55:51,400 Just an absolutely unbroken route, from ocean to oil tank. 820 00:55:56,000 --> 00:55:57,080 At the time, it was a job 821 00:55:57,080 --> 00:56:00,560 for me and I was making more money than my father was making. 822 00:56:00,560 --> 00:56:05,600 Everybody had... a bonus on the production, 823 00:56:05,600 --> 00:56:09,480 so it was in your best interests to keep things going. 824 00:56:09,480 --> 00:56:14,960 You looked at every whale that came up - it became a number of pounds! 825 00:56:22,280 --> 00:56:25,640 In my mind now, there is a real difference between 826 00:56:25,640 --> 00:56:29,720 the young guys, the whalers who came down here and did the work, 827 00:56:29,720 --> 00:56:33,200 and the people who were organising the enterprise. 828 00:56:33,200 --> 00:56:38,680 This is a big, highly-capitalised business. Extremely well-run, 829 00:56:38,680 --> 00:56:44,840 very efficiently run, very well funded. 830 00:56:44,840 --> 00:56:48,960 There is a difference between those business decisions 831 00:56:48,960 --> 00:56:51,760 and the experience of the lads who came here. 832 00:56:53,280 --> 00:56:58,480 Salvesen's profits were, by now, over £300,000 a year, 833 00:56:58,480 --> 00:57:01,680 equivalent to £100 million today. 834 00:57:01,680 --> 00:57:05,040 The gamble of establishing a complete industrial town 835 00:57:05,040 --> 00:57:10,520 on a desolate Antarctic island had turned out to be a very shrewd move. 836 00:57:13,000 --> 00:57:15,600 This is the industrial world brought south 837 00:57:15,600 --> 00:57:18,920 and the only reason it's here is that, out there, are some 838 00:57:18,920 --> 00:57:23,960 of the most productive and nutrient-rich seas in the world. 839 00:57:23,960 --> 00:57:30,400 That's what this pile of corrugated iron was all about. 840 00:57:30,400 --> 00:57:35,080 It's about parasitising on the riches of the ocean. 841 00:57:35,080 --> 00:57:39,720 It is just a "Give me your juices and I'll sell them." 842 00:57:48,160 --> 00:57:51,280 Why was a place making such huge profits 843 00:57:51,280 --> 00:57:55,680 simply walked away from and left to rust just 40 years later? 844 00:57:56,880 --> 00:57:58,200 And why was Britain 845 00:57:58,200 --> 00:58:03,160 still in the 1960s doing something that we now feel is so wrong? 846 00:58:04,800 --> 00:58:07,680 Imagine the number of whales needed to fill this. 847 00:58:09,120 --> 00:58:13,840 And nearly all of that oil going back to Europe to make margarine. 848 00:58:13,840 --> 00:58:19,760 A major innovation at sea produces a gigantic leap in scale, 849 00:58:19,760 --> 00:58:24,640 while an epic tussle between big business and science 850 00:58:24,640 --> 00:58:26,640 pushes the whales to the brink. 851 00:58:26,640 --> 00:58:30,360 I think we all knew that time was up. 852 00:58:30,360 --> 00:58:33,560 Well, the whales were gone, weren't they? They'd gone.