0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.
0:00:05 > 0:00:09A few hundred years ago, the oceans were home to millions of whales,
0:00:09 > 0:00:13but then we discovered that they were incredibly useful animals.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16Every single minute of people's days
0:00:16 > 0:00:19would have been surrounded by whale products.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23Whales were seen as commodities, to produce benefits for people.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28Mention whaling today and most of us think of Moby Dick
0:00:28 > 0:00:31or menacing Japanese factory ships.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34But it's an important part of British history...
0:00:36 > 0:00:39..carried on right up to the 1960s.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42We did it to produce something for this country.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47When we worked out that whales could be used to make soap and food,
0:00:47 > 0:00:50a vast industry emerged on the edge of the world.
0:00:50 > 0:00:55When industrial whaling took on the whales of the Antarctic Ocean,
0:00:55 > 0:00:58the centre of the business was on a British island.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01Here, on South Georgia,
0:01:01 > 0:01:05there are the extraordinary ruins of a complete whaling town.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08Look at the scale of this!
0:01:08 > 0:01:10Knowing that the whales were decimated,
0:01:10 > 0:01:14it's hard to imagine the mindset that would want to kill them.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18I wouldn't like to do it now and I wouldn't do it now.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21But if I'm going to understand this important industry,
0:01:21 > 0:01:24I have to put our environmental guilt to one side.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29With the help of the last of the many Scottish whalers,
0:01:29 > 0:01:32I examine it through the eyes of its own time.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37It was a way of life. And it was a respected way of life.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39You went away as a boy and you came back a man.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43Why do people embark on this difficult and dangerous thing?
0:01:43 > 0:01:47What were the gains? What were they after? What were the dangers?
0:01:47 > 0:01:50What was it actually like to be a whale hunter?
0:01:51 > 0:01:55Nowadays, I'm one of the youngest whalers alive.
0:01:55 > 0:02:00There won't be many of us left to tell the story about whaling.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03I think it should be done...
0:02:04 > 0:02:06..before it's too late.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20This is the west coast of Scotland
0:02:20 > 0:02:22and I've been coming here since I was a boy.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26Nowhere in Britain is more alive than this place.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29It's absolutely throbbing with the natural world.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33And the thing that they've relied on for their lives here
0:02:33 > 0:02:35has been the sea.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38I've always known they've eaten limpets and obviously fish
0:02:38 > 0:02:41and shellfish, sea birds,
0:02:41 > 0:02:46but what I hadn't realised is that they also hunted the whale.
0:02:49 > 0:02:54Until just a few hundred years ago, large numbers of whales
0:02:54 > 0:02:58of many different species inhabited these waters.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01It's the realisation that today's lack of whales
0:03:01 > 0:03:04must be the result of a long and sustained effort
0:03:04 > 0:03:08that has prompted me to find out more about British whaling.
0:03:10 > 0:03:15It's a history that's almost been lost, but luckily, many whalers
0:03:15 > 0:03:20recorded their industry and some are still alive to tell their story.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23It was part of our heritage.
0:03:23 > 0:03:28I mean, whaling had gone on since, erm...God knows when.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34People had always done opportunistic whaling -
0:03:34 > 0:03:38eating, cutting up whales that washed up on the shore,
0:03:38 > 0:03:43but what I hadn't realised is that, about a thousand years ago,
0:03:43 > 0:03:45the Vikings arrived
0:03:45 > 0:03:48and began a completely different way of doing this -
0:03:48 > 0:03:50of actively chasing and hunting whales.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54I'm sailing to a place where the Viking approach to catching small
0:03:54 > 0:03:59whales was still being practised less than 200 years ago.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03This is Stornoway harbour, in Lewis, in the Hebrides
0:04:03 > 0:04:05and I'm just coming into the harbour now.
0:04:05 > 0:04:11I've read an extraordinary account in this book by Osgood Mackenzie -
0:04:11 > 0:04:14a 19th century account of a pilot whale hunt,
0:04:14 > 0:04:18and what's fascinating is that they're doing exactly
0:04:18 > 0:04:22what the Vikings have been doing all over the North Atlantic
0:04:22 > 0:04:24for the last thousand years.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31So, out here, there would have been one line of boats
0:04:31 > 0:04:36outside the pilot whales, with everyone in them throwing stones
0:04:36 > 0:04:40into the water, shouting, and so slowly, slowly
0:04:40 > 0:04:44they drove them into this narrowing head of this loch here,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47with the idea that when they get to the head of the loch,
0:04:47 > 0:04:50in the shallows there, they could jump into the water
0:04:50 > 0:04:52and slaughter them.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00The oil from these pilot whales was invaluable to the people
0:05:00 > 0:05:04living here, providing lighting and oiling machinery,
0:05:04 > 0:05:08while the cured meat would help feed them through the winter.
0:05:14 > 0:05:16This is where it all ended up,
0:05:16 > 0:05:19right at the head of Stornoway harbour, in the shallows here.
0:05:22 > 0:05:27The whole of Stornoway was out here with knives, broad swords,
0:05:27 > 0:05:29roasting spits,
0:05:29 > 0:05:32stabbing away at these things,
0:05:32 > 0:05:34and the blood was horrific.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38It's rather weird to think of all this killing going on
0:05:38 > 0:05:41in a town in Scotland, but in fact, it was part of something
0:05:41 > 0:05:45that was going on all over the North Atlantic, the Viking North Atlantic.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53This was a civilisation dependent on what the sea could give it
0:05:53 > 0:05:56and the sea could give nothing better than the whale.
0:06:05 > 0:06:06From the late 17th century,
0:06:06 > 0:06:09a more commercial form of whaling developed,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12to supply Britain's growing cities.
0:06:12 > 0:06:17That shift to a refined urban life created an ever-expanding market
0:06:17 > 0:06:19for whale products.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23I've come to Spitalfields, in London, to a merchant's house
0:06:23 > 0:06:27that has been restored to how it was in the 18th and 19th centuries.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31And I am interested to find out how much of what is in here
0:06:31 > 0:06:32was made of the whale.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38- Callum.- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you, too.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42Professor Callum Roberts is a marine biologist, with a special
0:06:42 > 0:06:46interest in how our seas have been exploited over the centuries.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49- Wow, that is a room, isn't it? - It certainly is.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53It's just like the inhabitants have just walked out the door.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57There is a classic, classic whale product in here, isn't there?
0:06:57 > 0:06:59That's right, the corset,
0:06:59 > 0:07:03which was supported by these stays inside the material...
0:07:03 > 0:07:06- Can you feel them? Yes, you can. - ..which were made of whalebone.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10And it was a wonderful plastic material -
0:07:10 > 0:07:13it was flexible and bendy, but it was very, very strong.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16Now, what about this? Oh, look at that.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18And that is the whalebone.
0:07:18 > 0:07:23- And carved to this incredibly precise millimetre thing.- How fascinating.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26Look at that. Now, that is intriguing.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29Is that whale oil that is burning in there?
0:07:29 > 0:07:32It would have been at the time, because it became completely
0:07:32 > 0:07:36standard for people to light their rooms and houses
0:07:36 > 0:07:37with this kind of fuel.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41And out in the streets, by about 1740,
0:07:41 > 0:07:45London had 5,000 streetlamps that were fuelled by whale oil alone.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49And that's why there was such a surge in demand for whales.
0:07:49 > 0:07:54- Was there any feeling that somehow this wasn't quite right?- Not at all.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58Whales were simply seen as commodities that could be hunted
0:07:58 > 0:08:00to produce benefits for people.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05Ships from London, Hall, Whitby
0:08:05 > 0:08:09and Dundee flocked to the Arctic in search of whales.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11In 1788 alone,
0:08:11 > 0:08:16247 British ships set sail for the ice.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20There, they chased down whales in light rowing boats with
0:08:20 > 0:08:22hand-held harpoons.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27The most famous of all the whalers who went up to the Arctic was
0:08:27 > 0:08:30a man called William Scoresby from Whitby.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34And he wrote this account of whaling in the Arctic regions.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37"Those employed in the occupation of killing whales,"
0:08:37 > 0:08:42he says, "when actually engaged are exposed to danger
0:08:42 > 0:08:44"from three sources - from the ice,
0:08:44 > 0:08:48"from the climate and from the whales themselves.
0:08:48 > 0:08:49"And of the three,
0:08:49 > 0:08:52"it was the whales that were the really dangerous things -
0:08:52 > 0:08:55"boats, together with their crews and apparatus,
0:08:55 > 0:08:57"projected into the air."
0:08:59 > 0:09:01Christ!
0:09:01 > 0:09:03Some of them must have been terrified.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07Maybe they had been capsized before or something like that,
0:09:07 > 0:09:10you don't live long in either Arctic or Antarctic waters,
0:09:10 > 0:09:12you only have a few minutes.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16In the old days, it was wooden ships and iron men.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19Now it is iron ships and wooden men.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21Well, there must've been iron men in these days
0:09:21 > 0:09:25to go out in open boats and harpoon whales.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32So, what effect did this huge demand for whale product
0:09:32 > 0:09:34have on the whales themselves?
0:09:34 > 0:09:38The particular whales they were after then were things called right whales.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41The reason they were the right whales is cos they moved slowly,
0:09:41 > 0:09:46they were quite docile and they had a big layer of blubber,
0:09:46 > 0:09:48which meant that, after they had been killed, they floated.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52And that was important, because when you have got something as heavy
0:09:52 > 0:09:54as a whale on the end of a line, then,
0:09:54 > 0:09:56if it sank, you'd be in trouble.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59And being so valuable meant that they were pursued relentlessly,
0:09:59 > 0:10:03so that, after a couple of hundred years of exploitation,
0:10:03 > 0:10:07they essentially were driven extinct in the North Atlantic.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11And this is the wrong kind of whale. This was the blue whale.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14These were also abundant in those waters,
0:10:14 > 0:10:17but they weren't hunted, and the reason was that they were too
0:10:17 > 0:10:22fast - they couldn't be approached by rowboats or in sailboats.
0:10:22 > 0:10:23But there was another important reason.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27If you were to harpoon one, it would sink,
0:10:27 > 0:10:29and that would be a major liability.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32- OK, so the blue whales were uncatchable.- There were.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35So, would we have seen these species around our coasts?
0:10:35 > 0:10:37We would certainly have seen many.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39Not the Greenland right whale,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43but all of the others were common sightings from just...
0:10:43 > 0:10:46You could see them from the cliffs of Dover, for example.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49- And not a single one now.- No.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55As the easily-caught right whales in the Arctic were brought
0:10:55 > 0:10:57close to extinction in the mid-19th century,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00British whaling went into steep decline.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06The centre of the whaling world shifted to South Norway,
0:11:06 > 0:11:09where there was a drive to find a way of hunting the species
0:11:09 > 0:11:11that was still plentiful.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15Small towns, like this one in Vestfold,
0:11:15 > 0:11:19became centres of innovation and engineering excellence.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22The question is, how did they do it
0:11:22 > 0:11:26when the rest of the industry was dying on its feet?
0:11:30 > 0:11:34The answer lies in this man's famed find - the inventor
0:11:34 > 0:11:39of modern whaling, who became the richest man in Norway, as a result.
0:11:39 > 0:11:44Look at him. He is a great, fat, substantial, no-nonsense figure.
0:11:44 > 0:11:49But can one man really have transformed an entire industry?
0:11:55 > 0:11:59I've been invited to Norway to join a group of Scottish whalers.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02They're on their annual visit to meet their old Norwegian friends
0:12:02 > 0:12:04from the industry.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06It's still quite mobile, isn't it?
0:12:08 > 0:12:12They've brought me to a restored whale-catching ship,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16that illustrates Svend Foyn's technological revolution.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21So, what were the big changes that Svend Foyn made to whaling?
0:12:21 > 0:12:24He invented the whale catcher.
0:12:24 > 0:12:29He invented a new type of whaling gun, which he made bigger.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32It is a harpoon, with an explosive head on it.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36- And the system he invented lasted? - Yeah, it still does.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43Foyn's bold idea was to harness steam power
0:12:43 > 0:12:47and modern explosives, to allow him to catch the wrong whales -
0:12:47 > 0:12:51the blue and fin whales that swam fast
0:12:51 > 0:12:53and sank, once they had been killed.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07Generally, I think that whales were mostly spotted
0:13:07 > 0:13:10from the barrel about 70 feet above the deck.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13When you were going up to the barrel,
0:13:13 > 0:13:15as the ship was rolling to one side,
0:13:15 > 0:13:17you'd just hang on.
0:13:17 > 0:13:18Once you got in there,
0:13:18 > 0:13:22you had binoculars and you started looking for whales.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27If I'm up in the barrel and I saw a whale,
0:13:27 > 0:13:30you just blew the whistle, then you started pointing.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33Of course, as soon as you shouted, the catcher went full ahead.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35The telegraph goes.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38I answer the telegraph
0:13:38 > 0:13:42- and then open up the valve, to full.- For full-on.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44Because you were going, then, you were on a chase.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46You could tell you were on a chase.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48You could see everything shaking, the whole barrel
0:13:48 > 0:13:50and everything was shaking.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56You need your gun loaded up, so I get down...
0:13:57 > 0:13:58Christ, that is...
0:13:58 > 0:14:02So, seas are coming over you at this point, are they?
0:14:02 > 0:14:06I feel the boat is going down again, right? Uff! Grab on!
0:14:06 > 0:14:07Slow up again, right?
0:14:07 > 0:14:10What I have to do, coil it properly, because if this
0:14:10 > 0:14:14went in a kink when he fired the gun, it could be dangerous.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22If you had spotted a whale, it might last for an hour.
0:14:22 > 0:14:24The excitement would mount.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26I'll tell you something,
0:14:26 > 0:14:29there's nothing more exciting than being on a catcher, chasing.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34When the whale goes down...
0:14:35 > 0:14:37..you're all on your toes, looking all over the place.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40It's just exciting.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44Once you got coming up to the whales, maybe about...
0:14:46 > 0:14:49..maybe 100 yards ahead of you,
0:14:49 > 0:14:52the gunner would leave the bridge and go to the gun.
0:14:52 > 0:14:57When I fire, I don't want to close my eyes, cos I want to see
0:14:57 > 0:14:59the trajectory of the harpoon.
0:14:59 > 0:15:04Going at full speed, the gunner really had very little time,
0:15:04 > 0:15:07maybe a couple of seconds, to make up his mind whether to shoot or not.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23You did... Well, I did...
0:15:23 > 0:15:26You know, when a whale was harpooned, you couldn't help
0:15:26 > 0:15:30wincing when that harpoon went in, because that was a living animal.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33It had feeling, just the same as we do,
0:15:33 > 0:15:35as far as pain is concerned.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48Yeah, that's...
0:15:48 > 0:15:51It was a brutal way of life. There is no getting away from the fact.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58They seem so friendly.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01And they'd make a noise and...
0:16:01 > 0:16:03Like, when you hit them,
0:16:03 > 0:16:05they cried really.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07And that... I felt that.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17The grenade tip of Foyn's harpoon was designed to deliver
0:16:17 > 0:16:19a fatal explosion after impact.
0:16:21 > 0:16:26But if the whale was just injured, another innovation was needed
0:16:26 > 0:16:28to play it on a long, spring-loaded line.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37After the gun has been fired, when you start to reel the fish
0:16:37 > 0:16:40back in, the line starts to come down here.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44- Right. So the other end of that is attached to the harpoon?- Yes.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47Yeah. And what length of line would you be having in here?
0:16:47 > 0:16:49Must be near a mile, I would think.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55It could be dangerous, yes, if the whale wasn't shot properly
0:16:55 > 0:16:58and took out a lot of line and there was a lot of strain
0:16:58 > 0:16:59and that line was really stretching.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04There was one young chap, he fell when he tried to get out,
0:17:04 > 0:17:10a kink went in this line and he lost the foot off his leg.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15The second mate's job was to put on the brakes.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19And he also had to keep an eye on how far down the mast this block came.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23So, when the whale is putting tension on the harpoon line,
0:17:23 > 0:17:27this, kind of, like, the spring of a fishing rod, takes that tension up
0:17:27 > 0:17:31- and releases it slowly, with no jerks.- That's correct.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35Is this one of the inventions made by the Norwegians
0:17:35 > 0:17:37- in the 19th century?- It is, yes.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41- Svend Foyn.- Svend Foyn was responsible for this one.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51We, then, had to pump air into the whale,
0:17:51 > 0:17:55because a whale could...sink.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01The mess boy's job was to take a long, wooden pole
0:18:01 > 0:18:05and a hose, with something resembling a huge hypodermic needle,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08and then pump air into it.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13Then, we had to flag the whale, because, throughout the day,
0:18:13 > 0:18:17we might be chasing for the next eight, ten, 12 hours.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21So coming back, we wanted to make our job a little easier
0:18:21 > 0:18:22to find them again.
0:18:25 > 0:18:27- You were a whaler for 30 years.- Yes.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31And you became a gunner? You were a gunner in the end?
0:18:31 > 0:18:33I became a gunner when I was 25.
0:18:33 > 0:18:38And do you know how many whales you shot in your career?
0:18:38 > 0:18:40- Well, plus or minus 6,000.- Really?
0:18:40 > 0:18:44- Yeah.- That is quite a body of whales.- Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49And the thing was to catch as many whales as you could.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52That is what we were there for, that is what we concentrated on.
0:18:55 > 0:19:00It takes being on a catcher like this to see just how good
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Svend Foyn's changes were - how incredibly effective they were.
0:19:03 > 0:19:05It changed everything.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09The second thing is what extraordinary teamwork
0:19:09 > 0:19:10is going on here.
0:19:10 > 0:19:15Everything has to be incredibly finely tuned, in this very,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18very hostile, dynamic, dangerous environment.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25But there is some mismatch between that skill in the service
0:19:25 > 0:19:27of something that isn't entirely good.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30There is something that doesn't quite fit there.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35With Foyn's new whale-catching ships,
0:19:35 > 0:19:39the blue and fin whales along the coasts of northwest Europe
0:19:39 > 0:19:42could now be caught and towed ashore for processing.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49Modern whaling quickly spread from the waters of northern Norway
0:19:49 > 0:19:53to Iceland, the Faroes and Scotland.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58The new catching technology coincided with
0:19:58 > 0:20:00a lull in demand for whaling products.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04Coal, gas and, then, electricity had taken the place of whale oil
0:20:04 > 0:20:09for lighting and no-one wanted whalebone corsets any more.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12There was some demand for whale oil,
0:20:12 > 0:20:16but the prices were so low that the enterprise would only work
0:20:16 > 0:20:20where the whales were really densely concentrated.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26It was then that whaling entrepreneurs remembered
0:20:26 > 0:20:29old explorers' reports of abundant whales
0:20:29 > 0:20:33at the other end of the world - the Antarctic Ocean.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40I went whaling at the age of 16.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44Coming off a croft in Shetland, you went down to Aberdeen
0:20:44 > 0:20:46and you saw your first double-decker bus and your first train.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53I'd never been off the island before.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57I went to Leeds and joined the Southern Harvester in South Shields.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00And headed down to the ice.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05With a history of whaling and a reputation as seafarers,
0:21:05 > 0:21:08Scotsmen became a part of the industry Norway pioneered
0:21:08 > 0:21:11and joined them in the south.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18When I left, I was a bit seasick and also a bit homesick, as well.
0:21:18 > 0:21:19But I soon overcame that.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26I chose whaling because it was an adventure.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29It was folklore here
0:21:29 > 0:21:32and whalers were famous.
0:21:32 > 0:21:33When they came home,
0:21:33 > 0:21:35everybody had a new car
0:21:35 > 0:21:37or a new motorbike
0:21:37 > 0:21:39and...or a new boat.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45So I thought, "I fancy a bit of this myself."
0:21:49 > 0:21:55For me, two months at sea is reduced to a comfortable 16-hour flight
0:21:55 > 0:21:57to the Falkland Islands.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04Port Stanley, the capital of the Falklands,
0:22:04 > 0:22:08was the British colonial outpost nearest to the new whaling grounds.
0:22:09 > 0:22:14There is no doubt that I am getting close to the heart of the matter.
0:22:14 > 0:22:15Wow!
0:22:16 > 0:22:21This... I mean, all you can think is just - really, really big.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24These are two sets of the lower jaw,
0:22:24 > 0:22:27just this bit, of two blue whales.
0:22:27 > 0:22:32You could... You know, you could comfortably drive a really big truck
0:22:32 > 0:22:34through here.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37They're the biggest animals that have ever lived.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40Bigger than any dinosaur.
0:22:40 > 0:22:45And you have to imagine, of course, that this is just the head here.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49And the rest of the body is going on down underground another 80,
0:22:49 > 0:22:5190 feet.
0:22:51 > 0:22:56You know, the Leviathan, the Colossus of the ocean.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59The new southern centre of the whaling industry
0:22:59 > 0:23:01developed on another British island
0:23:01 > 0:23:06900 miles across the stormy Southern Ocean - South Georgia.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16To get there, I am hitching a ride on a ship
0:23:16 > 0:23:20taking 120 tourists on an Antarctic expedition.
0:23:28 > 0:23:33There are fantastic albatrosses out here. Look at that.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37Oh, my God, that's a beautiful thing!
0:23:37 > 0:23:38Oh!
0:23:41 > 0:23:44Whoa!
0:23:46 > 0:23:49That is one of most beautiful things I've ever seen.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53It would be fantastic to see a whale.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03All my life, I had wanted to see the Antarctic.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07I suppose this was my way of doing this.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11The reason I wanted to go to South Georgia, Antarctica,
0:24:11 > 0:24:16was that I had read from the age of ten about Shackleton and Scott,
0:24:16 > 0:24:19and that fascinated me, as a youngster.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23In 1892, a full ten years before Scott
0:24:23 > 0:24:26and Shackleton first set foot on Antarctica,
0:24:26 > 0:24:30two whaling expeditions from Norway and Scotland were already
0:24:30 > 0:24:34exploring this last frontier of the known world.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39They reported back that there were thousands upon thousands of blue,
0:24:39 > 0:24:41fin and humpback whales.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47We're just crossing the Antarctic Convergence, which is
0:24:47 > 0:24:50the point where quite warm - relatively warm - Atlantic water
0:24:50 > 0:24:55comes down and meets very much colder Antarctic water.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01As those two water bodies meet, there is incredible turbulence
0:25:01 > 0:25:05and upwelling in the ocean and so, it becomes very, very fertile.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08We get a lot of birds and also whales.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12If you were a whale hunter, this is where you'd come hunt them.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16This is it. This is whale central.
0:25:17 > 0:25:19But there isn't a single one here.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36The first time I seen South Georgia, I just... The most beautiful,
0:25:36 > 0:25:38still, calm, frosty morning,
0:25:38 > 0:25:41and I thought it was the beautifulest scenery
0:25:41 > 0:25:43that I was ever seeing, anywhere at all.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45It was absolutely unbelievable.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49South Georgia is an absolutely spectacular place.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51It really is mind-blowing.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54And that is an impression that has lasted with me all my life,
0:25:54 > 0:25:55actually.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59So, we have arrived. This is South Georgia.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01And it is, honestly, one of the most dramatic places
0:26:01 > 0:26:03I have ever seen in my life.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05Out there, the wild Southern Ocean,
0:26:05 > 0:26:08the wind howling through these gaps here.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12These fantastic, sort of, sheared Alpine faces of these mountains
0:26:12 > 0:26:16disappearing into the clouds. The beaches over there,
0:26:16 > 0:26:21with these giant elephant seals. Albatrosses nesting all over there.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23God knows what is going on down there.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26This is, kind of, you know, the Earth as excitement, isn't it?
0:26:26 > 0:26:28Look at it. It's just...
0:26:28 > 0:26:31I don't think I've ever arrived in a place that feels
0:26:31 > 0:26:33sort of... Rarrr! ..like this.
0:26:33 > 0:26:35It's just pumping!
0:26:37 > 0:26:39Lying outside the pack ice,
0:26:39 > 0:26:43South Georgia was better known than the Antarctic mainland.
0:26:43 > 0:26:48The first person to land here was Captain Cook, in 1775.
0:26:48 > 0:26:50He named it after George III
0:26:50 > 0:26:56and thought, at first, he had found the great southern continent itself.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10So, here, already, what is it?
0:27:10 > 0:27:15Six young, male elephant seals, just lying out there on their own.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19But the really extraordinary thing is up here...
0:27:19 > 0:27:24Crowds and crowds and crowds of penguins.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27Isn't that fantastic?
0:27:27 > 0:27:31All the grown-ups in the foreground and there, behind,
0:27:31 > 0:27:35are hundreds and hundreds of little brown babies.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41It is like an army of hot water bottles standing to attention.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45Within ten years of Cook having found the place,
0:27:45 > 0:27:48there were people down here going for the seals.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51It was fur seals to start with and, within about 20 years,
0:27:51 > 0:27:53they'd effectively wiped them out.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57The only ones that were left were these great big elephant seals.
0:27:57 > 0:28:02And here are some of the pots in which they boiled up the blubber.
0:28:02 > 0:28:08So there would have been a, kind of, seal blubber processing plant here.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12There is another building there. Bits of timber from the floor.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14And another place over there.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18I mean, this was, incredibly, an inhabited place.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23A lot of other seal species you can't get too close to.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26They'll flee and they'll go away, so this is pretty wonderful.
0:28:26 > 0:28:28It's a great time to be here.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32Brent Stewart has been studying the changes in the elephant seal
0:28:32 > 0:28:35population for the last 20 years.
0:28:35 > 0:28:37Do you think they are beautiful?
0:28:37 > 0:28:41I wouldn't say they're not beautiful, in all ways.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45They're some of the smelliest animals I've ever been around.
0:28:45 > 0:28:47They're pretty obnoxious.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51Seal blubber oil was put to the same uses as whale oil.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55And regulated hunting carried on through the whaling years,
0:28:55 > 0:28:57until the 1960s.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01It was a harvest, a managed harvest, and pretty well managed.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04So, the population then was not declining.
0:29:04 > 0:29:06So, at the end, they hadn't hammered the elephant seal...
0:29:06 > 0:29:09No, cos they were doing it sustainably.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13You know, it was an accessory to the whaling industry for that oil.
0:29:13 > 0:29:14And it...
0:29:14 > 0:29:17When the whaling stopped, the sealing stopped, because it
0:29:17 > 0:29:21really wasn't commercially viable to just have elephant seal sealing.
0:29:21 > 0:29:26Could you now have sustainable seal sealing here?
0:29:26 > 0:29:28Um...
0:29:31 > 0:29:32I... It would be possible.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35The question is whether humans could ever do that.
0:29:35 > 0:29:40I think, theoretically, you could probably have some sustained sealing,
0:29:40 > 0:29:45at a small level, but whether we'd actually do that is unclear.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48And it is not needed. There is no reason for it.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50We've got the oil replacements.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58My lift on the cruise ship is over.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02- See ya, bye! See you.- Bye-bye. - Take care.- Good luck.- Thank you.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05Take care, good luck.
0:30:05 > 0:30:09I need to transfer to a new base, so I can start exploring
0:30:09 > 0:30:13the remains of the whaling industry on the island.
0:30:13 > 0:30:15Our other ship is over there. That is the Farus,
0:30:15 > 0:30:20which is the South Georgia Fishery Protection vessel,
0:30:20 > 0:30:22where we are going to be spending the next few days,
0:30:22 > 0:30:26exploring this amazing island.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32In 1904, the captain of the Norwegian recce a decade earlier,
0:30:32 > 0:30:35CA Larsen, came back to the desolate island
0:30:35 > 0:30:40of South Georgia and set up a prefab processing station.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44He found so many whales that his catchers never had to leave
0:30:44 > 0:30:47the bay and could rely mainly on the inquisitive,
0:30:47 > 0:30:50easy-to-shoot, humpback whale.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54His gamble to find a densely-populated hunting ground
0:30:54 > 0:30:57immediately began to pay off.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01The British Colonial Office was surprised to hear
0:31:01 > 0:31:05of this new venture, set up without their permission.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09But spotting a source of tax in this wilderness, they first charged
0:31:09 > 0:31:15him for a belated licence and, then, offered further licences to others.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19I've woken up this morning in this incredibly beautiful bay.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23It is a marvellous Alpine scene -
0:31:23 > 0:31:26sort of, three Matterhorns on the horizon.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29And it has these other bays off it.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33And I know that, somewhere in there, at the head of those bays
0:31:33 > 0:31:38are some of the whaling stations that we're going to explore.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41So, what I'm hoping for
0:31:41 > 0:31:44is whaler life in a, kind of, capsule over there.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51I'm getting a ride ashore to the largest of the stations
0:31:51 > 0:31:55with a team who are surveying it for the government of this
0:31:55 > 0:31:57British Overseas Territory.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14This is Leith Harbour,
0:32:14 > 0:32:18one of the biggest whaling stations here on South Georgia.
0:32:18 > 0:32:20And it was made by a man called Salvesen,
0:32:20 > 0:32:24who was living in Edinburgh, and he had set up whaling stations
0:32:24 > 0:32:28in Shetland, in Iceland and even over in the Falklands.
0:32:28 > 0:32:31But none of them were quite in the heartland of the whale.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33And that was South Georgia.
0:32:35 > 0:32:40When I think of the number of lives that are soaked into this place...
0:32:45 > 0:32:50Imagine what it was like arriving here, as a young guy from Scotland.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53Extraordinary! I mean, this is extraordinary!
0:32:55 > 0:32:58Very excited. You wondered what was going to happen.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01You know, what job you would get? How would you cope with it?
0:33:01 > 0:33:03We were just young boys.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07You had no idea what the future might bring for you.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12Impressed by Larsen's catches a few miles down the coast,
0:33:12 > 0:33:15the Salvesen family were quick to apply for a licence
0:33:15 > 0:33:19for this bay and started building in 1909.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25Leith Harbour, named after Salvesen's homeport in Edinburgh,
0:33:25 > 0:33:28was to run until 1965 and became
0:33:28 > 0:33:33the year-round hub of the company's entire Antarctic operation.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41Leith Harbour was a very, very busy place.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44And I was absolutely astounded with the number of vessels
0:33:44 > 0:33:48that were berthed there, ready to take part in the whaling industry.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52So, "Landing prohibited."
0:33:52 > 0:33:58It is an offence to use any jetty, to land here, to approach within 200
0:33:58 > 0:34:03metres of the station, all because of unsafe structures and asbestos.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06And that is by order of the Government of South Georgia.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10Well, the only reason that I can be here today is that we've got special
0:34:10 > 0:34:12dispensation from the government,
0:34:12 > 0:34:16but under certain, quite carefully, controlled conditions.
0:34:16 > 0:34:17So, I have to wear this suit.
0:34:17 > 0:34:21And if ever I enter a particularly sensitive and asbestos-rich
0:34:21 > 0:34:25building, no hat and I have to put on the hood
0:34:25 > 0:34:28and I've got a mask, which I would also wear,
0:34:28 > 0:34:31just so I won't die.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37Well, the whole place is just littered with junk.
0:34:37 > 0:34:42There is a forklift truck there. This is a giant lathe.
0:34:42 > 0:34:46Some, kind of, other machine-making tools there.
0:34:46 > 0:34:48When you left that area and walked up,
0:34:48 > 0:34:51there was a little... The street was called Pig Street.
0:34:51 > 0:34:53I don't know why I've just remembered about that.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57So, this is the piggery here.
0:34:58 > 0:35:00Quite a nice, big,
0:35:00 > 0:35:04handsome building for the pigs.
0:35:04 > 0:35:06Very, very collapsed.
0:35:06 > 0:35:11Pig Street led you up through, past all the workshops.
0:35:11 > 0:35:13So...
0:35:14 > 0:35:18Well, look at this.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21This is a complete, preserved world in here.
0:35:22 > 0:35:24How amazing.
0:35:24 > 0:35:28OK, so this is obviously the forge,
0:35:28 > 0:35:35the hot forge, where they could make pieces of new iron, steel equipment.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39The challenges of building an entire industrial complex
0:35:39 > 0:35:43in such a remote and hostile location were huge.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46The early whalers had to be completely self-sufficient,
0:35:46 > 0:35:48with the materials
0:35:48 > 0:35:52and skills for everything, from engineering to animal husbandry.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57I think, maybe, this is the powerhouse here. This one.
0:35:57 > 0:35:59That was my place of work.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02On top of the power station, there was an outside stair
0:36:02 > 0:36:05and that was the electrical workshop.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09These must be the stairs that John was talking about.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20This must be the workshop.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24This is where he must have worked, exactly here.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30It's almost 50 years since the whalers left and visiting
0:36:30 > 0:36:34naval ships and fishermen have ransacked many of the buildings.
0:36:34 > 0:36:40So, here are all the different voltages and wattages of bulbs.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44Hundreds and hundreds of them stacked up here.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46"Osram - the wonderful lamp."
0:36:47 > 0:36:52It is very like a, kind of, Tutankhamen experience, this.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55The grave robbers have been in and have left the chaos
0:36:55 > 0:36:57and anarchy on the floor.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01But still, there is so much kit.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03An absolutely perfect time capsule.
0:37:07 > 0:37:09Oh, hang on a second.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13I've seen exactly this view.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16I think, exactly this view.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19Somewhere, I've got this...a photo.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22There it is. That is exactly it.
0:37:22 > 0:37:24That's extraordinary!
0:37:24 > 0:37:30That is as close as you could get to time disappearing.
0:37:30 > 0:37:32Amazing.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40The harsh weather here has also taken its toll.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47Before the buildings fall down any further,
0:37:47 > 0:37:51the South Georgia Government has commissioned a highly-accurate
0:37:51 > 0:37:533-D survey of each of the stations.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04- Is it doing it now?- Yeah, so you can see, if you look over here...- OK.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07OK, there it is. Oh, I see, OK.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10Russell Gibb and his team are using laser scanners,
0:38:10 > 0:38:13to record the whole of Leith Harbour.
0:38:13 > 0:38:18You're going to end up with a total snapshot of the whole place,
0:38:18 > 0:38:22- the whole settlement, at this one moment?- Yep.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25So, essentially, what we are doing is we are creating an archive,
0:38:25 > 0:38:28a three-dimensional archive, of the station, as it stands today.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33- It's a melancholy place, though. - It is, very much so, yeah.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37You do feel lives are, in a way, soaked into the place.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41A lot of people's experiences and struggles and triumphs,
0:38:41 > 0:38:43they are all here, aren't they?
0:38:43 > 0:38:46Oh, yeah. I mean, you have got the graffiti...
0:38:46 > 0:38:48You probably haven't been down to the plant to see the graffiti yet.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52They're is wonderful graffiti with... where people who have been working
0:38:52 > 0:38:54here have left their names and the dates.
0:38:57 > 0:38:59- It's bloody noisy in here, isn't it?- Yeah.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02- Is it always like this, when the wind...?- Yeah.
0:39:02 > 0:39:04As soon as the wind is up - loose iron everywhere,
0:39:04 > 0:39:06just bang, bang, bang, clatter, clatter.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13For the whaling companies, the gamble of investing
0:39:13 > 0:39:17in South Georgia coincided with the recovery in their market.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21Europe's growing industrial population needed
0:39:21 > 0:39:26ever-increasing quantities of hard fats, for soap and food.
0:39:26 > 0:39:31And the supply from the American meat industry couldn't keep up.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34When a new invention called hydrogenation
0:39:34 > 0:39:38promised that cheaper liquid oil could be turned into hard fat,
0:39:38 > 0:39:44the demand for whale oil immediately started to rise.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47So, this is it. This is the heart of the whole operation here.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51This is what they call the flensing plan,
0:39:51 > 0:39:54the place where they drag the whales in and chop them up.
0:39:55 > 0:40:00Now, this is not somewhere designed for some little cottage industry.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03I mean, look at the scale of this! You could fit...
0:40:03 > 0:40:05You could fit ten whales on here.
0:40:08 > 0:40:13Well, this is where the business begins, right at the sea edge.
0:40:13 > 0:40:15They would have caught the whales out there -
0:40:15 > 0:40:17the Southern Ocean is just past those headlands -
0:40:17 > 0:40:19pulled them in. Probably, if they caught a lot
0:40:19 > 0:40:22of whales, they would keep them on buoys out there
0:40:22 > 0:40:27and then, tug boats, like these that are up here, on the plan,
0:40:27 > 0:40:29would pull them into this shoreline.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37The big winches in that low shed there would have cables drawn
0:40:37 > 0:40:41all the way out here, to the sea edge, hooked onto the whales.
0:40:41 > 0:40:46They would haul them up this shallow slope onto the flensing plan.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50Flensing is the process of peeling away
0:40:50 > 0:40:53the whale's outer blubber layer.
0:40:55 > 0:40:57As it's being heaved up,
0:40:57 > 0:41:01the flenser just stands there
0:41:01 > 0:41:04and lets the winch do the work, really.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08He stands there, with a knife in the blubber.
0:41:08 > 0:41:10They were fantastic butchers, really.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17There's three cutters.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21One walks up the top and two cutting along the side of it.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26They put toggles, wires and toggles, really, in through the holes.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31The skin was peeled back, just like peeling a banana.
0:41:36 > 0:41:41There might be four or five whales being cut up here, at one time.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45Now, one whale, they analysed exactly what it was made of,
0:41:45 > 0:41:50and it was 89-feet long and lay here, ten-feet high,
0:41:50 > 0:41:54its body standing higher than I can reach.
0:41:54 > 0:41:55And the weights. The weights.
0:41:55 > 0:42:00There is 26 tonnes of blubber, 56 tonnes of meat,
0:42:00 > 0:42:0322 tonnes of bone.
0:42:03 > 0:42:07The tongue, alone, weighed three tonnes.
0:42:07 > 0:42:13In that whole body, the blood weighed eight tonnes.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19And this, I know, is the blubber processing plant.
0:42:20 > 0:42:25And somewhere, they brought it inside, to be chopped up
0:42:25 > 0:42:26into little pieces.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29I don't know if I'm going to be able to find that. I mean...
0:42:29 > 0:42:32Well, maybe here.
0:42:32 > 0:42:34Maybe here. There is a hole here.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38Oh, yeah, with a chute going down there.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40So, they slid the blubber down through there.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49Yeah, that is the blubber chute.
0:42:52 > 0:42:54Ah-ha.
0:42:54 > 0:42:59So, the blubber would've come in here, down underground there,
0:42:59 > 0:43:03and then, there is this big elevator here, which then rises up
0:43:03 > 0:43:05through the building.
0:43:05 > 0:43:12You can imagine that just sloppily full of minced blubber.
0:43:12 > 0:43:13So, it is a very intense process.
0:43:13 > 0:43:18Steam is bring driven into these boilers under high pressure.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21And that steam blows the oil out of it. And it's...
0:43:21 > 0:43:25It's not a, kind of, gentle, careful bubbling.
0:43:25 > 0:43:27This is, "Give me the oil!"
0:43:29 > 0:43:32In the 1907-8 season, the three companies
0:43:32 > 0:43:38already on South Georgia caught 2,300 whales, mostly humpbacks.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43The oil in the blubber layer was easiest to extract
0:43:43 > 0:43:45and so, when they were faced with such abundance,
0:43:45 > 0:43:49the whalers simply left the rest of the carcass to float away.
0:43:54 > 0:43:56So, I think this is a film
0:43:56 > 0:43:59taken in the '50s.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02I'm interested in what Russell and his team think
0:44:02 > 0:44:06about the activities of the station they have spent weeks surveying.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12Do you recognise that, you guys? Do you recognise that?
0:44:12 > 0:44:16It's actually lovely to see these films of the stations, as they were,
0:44:16 > 0:44:20compared to what we see them as now, when they are just, you know,
0:44:20 > 0:44:21sort of, tragic ruins.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34- Look at the volume of the meat down there.- There's flesh everywhere.
0:44:34 > 0:44:35It's unreal.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40Had you not thought it was like that?
0:44:40 > 0:44:42I thought it might have been more streamlined
0:44:42 > 0:44:45and animals pulled up and it's cut up and not...
0:44:45 > 0:44:51I didn't, sort of, think there would be flesh lying everywhere.
0:44:51 > 0:44:55You know what it was used for, but it's not until you actually see it
0:44:55 > 0:44:59in action that you go, "Oh, my God!"
0:44:59 > 0:45:03- It's brutal, though. That's the thing. It's so brutal.- It's a sin.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07It's seems like a sin. Such a beautiful animal
0:45:07 > 0:45:08and we're doing that.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10Man is doing that, you know.
0:45:19 > 0:45:21By the 1910-11 season,
0:45:21 > 0:45:24Salvesen's operation at Leith Harbour had become
0:45:24 > 0:45:27the largest whaling concern in the world,
0:45:27 > 0:45:29sending home over 8,000 tonnes of oil
0:45:29 > 0:45:34and paying their shareholders 100% dividend on their investment.
0:45:35 > 0:45:42These are the huge tanks that the whale oil was stored in,
0:45:42 > 0:45:47these vast great cylinders. And even more over there.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52I mean, it's an industrial technology and it takes a minute
0:45:52 > 0:45:57to realise that what's in here is not an industrial product,
0:45:57 > 0:45:58but whale oil.
0:45:59 > 0:46:05In a way, it's an extraordinary triumph, to be able to gather
0:46:05 > 0:46:11this quantity of oil from the sea and that triumph is, itself, tragic.
0:46:11 > 0:46:15It's terrible to gather that much oil from the sea.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18So, this is...
0:46:18 > 0:46:24This is really everything that Leith Harbour adds up to.
0:46:24 > 0:46:28Incredibly well done and incredibly sad.
0:46:38 > 0:46:42In 1912, the same year that Scott reached the South Pole, there were
0:46:42 > 0:46:47seven whaling companies up and running on South Georgia. An island
0:46:47 > 0:46:52entirely uninhabited eight years earlier was now home to 1,200 men.
0:47:22 > 0:47:24It was a piece of cake, really, you know.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26The only thing you missed is a woman.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35Look at these lovely girls. Fantastic.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43We've got the real thing here. There's a lovely one.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46HE LAUGHS
0:47:46 > 0:47:48La Parisienne.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51This reminds me of something I've got here,
0:47:51 > 0:47:55which is a letter from Tam, to his wife.
0:47:55 > 0:47:59Probably one of the least-diplomatic letters
0:47:59 > 0:48:00ever sent from South Georgia.
0:48:00 > 0:48:05He writes on the back of it, "Here I am sitting on Danny's bunk.
0:48:05 > 0:48:10"Hope you like the pin-ups. Best love, my dear, from your Tam."
0:48:10 > 0:48:12HE LAUGHS
0:48:12 > 0:48:17I'd say the camaraderie was terrific and that's where you learn to do it.
0:48:17 > 0:48:23You've got to make a joke in life to survive things like that.
0:48:26 > 0:48:28Of course, we used to distil our own booze,
0:48:28 > 0:48:31which I shouldn't be telling you, should I?
0:48:31 > 0:48:35If you were ever catched with any of that in your cabin or anything,
0:48:35 > 0:48:39that was your bag. You'd never be back at the whaling again.
0:48:39 > 0:48:43Every chance you were sent home on the first transport that called.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46That was the punishment if you got caught.
0:48:46 > 0:48:51Alcohol was a very, very prized commodity,
0:48:51 > 0:48:52I'll tell you that for nothing.
0:48:52 > 0:48:57A night's booze like that usually took away a lot of tension.
0:48:58 > 0:49:01It kept them going for another long while.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11I've got a photo that exactly matches this.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15They're making illegal hooch out of all this equipment.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19The girls on their lockers exactly like that.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21Isn't that fantastic?!
0:49:21 > 0:49:26I think that is what this hooch business is all about -
0:49:26 > 0:49:29having a laugh. Come in from the blood and guts out there
0:49:29 > 0:49:33and, at least, in here, you can have a few girls on the wall,
0:49:33 > 0:49:38have a drink, have a good time, have a joke, have a smoke.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41Getting a brew on, is what they called it.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43You'd do anything for a tin of yeast.
0:49:43 > 0:49:45Yeast was the main ingredient.
0:49:50 > 0:49:55Look at that. Best for baking, eh?
0:49:56 > 0:49:58You didn't tell people where you hid that.
0:49:58 > 0:50:00It was pretty secretive stuff.
0:50:00 > 0:50:04My God, what about in there? There we go.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08This is the remains of a still in here.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15In here, under this bed, is something even better.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18That's the party scoop there.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22That's what you welcome your guests with.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31By 1914, South Georgia was such a well-supplied
0:50:31 > 0:50:35outpost of the industrial world, that Ernest Shackleton stopped here
0:50:35 > 0:50:40to restock, at the start of his Endurance expedition.
0:50:40 > 0:50:41Before he left London,
0:50:41 > 0:50:44prominent scientists were voicing concerns that
0:50:44 > 0:50:49the depletion of whales in the north was now being repeated down south.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52Keen to encourage a long-lived whaling industry, the government
0:50:52 > 0:50:56set up an inter-departmental committee to investigate.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00The committee asked Shackleton if he could take a scientist with him
0:51:00 > 0:51:03to study what was happening to the whales down here.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07A young biologist called Robert Clark joined the expedition
0:51:07 > 0:51:09and came here to talk to the whalers.
0:51:09 > 0:51:14From their figures, it appeared that the humpback, in particular,
0:51:14 > 0:51:19was in steep decline. From something like 5,000 whales in 1910,
0:51:19 > 0:51:23it had dropped to 474 only three years later.
0:51:25 > 0:51:28The committee suggested a ban on the taking of humpbacks,
0:51:28 > 0:51:32but the stations had already moved on to blue and fin whales
0:51:32 > 0:51:34to make up their catch.
0:51:34 > 0:51:38Broader regulations stipulated that the whole carcass
0:51:38 > 0:51:40of the whale must now be used.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45This tallied with Salvesen's thrifty ideals
0:51:45 > 0:51:48and, unlike the earlier Norwegian-owned stations
0:51:48 > 0:51:51that took just the blubber, Leith Harbour installed plants
0:51:51 > 0:51:53to process the meat and the bone.
0:51:54 > 0:51:59The meat came over here and the way they did it was to haul it
0:51:59 > 0:52:02over to these giant bucket slides here.
0:52:07 > 0:52:11My job was to take the guts out of the whale.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18It was not a bad job if you had a fresh whale,
0:52:18 > 0:52:21because you could warm your hands in the warm blood.
0:52:23 > 0:52:28But it wasn't a nice job when a whale was a week old.
0:52:28 > 0:52:33For the work it was, it was bloody. Bloody and hard work.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37And if you go up to the plant - I can still picture it -
0:52:37 > 0:52:41there is a winch there, a steam winch, and a green door.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50A-ha! He said, "Look for the green door."
0:52:50 > 0:52:54Inside there, there is this big cylinder
0:52:54 > 0:52:56which is covered with asbestos.
0:52:56 > 0:53:01This is the great big cooker that Jimmy was talking about.
0:53:01 > 0:53:05When there was a break in the whale, we used to get underneath
0:53:05 > 0:53:10the cylinder, with our whaling boots on and all the gear, and sleep!
0:53:11 > 0:53:16This is where Jimmy used to have a kip. Under there.
0:53:19 > 0:53:21Can you imagine that?
0:53:26 > 0:53:28When the First World War broke out,
0:53:28 > 0:53:32whale oil was in even more demand for the manufacture
0:53:32 > 0:53:37of nitro-glycerine in explosives and all regulation was dropped.
0:53:37 > 0:53:39The Norwegian company found it difficult to operate
0:53:39 > 0:53:43during the war and, seeing an opportunity to steal
0:53:43 > 0:53:48a march on their rivals, Salvesen's invested further in Leith Harbour.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52Everything was used. There was nothing wasted.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59You'd cut the jawbone off, cut the ribs out,
0:53:59 > 0:54:04cut the backbone out and that's heaved onto the bone loft.
0:54:15 > 0:54:19There is a bone management area here. This is exactly it.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21Here's the saw. Oh, my God! Look at that!
0:54:24 > 0:54:26What a monstrous object that is.
0:54:28 > 0:54:35This is whale spine-cutting machinery.
0:54:35 > 0:54:39The bone sawman, he'd have two boys working with him -
0:54:39 > 0:54:41one chap for dragging out the hook,
0:54:41 > 0:54:46and the other chap for holding the saw, so it didn't whip
0:54:46 > 0:54:48back and forward too much.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51It was "Doomp! Doomp! Doomp!"
0:54:51 > 0:54:54Steam-powered, jiggering its way through the bones
0:54:54 > 0:54:58and cutting them into two three-foot, lengths which they could
0:54:58 > 0:55:01then dump down into these pots here.
0:55:04 > 0:55:09Once the bone was in there, then the last of the whale was gone.
0:55:11 > 0:55:15When I went to Leith Harbour and seen my first whale up on the plant,
0:55:15 > 0:55:19I thought, "Good God, what a size of an animal! Massive."
0:55:19 > 0:55:23Within about 20 minutes, there was nothing of the poor thing left.
0:55:23 > 0:55:25It was all chopped up into cookers.
0:55:27 > 0:55:28After the First World War,
0:55:28 > 0:55:32catches from South Georgia stations continued to climb,
0:55:32 > 0:55:37reaching their peak of nearly 8,000 whales a year by 1925.
0:55:39 > 0:55:44They processed whales like Ford made cars. This is what this is about.
0:55:44 > 0:55:51Just an absolutely unbroken route, from ocean to oil tank.
0:55:56 > 0:55:57At the time, it was a job
0:55:57 > 0:56:00for me and I was making more money than my father was making.
0:56:00 > 0:56:05Everybody had... a bonus on the production,
0:56:05 > 0:56:09so it was in your best interests to keep things going.
0:56:09 > 0:56:14You looked at every whale that came up - it became a number of pounds!
0:56:22 > 0:56:25In my mind now, there is a real difference between
0:56:25 > 0:56:29the young guys, the whalers who came down here and did the work,
0:56:29 > 0:56:33and the people who were organising the enterprise.
0:56:33 > 0:56:38This is a big, highly-capitalised business. Extremely well-run,
0:56:38 > 0:56:44very efficiently run, very well funded.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48There is a difference between those business decisions
0:56:48 > 0:56:51and the experience of the lads who came here.
0:56:53 > 0:56:58Salvesen's profits were, by now, over £300,000 a year,
0:56:58 > 0:57:01equivalent to £100 million today.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05The gamble of establishing a complete industrial town
0:57:05 > 0:57:10on a desolate Antarctic island had turned out to be a very shrewd move.
0:57:13 > 0:57:15This is the industrial world brought south
0:57:15 > 0:57:18and the only reason it's here is that, out there, are some
0:57:18 > 0:57:23of the most productive and nutrient-rich seas in the world.
0:57:23 > 0:57:30That's what this pile of corrugated iron was all about.
0:57:30 > 0:57:35It's about parasitising on the riches of the ocean.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39It is just a "Give me your juices and I'll sell them."
0:57:48 > 0:57:51Why was a place making such huge profits
0:57:51 > 0:57:55simply walked away from and left to rust just 40 years later?
0:57:56 > 0:57:58And why was Britain
0:57:58 > 0:58:03still in the 1960s doing something that we now feel is so wrong?
0:58:04 > 0:58:07Imagine the number of whales needed to fill this.
0:58:09 > 0:58:13And nearly all of that oil going back to Europe to make margarine.
0:58:13 > 0:58:19A major innovation at sea produces a gigantic leap in scale,
0:58:19 > 0:58:24while an epic tussle between big business and science
0:58:24 > 0:58:26pushes the whales to the brink.
0:58:26 > 0:58:30I think we all knew that time was up.
0:58:30 > 0:58:33Well, the whales were gone, weren't they? They'd gone.