Willem Barendsz (ship, 1954)
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The second Dutch whaling factory ship with the name Willem Barendsz was completed in 1955 by the Wilton-Fijenoord shipyard in Schiedam for the Nederlandsche Maatschappij voor de Walvischvaart (NMW) as the world's largest factory ship. The company, founded in 1946, had previously used a converted tanker as the first Dutch whaling factory ship, which had also been named Willem Barendsz .
In 1965 the ship was to South Africa sold there as fishing - factory ship used. In 1973 the Willem Barendsz was resold to South Korea and renamed there several times. In 2001 the ship was demolished in the People's Republic of China .
Building history
In 1946 a Dutch company for "Walvisch Vaart" (NMW) was founded, which was officially established at the instigation of Dutch shipbuilders. These shipyards were certainly interested in new orders, but delivered their last conversions to whaling ships in the early 1930s and never built whalers. The Dutch government was interested in the supply of fat to the population by a Dutch company and founded a semi-governmental organization in the post-war period, the main producer of which was the British-Dutch-German Unilever concern, which lost stakes in Great Britain and Norway as well as a Dutch whaling fleet wanted to compensate for the failure of the German whaling fleet.
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The company managed to buy a Swedish tanker that was converted into a whaling factory ship. The obstruction of the Norwegian regulations against the sale of whaling equipment and the prohibition for Norwegians to take up such employment has been successfully circumvented. The first Willem Barendsz became a well-equipped factory ship and set sail from the Faroe Islands for the first trip in autumn 1946 with 200 Dutch, a few Swedes, British and South Africans as well as 50 Norwegians and 68 men . Eight fishing boats from the factory ship Vestfold , which sank during the war and which were registered in Panama , were acquired as a fishing fleet . Their crews, including the harpooners, came almost entirely from Norway. From 1951 a new contract between the NMW and the Dutch state came into force, which secured subsidies for the company, although the price of oils and fats was high because of the Korean War (1950–1951).
As a result of the contract, a new, larger and modern whaling factory ship was to be built, which was better equipped for the processing of by-products. The keel-laying of the new Willem Barendsz of NMW took place on November 2, 1953 at the Wilton-Fijenoord shipyard in Schiedam. The launch and christening of the new whaling factory ship on November 20, 1954 was a national event.
The new ship was named after the navigator and explorer Willem Barentsz (1550–1597), who discovered Novaya Zemlya , Bear Island and Svalbard and who significantly stimulated European whaling in the Arctic Ocean between 1615 and 1820 through his descriptions .
Mission history
The new ship was used for the first time in the 1955/56 season. The management was carried out by the company Vinke & Co. in Amsterdam as a ship broker and ship agent. This company had good relations with Scandinavia and had experience in timber transport and tramp shipping . The crew consisted primarily of Dutch people, many of whom had seasonal jobs and were drawn to the well-paid winter work. A lot of overtime and bonuses made it possible to earn considerably higher earnings above the agreed salary. During the hunting season at the South Pole, which lasted between 60 and 120 days, two shifts of twelve hours were worked. The work on board was tough and dirty. Whales were often butchered for hours on the Flensdeck in the cold. Experienced seafaring personnel from the North Sea coast could also be won over to work with the fishing boats. Only the harpooners were mostly Norwegians and came from towns on the Oslofjord such as Tønsberg , Sandefjord or Larvik , which were considered to be the heart of Norwegian whaling. In order to acquire these harpooners, NWM sometimes had to pay substantial sums of money as the Norwegian government continued to prohibit employment with foreign companies. The Willem Barendsz carried out a total of nine expeditions.
| N ° | Departure | return | killed whales | NL share | the whale oil production, behind .. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | October 18, 1955 | April 14, 1956 | 1,665 | 4.5% | Norway 36.9%, UK 20.6%, Japan 17.7%, USSR 6.7, Panama 6.6, South Africa 4.7% |
| 2. | November 14, 1956 | May 2, 1957 | 1,434 | 4.1% | Norway 44.7%, Japan 21.9%, UK 17.0%, Panama 7%, Soviet Union 6.1% |
| 3. | November 2, 1957 | April 19, 1958 | 1,867 | 5.0% | Norway 36.8%, Japan 27.1%, UK 17.3%, Soviet Union 9.7% |
| 4th | October 24, 1958 | April 22, 1959 | 2,219 | 5.9% | Norway 38.4%, Japan 30.0%, UK 13.6%, Soviet Union 10.3% |
| 5. | November 7, 1959 | May 11, 1960 | 2,081 | 6.7% | Norway 31.7%, Japan 28.7%, Soviet Union 17.6%, UK 13.4% |
| 6th | October 19, 1960 | May 8, 1961 | 2.211 | 6.3% | Norway 33.3%, Japan 29.9%, Soviet Union 16.8%, UK 13.7% |
| 7th | October 24, 1961 | May 14, 1962 | 1,628 | 4.4% | Japan 35.9%, Norway 27.7%, Soviet Union 21.6%, UK 10.4% |
| 8th. | 17th October 1962 | May 10, 1963 | 1,330 | 5.3% | Japan 47.9%, Soviet Union 26.5%, Norway 15.0%, UK 5.3% |
| 9. | October 16, 1963 | May 10, 1964 | 1,182 | 4.7% | Japan 49.7%, Soviet Union 27.1%, Norway 18.5% |
In the course of the operations, South Africans were increasingly employed on the ships of the NMW, especially since the fishing boats remained in South Africa at the end of the fishing season and were repaired there. In 1960 330 of the 780 men in the Dutch fishing fleet were South Africans. When the new Willem Barendsz came into service, the old Vestfold whalers were almost completely retired. Since 1950, the NMW has procured new fishing boats by converting former corvettes of the Flower class , which had emerged from the plan of the whaler Southern Pride . Twelve corvettes were converted into whalers for the Willem Barendsz , eight of which had previously served in the Canadian Navy . All boats then had a number and a first name (e.g. Albert , Johanna , Willem ) supplemented by W. Vinke , as did the Vestfold boats before, some of whose names were repeated. In addition, completely new builds such as the AM 4 Robert W. Vinke (1960, gas turbine) or the AM 8 Inga Vinke (1961, 3200 PS MAN diesel) came into service.
| N ° | Fishing boat | GRT | Construction year | Shipyard | previous names | modification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AM 1² | Gerrit W. Vinke | 717 | 1942 | Charles Hill & Sons , Bristol | ex HMS Meadowsweet (K144) | 1951 |
| AM 2² | Albert W. Vinke | 717 | 1940 | Canadian Vickers , Montreal | ex HMCS Eyebright (K150) | 1950 |
| AT 3 | Thommy W. Vinke | 355 | 1936 | Smith's Dock , Middlesbrough | Vestfold VIII , HMSAS Turffontein , 1958 a. D. | |
| AT 4 | Robert W. Vinke | 355 | 1936 | Smith's Dock, Middlesbrough | Vikingen VII , Vestfold IX , HMSAS Vereeniging , 1959 a. D. | |
| AM 5² | Johanna W. Vinke | 717 | 1940 | Port Arthur, Ontario Shipbuilding | ex HMCS Cobalt (K124), December 31, 1961 Boiler explosion | 1953 |
| AM 6² | Martha W. Vinke | 717 | 1941 | Smith's Dock, Middlesbrough | ex HMCS Stonecrop (K142) | 1952 |
| AM 7² | René W. Vinke | 717 | 1941 | Yarrow's , Esquimalt | ex HMCS Nanaimo (K101) | 1952 |
| On the 8th | Elly W. Vinke | 299 | 1935 | Smith's Dock, Middlesbrough | Vikingen VI , Vestfold X , HMS Squall , 1959 a. D. | |
| ON 9 | Hetty W. Vinke | 717 | 1940 | Harland & Wolff , Belfast | ex HMS Camellia (K31) | 1948 |
| On the 10th | Eugene Vinke | 717 | 1940 | Hall, Russell & Company , Aberdeen | ex HMS Lavender (K60) | 1948 |
| On the 15th | Maj Vinke | 717 | 1940 | Harland & Wolff, Belfast | ex HMS Rhododendron (K78) | 1950 |
| AT 19 | Jooske W. Vinke | 717 | 1941 | Harland & Wolff, Belfast | ex HMCS Shediak (K110) | 1952 |
| ON 20 | Sonja W. Vinke | 717 | 1940 | Canadian Vickers, Montreal | ex HMCS Chambly (K116) | 1954 |
| On the 21st | Willem Vinke | 717 | 1942 | Saint John (New Brunswick) Shipbuilding | ex HMCS Moncton (K139) | 1955 |
| On the 22nd | Nicolas W. Vinke | 717 | 1941 | Canadian Vickers, Montreal | ex HMCS Lethbridge (K160) | 1955 |
| AM 3² | Thomas W. Vinke | 661 | 1959 | Lissewerft , Rotterdam | Diesel drive | |
| AM 4² | Robert W. Vinke | 1960 | Gas turbine drive | |||
| AM 8² | Inca Vinke | 663 | 1961 | Lissewerft, Rotterdam | Diesel drive |
The number of whales that could be caught was determined by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which the Netherlands joined in 1946. However, the nations involved were often unable to come to an agreement, or parts of them did not adopt the regulations. When the new ship was put into service, the number of fishing boats used was the main limitation. Willem Barendsz used up to fourteen boats because of their size. From 1958 to 1962, the Netherlands' request for a slightly higher quota did not lead to any binding quota regulation, although the NMW fleet did not reach the quota at that time.
The arrival and departure of the Willem Barendsz in Amsterdam remained special events until the last mission, which were celebrated with family, friends, onlookers and chapels on the quay as small folk festivals and which were reported in the media.
End of the whale hunt
Since 1959 there were serious considerations to give up the Dutch whaling again, as the government in particular no longer wanted to pay the subsidy granted. Vinke and NMW, however, relied on modernizing the ship and its fishing fleet. The Willem Barendsz received new freezing equipment to increase the production of whale meat. With the commissioning of the first Soviet newbuilding, the Sowjetskaya Ukraina of 32,024 GRT, the Dutch ship was no longer the largest whaling mother ship.
It was not until 1964 that the NMW company decided to give up its own whaling. The ship and the fishing quotas for 1964/65 and 1965/66 were sold to Japan. The ship was immediately bought back by the South African fishing company “Atlantic Harvester” and transferred to a new company, Willem Barendsz Co. Ltd , in which NMW was involved. On October 27, 1965, the ship was transferred to the new owner. It kept the name Willem Barendsz and was to produce fish meal, fish oil and other products on the South African coast after renovation. On February 8, 1966, the ship left Amsterdam for the last time to go to its new home port, Cape Town, where the renovation work continued. It was not used as a South African fish factory until 1967.
Selling to Korea
In 1973 the ship was sold to the "Korea Wonyang Fishery Co. Ltd" in Busan (South Korea) and renamed Yu Sin Ho . From May 5, 1974 it was used as a fishmeal factory with eighteen fishing boats in the Bering Sea . The following year the ship received freezing equipment and only produced half as much fish meal. 1976 from Busan for the second fishing season in the Bering Sea, now with a fleet of 30 vessels.
In 1978 the ship was renamed Ho Gae Cheog No. I , which was shortened to Cheog Gae Ho in 1980 . Under this name, the factory ship from Busan was in service from January to November 1981 and also in 1982 in the Bering Sea, only to be launched again.
From 1986 the ship was used again in the Bering Sea and was now called Ocean Pioneer . In 1996 it was renamed to Cheog Gae Ho .
In 2001 the former Willem Barendsz by Xinhui in the province of Guangdong , China, sold for demolition, where she arrived on June 1 and was scrapped.
literature
- Bjørn L. Basberg: A Crisis that Never Came. The Decline of the European Antarctic Whaling Industry in the 1950s and -60s. Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), Bergen 2011, ISSN 0804-6824 .
- Joh. N. Tønnessen, Arne Odd Johnsen: The History of Modern Whaling. University of California Press, 1982, ISBN 0-520-03973-4 .
Web links
- Flower class corvettes and conversions for Dutch whaling (netherlands)
- Pictures of Willem Barendsz
- Video of the launch of the Willem Barendsz
- Article on the Willem Barendsz stamp
Individual evidence
- ↑ Leuwarder Courant, April 22 1960th
- ↑ Albert W. Vinke AM 2 (2) ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ex HMCS Eyebright K150
- ↑ Johanna W. Vinke AM 5 (2) ex HMCS Cobalt K124
- ↑ Inga Vinke AM 8
- ↑ Picture of Sonja Vincke and her story
- ^ Tønnessen, p. 577.
- ^ Tønnessen, p. 593.
- ↑ Tønnessen, pp. 622f.
- ↑ Tønnessen, p. 607.
- ↑ Tønnessen, p. 582.
