KARRAKATTA whaler

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aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

KARRAKATTA whaler

Post by aukepalmhof » Thu May 14, 2009 9:23 pm

Built under yard no 342 by Akers Mek. Versted, Oslo for the Western Australian Whaling Co. Ltd.
1912 Launched under the name KARRAKATTA a Australian place name.
Tonnage 179 gross, 64 net, dim. 106.4 x 21.5 x 12.3ft.
Powered by a 3 cyl. steam engine, 114 nhp.
Built as a steel whale chaser.
Managed by Chr. Nielsen Larvik.

After delivery first operated from Albany, Western Australia, and from 1914 with the associated Spermacet Company out of Norwegian Bay in Western Australia.
She was later sold, date so far not known or chartered by the Hvalfanger A/S Selsk. “Vestfold” of the Rasmussen Group.
From 1926 used in company with the whale-factory ship C A LARSEN in the Ross Dependency of Antarctica.
Rosshavet A/S at Sandefjord, Norway then managed the KARRAKATTA.
From 1926 was her home base Paterson Inlet in Stewart Island, New Zealand. After the whaling season the factory vessel sailed back to Europe but the catchers stayed behind on Stewart Island and were dry-docked and refitted for the new season by the Kaipipi Shipyard on Stewart Island.

The expedition in 1926/27 was know for his bad weather, during one of this gales with winds up to 90 miles a hour, the KARRAKATA, which was hanging on a finback whale during the height of the gale had the whale thrown on to the vessel’s stern. Her rigging and cordage were snapped and her rails bent by the shock, while the vessel developed a tendency to settle by the stern until the monster slipped off assisted by the frenzied crew.

In the three seasons used in the Antarctic she shot 378 whales, and she was this three voyages under command of Capt.Kristian J Movig.

After the season 1928/29 she left New Zealand waters and returned to Australia.
She was renamed in STAR III and managed by Johan Rasmussen & Co. Sandefjord, Norway.

1934 Sold of chartered by the Falkland Whaling Company, registered in Jersey, Channel Islands, renamed in POLAR 4, managed by Fadum and Wang, Tonsberg.
There is not any war record, and she is listed in Lloyds until 1952.
The ship is now at Husvik whaling station pulled up onto the slipway, then slid sideways to free the slipway.
When the station was in operation she was used as maintain and repair facility to the other catchers in the off-season. A system of steam pipes had been led from her boiler, up to her bow, then to a small workshop ashore to provide steam power for the slipway winches, steam cutters and steam plate rollers in the workshop.
A small doorway is cut in her starboard hull to give easy access.
When she was pulled ashore, not any date is available but most probably when the station was reopened after the war in 1945.

She is still there today slowly rusting away. The name on the stamp is KARRAKATTA but her last official name was POLAR 4, and so far not any document has been found that she got her old name back in a later stage.

South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands 1990 31p sg194, scott 147

Source: Stewart Island’s Kaipipi Shipyard and the Ross Sea Whales by J P C Watt. Marine News 1996/26
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aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: KARRAKATTA whaler

Post by aukepalmhof » Tue Oct 05, 2010 8:53 pm

South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands 2010 sg?, scott?
http://www.falklandstamps.com/
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