Built as a whale catcher under yard No 51 by the Framnæs Mekaniske Værksted, Sandefjord, Norway for
Compania de Pesca, Argentina.
16 July 1904 launched under the name FORTUNA.
Tonnage 164 gross, 50 net, dim. 33.53 x 6.10 x3.96m.
One 3-cyl triple expansion steam engine, 280 ihp., manufactured by Akers Mekaniske Værksted, Christiania (Oslo). Speed 10 knots.
September 1904 completed. Building cost 95.000 N Kr. Less a fine of late delivery of 850 N Kr.
The catcher was designed and constructed so that she would be able to operate in some of the world’s most tempestuous seas, and the same time to tow six blue whales simultaneously.
The FORTUNA was considerably larger and stronger than any modern catcher of that time.
She got a bunker capacity of around 90 ton.
She did have a small open wheelhouse, with chartroom, and did have berths forward for about 12 crewmembers. The galley and messroom were amidships at upper deck level with a saloon aft.
Her delivery was delayed due to faulty crankshafts for the engine, which was manufactured in Germany, the first had to be scrapped due to flaws in the material, the second was to small and Veritas rejected it, the third send from Germany at least satisfied all requirements.
17 September C.A. Larsen signed on the crew of the FORTUNA and on 21 September the FORTUNA towed the ROLF out of Sandefjord to open sea.
The FORTUNA towed the ROLF trough the North Sea and a stormy English Channel to Falmouth, were they arrived on 27 September.
From this port the ROLF made his own passage to Buenos Aires.
The FORTUNA made the passage from Falmouth via Madeira to Buenos Aires, where she arrived on 28 October.
03 November the FORTUNA and LOUISE sailed from Buenos Aires, to speed up the voyage, the FORTUNA towed the LOUISE all the way to South Georgia, where both arrived on 16 November in Grytviken.
27 November 1904 the FORTUNA harpooned her first whale, it is thought that 22-year-old gunner Carl A Hansen who was serving on board the FORTUNA as harpooner and mate shot the first whale but others think it was Capt. Larsen himself.
In the first whaling seasons their where so many whales that the FORTUNA did not leave the confines of Cumberland Bay. That season 91 whales were shot from December 1904 till April 1905.
14 May 1916 at 06.00 in the morning after the FORTUNA had collected her mail, she struck a submerged rock and stranded between Hope Point and Sooty Bluff and became a total loss.
The story goes that while outward after collecting her mail, that the gunner and mate Oskar Karlsen was so observed with reading his letters, while steering, that she veered of course and hit the rock.
Her gun was recovered and till today stands in front of the Villa at Grytviken. Also the boiler was salvaged and thereafter used in the blubber furnace room.
South Georgia & the Sandwich Islands 2004 50p sg?, scott?
Source: Pesca, a history of the pioneer modern whaling company in the Antarctic, by Ian B Hart.