0:00:02 > 0:00:04This programme contains scenes some viewers may find upsetting.
0:00:04 > 0:00:09'A few hundred years ago, the oceans were home to millions of whales.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13'But then we found they were incredibly useful animals.'
0:00:13 > 0:00:15Every single minute of people's days
0:00:15 > 0:00:19would have been surrounded by whale products.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23Whales were seen as commodities to produce benefits for people.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28'I've seen how whaling became an important British industry
0:00:28 > 0:00:32'beginning with hunts in Scotland and forays into the Arctic,
0:00:32 > 0:00:36'before a British Antarctic island became the centre
0:00:36 > 0:00:38'of a global enterprise.'
0:00:39 > 0:00:42The whaling industry in the Antarctic
0:00:42 > 0:00:46was by far the biggest fishery... fishery that there's ever been.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50'Now I discover how a breakthrough in ship design
0:00:50 > 0:00:52'transformed the industry.'
0:00:52 > 0:00:55It's incredible, what went on on these ships.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58'And why Britain became reliant on the whale
0:00:58 > 0:01:00'as an essential source of fat.'
0:01:00 > 0:01:01Desperate.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04The whole of Western Europe was desperate for anything to eat.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08'And I continue to explore the world's largest whaling station
0:01:08 > 0:01:12'to fathom why it was abandoned in the 1960s.'
0:01:12 > 0:01:15There can't be another room like this in the world.
0:01:15 > 0:01:20An astonishing little capsule of late 1950s life.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22'For decades, biologists had realised
0:01:22 > 0:01:26'that whale populations were being put under extreme pressure.'
0:01:26 > 0:01:30So why did it take so long for the scientists' warnings
0:01:30 > 0:01:32to be listened to?
0:01:32 > 0:01:34The situation was absolutely disastrous.
0:01:35 > 0:01:40I don't think we have the right to bring any species to extinction.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44'If I want to understand, I have to put modern environmental guilt
0:01:44 > 0:01:48'to one side and see the world through the eyes of the time.'
0:01:48 > 0:01:51Why were whales so valuable
0:01:51 > 0:01:55and what was it like to chase them deep in the Antarctic ice?
0:01:55 > 0:01:58What was it like to be a whale hunter?
0:01:59 > 0:02:02Nowadays I'm one of the youngest whalers alive.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08There won't be many of us left to tell the story about whaling.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10I think it should be done...
0:02:11 > 0:02:13..before it's too late.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30'The British Antarctic in the mid-1920s.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34'Whale hunting had moved on from using sailing ships
0:02:34 > 0:02:35'and hand-held lances
0:02:35 > 0:02:40'to steam-powered catching ships and grenade-tipped harpoons.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52'The industry was expanding thanks to a growing market for whale oil
0:02:52 > 0:02:55'as a cheap alternative to animal fat
0:02:55 > 0:02:57'for the soap and food industries.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01'Whale stocks in the northern hemisphere
0:03:01 > 0:03:05'had already been decimated and a number of pioneering companies
0:03:05 > 0:03:09'had turned to the last frontier of Antarctica instead.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15'Some were operating from ships anchored in sheltered bays
0:03:15 > 0:03:18'around the British administered Antarctic Peninsula.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22'But the world's biggest whaling centre had been established
0:03:22 > 0:03:26'on the remote and uninhabited island of South Georgia -
0:03:26 > 0:03:29'still a British overseas territory today.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35'I've come to the largest of the six shore stations on the island.'
0:03:35 > 0:03:38So this is it - Leith Harbour,
0:03:38 > 0:03:41in all its beauty...
0:03:42 > 0:03:45..and total dereliction.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51'This whole site is officially off-limits
0:03:51 > 0:03:55'due to collapsing buildings and asbestos.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59'And I'm only allowed here by special permission
0:03:59 > 0:04:03'and as long as I wear the appropriate protective gear.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09'Leith Harbour had been set up by the Edinburgh-based company,
0:04:09 > 0:04:12'Christian Salvesen, in 1909.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16'The peak of productivity here was 1925
0:04:16 > 0:04:22'when over 16,000 tonnes of whale oil was sent back to the UK -
0:04:22 > 0:04:26'equivalent to £30 million worth today.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32'So why, just 40 years later,
0:04:32 > 0:04:36'was this gold mine abandoned to the ravages of weather
0:04:36 > 0:04:38'and ransacking sailors?'
0:04:40 > 0:04:42It's like it's been burgled.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55'The foundation for all this was the abundant whales
0:04:55 > 0:04:57'of the surrounding Antarctic Ocean.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02'A fleet of whale-catcher ships were hunting up to 200 miles offshore
0:05:02 > 0:05:06'before towing their dead quarry back to the station.
0:05:07 > 0:05:12'Up to 29 tonnes of valuable oil could be extracted from each whale
0:05:12 > 0:05:15'by putting its blubber, meat and bone
0:05:15 > 0:05:17'through different industrial processes.'
0:05:18 > 0:05:23The whole whale, 80-90 tonne whale, could be dealt with
0:05:23 > 0:05:25in 20 minutes.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28Arriving from the sea a complete animal,
0:05:28 > 0:05:3120 minutes later, totally dispersed.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37'The whalers, initially Norwegian and increasingly joined by Scots,
0:05:37 > 0:05:41'were using some serious industrial power.'
0:05:41 > 0:05:44You were pulling wires and that so you had to be very careful.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46It could be a very dangerous job.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49Your attention had to be on your job all the time.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54Steam winches strapped to parts of the whale and you had to make sure
0:05:54 > 0:05:56you weren't standing over these,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59otherwise you could be decapitated if you weren't careful.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04And this wire just sprung clear and it hit me right on the...
0:06:04 > 0:06:07Which side was it? It was this side.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11It whipped me right across the plant deck.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13Must have went about...
0:06:13 > 0:06:1525 foot.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17Something like that.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20I could feel my hat going up, up, up.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24And then the side of the head was just swelling, you know?
0:06:26 > 0:06:30Certainly health and safety was not invented then.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42There was knives everywhere and big, sharp ones, too.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47A cutter came who wasn't a seasoned cutter.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49He was a cowboy, really.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53And he started swinging with this flensing knife.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57The knife came out of his hand
0:06:57 > 0:07:01and went flying over my head, there.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04Took the beret off my... we used to wear black berets.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07Took the beret off my head.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11I was lucky. It could have chopped my head off, that.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15That was the biggest fright I got.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22'Back in London, the Colonial Office had realised
0:07:22 > 0:07:26'that the stations risked becoming too effective for their own good.
0:07:26 > 0:07:31'While it welcomed the tax revenue from its wild Antarctic possessions,
0:07:31 > 0:07:34'it feared a repeat of the overhunting in the North Atlantic.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38'It had introduced licensing and a magistrate
0:07:38 > 0:07:40'to control the scale of the stations
0:07:40 > 0:07:43'and banned the hunting of the already overexploited
0:07:43 > 0:07:45'humpback whale.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48'But Leith Harbour was still processing
0:07:48 > 0:07:51'up to 1,500 whales a season.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59'With hundreds of men working in such a remote location,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02'the company effectively built a small town
0:08:02 > 0:08:06'to provide everything from housing to medical care.'
0:08:06 > 0:08:09This must be the hospital.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13This looks like a ward.
0:08:13 > 0:08:18I do have a picture here of a patient in this hospital.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21He does not look well, the poor man.
0:08:27 > 0:08:29A-ha!
0:08:29 > 0:08:31Look in here, look in here.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36This...is the pharmacy.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40The pharmacy from hell.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47Medicines everywhere. Medicines in utter chaos.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50There are tablets just scattered over these benches.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54What have we got? Poultice of kaolin.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58I think you put that on a wound so it dries up a wound.
0:08:58 > 0:08:59Suppurating wound.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Adrenalin for adrenalin shots.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05What about this stuff here?
0:09:05 > 0:09:08Dry human plasma.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11Of course, a hospital had to be equipped for every conceivable
0:09:11 > 0:09:13ailment and illness.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18'One of the doctors that worked here regularly through the 1950s
0:09:18 > 0:09:21'was Dr Macintosh from the Outer Hebrides.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26'One of his duties in Scotland was to examine every recruit
0:09:26 > 0:09:28'before they sailed south.'
0:09:29 > 0:09:34What he would say to you was, how much blood is in your alcohol?
0:09:34 > 0:09:36He was really quite an amusing fella.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40He'd just take a look at you and he knew I was perfectly healthy.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43"Fine. Off you go."
0:09:43 > 0:09:46Dr Macintosh kept a diary of his life here
0:09:46 > 0:09:50and he's very matter of fact about the stream of things
0:09:50 > 0:09:53that come to him in the surgery in this hospital.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55"Sunday, December 2nd.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59"Had quite a busy day with two particularly nasty cases
0:09:59 > 0:10:02"of metal splinters in eyes
0:10:02 > 0:10:05"which were not nice things to deal with.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08"However, with the help of lots of local anaesthesia
0:10:08 > 0:10:11"and patience, everything came out all right."
0:10:11 > 0:10:16He was clearly a phlegmatic and capable man.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20"Quite a number of minor accidents during the day,
0:10:20 > 0:10:25"including one gent who stupidly grabbed hold of a steam pipe
0:10:25 > 0:10:28"to the detriment of his hand."
0:10:34 > 0:10:38'As the whaling boom of the 1920s continued to build,
0:10:38 > 0:10:42'the head of London's Natural History Museum, Sir Sidney Harmer,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45'strongly suspected that licensing was failing
0:10:45 > 0:10:47'to ensure a sustainable industry.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54'He realised that the only way to rein in such profitable operations
0:10:54 > 0:10:58'was to present the whalers with solid facts.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00'But as very little was known about whales,
0:11:00 > 0:11:03'Harmer pressed for a scientific investigation,
0:11:03 > 0:11:06'funded by an increased tax on whale oil production.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12'A legacy of this visionary programme
0:11:12 > 0:11:15'still exists in Britain today.'
0:11:15 > 0:11:19I'm here at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton,
0:11:19 > 0:11:24to see their brand-new research ship, the Discovery.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28'A new committee headed by Harmer bought Captain Scott's old ship,
0:11:28 > 0:11:30'the original Discovery,
0:11:30 > 0:11:35'for the first research voyage to the Antarctic in 1925.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38'With the whale oil tax flooding in,
0:11:38 > 0:11:41'they were soon able to build a more modern successor.'
0:11:41 > 0:11:44To undertake research into the diet, habits and the migrations
0:11:44 > 0:11:49of the whale, the Discovery Committee dispatched the royal research ship,
0:11:49 > 0:11:52Discovery II into the Antarctic.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55- NEWSREEL:- The royal research ship Discovery II is leaving
0:11:55 > 0:11:59St Katharine's Dock, London, on her fourth expedition to the Antarctic.
0:11:59 > 0:12:00For the next six months,
0:12:00 > 0:12:02they'll have continuous daylight and sunshine.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04Lucky dogs.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10Hello, I'm Adam. Nice to meet you.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13'Professor Howard Roe is a former director
0:12:13 > 0:12:15'of the National Oceanography Centre.'
0:12:15 > 0:12:18- Will you show me?- I'll show you some of what's going on.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22'His career began doing biology at a whaling station.'
0:12:24 > 0:12:28Here, there are cranes either side of the A-frame
0:12:28 > 0:12:30for handling equipment down here.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34There are bigger ones there with a heavy reach.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37'The Discovery Investigations were hugely ambitious -
0:12:37 > 0:12:41'ahead of their time in studying the whole Antarctic ecosystem,
0:12:41 > 0:12:45'and revolutionary in being funded by industry.'
0:12:45 > 0:12:48This is the winch system, the heart of the ship.
0:12:48 > 0:12:53For instance, over there you have 15,000 metres of tapered warp
0:12:53 > 0:12:55for trawling nets.
0:12:55 > 0:12:59- The scale of it. 10 miles!- Yes.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03'Scientists deployed new devices and techniques to probe everything
0:13:03 > 0:13:06'from microscopic plankton to the whales themselves.'
0:13:08 > 0:13:11Here on the bridge gate is the direct link
0:13:11 > 0:13:16- with the Discovery Investigations and the current ship.- Look at that.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21That is the badge of the Discovery Investigations from the 1920s.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23- This is some bridge, isn't it? - Absolutely.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25I mean, this feels like a nightclub.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32'A few fundamental questions form the basis of the Investigations.'
0:13:32 > 0:13:34How old were the whales? What did they feed on?
0:13:34 > 0:13:36How often did they breed?
0:13:36 > 0:13:39Where did they migrate to? They knew they didn't stay there all the time.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41How long did it take them?
0:13:41 > 0:13:46In order to be able to get some feel for the size of the whale population,
0:13:46 > 0:13:50and the effect that harvesting this would have on it.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54The endgame was always to prolong the industry as a
0:13:54 > 0:13:57commercially-viable organisation,
0:13:57 > 0:13:59because of the tax revenues they got.
0:14:01 > 0:14:02'Alongside the ship-based work,
0:14:02 > 0:14:06'a South Georgia base was established, Discovery House.'
0:14:08 > 0:14:11'Biologists spent the whaling season taking samples
0:14:11 > 0:14:13'from the carcasses brought in by the whalers.'
0:14:15 > 0:14:18We weighed the testes of male whales,
0:14:18 > 0:14:22we weighed the ovaries of female whales,
0:14:22 > 0:14:24we took counts of the corpus luteum
0:14:24 > 0:14:30on the ovaries that indicated how many calves the whale had had.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32'The Discovery Investigations
0:14:32 > 0:14:35'also attempted the first whale tracking system.'
0:14:36 > 0:14:40To start with, they had developed a whale mark like this.
0:14:40 > 0:14:45You can see it has "Reward for return to the Discovery Committee."
0:14:45 > 0:14:47And they each had a unique number, 4219,
0:14:47 > 0:14:50and the whole thing was fired from a 12 bore shotgun.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53You fire them in and it sat there
0:14:53 > 0:14:56so that the surface was on the surface of the whale.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00The position where the ship was was noted.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03The whale hopefully is caught, sometime afterwards,
0:15:03 > 0:15:05at a different position.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08And when it is processed, the whale mark is recovered.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11It doesn't look like it's got much a of a grip.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13- Well, that was the problem. - Oh, right.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16Cos these are tiny, these little barbs, aren't they?
0:15:16 > 0:15:19Hundreds of these were fired into whales,
0:15:19 > 0:15:22- not one was ever recovered.- Really?
0:15:22 > 0:15:25And it was discovered that live whales are very capable
0:15:25 > 0:15:30of shedding nasty parasites and things that stick onto the outside,
0:15:30 > 0:15:34and in 1932 a new whale mark was designed.
0:15:35 > 0:15:39It's a long steel tube with a number on it
0:15:39 > 0:15:41and the information about the reward.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44The position where it was marked was known,
0:15:44 > 0:15:48the position where the whale was caught subsequently was known.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51And you would know for a certainty that the whale must have moved
0:15:51 > 0:15:53from point A to point B.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57So the whole migratory pattern of the whales was found.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01- The different species of whales was found by doing this.- Yes.
0:16:01 > 0:16:08Mark number 1484, this was the oldest ever recovery.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12This whale mark had spent 28 years in a whale.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15It went right the way through the process,
0:16:15 > 0:16:18and it finally turned up in one of the meat meal boilers.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21The man from the meat meal boiler came running out with it
0:16:21 > 0:16:25and was very pleased to show me it, because he got a reward for it.
0:16:25 > 0:16:30This was the first proof that anybody had, real proof,
0:16:30 > 0:16:32that whales could live so long.
0:16:32 > 0:16:38So there's no way you can know about the life of a whale,
0:16:38 > 0:16:40- unless you kill it.- Yes.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43And the next step on that -
0:16:43 > 0:16:46to save whales, you have to kill them.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51Well...in a sense, yes. The...
0:16:53 > 0:16:57..science of the large whales depended upon the whaling industry.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00These are not animals which you can get to grips with
0:17:00 > 0:17:02unless unfortunately they're dead.
0:17:02 > 0:17:08If you can imagine walking alongside an animal 70, 80 feet long,
0:17:08 > 0:17:11trying to sample it, this is not easy.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13These animals would already have been killed.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17They were there, so it was up to us to make the best use of them
0:17:17 > 0:17:19as we could.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25'The whaling companies didn't like the increased tax
0:17:25 > 0:17:28'to fund the Discovery Investigations.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34'But they had little choice, South Georgia was British.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37'And even further south, the factory ships,
0:17:37 > 0:17:40'where they butchered the whales alongside needed the sheltered bays
0:17:40 > 0:17:45'of the Antarctic Peninsula, which was also British.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48'And so they too had to pay the tax.'
0:17:52 > 0:17:54The Norwegians had an answer to this problem
0:17:54 > 0:17:57which was to take one of these whaling stations
0:17:57 > 0:17:59and to put it on board a ship.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02The way to do that was to make a stern slipway,
0:18:02 > 0:18:05just like the slipway coming onto the plan here.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08And then to use the deck of the ship as the plan.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12Then take the big processing plants,
0:18:12 > 0:18:15the blubber plant, the meat plant and the bone plant,
0:18:15 > 0:18:18and put them down below under the deck,
0:18:18 > 0:18:22so that the ship became a completely self-contained processing unit
0:18:22 > 0:18:25which could go wherever the whales were.
0:18:33 > 0:18:38The same machinery is crammed into a 16,000 tonne ship.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43No room whatsoever to do anything.
0:18:43 > 0:18:48You're crawling between pipes, up ladders.
0:18:48 > 0:18:55It was hot as hell. You were always looking for water. Water to drink.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57It's incredible what went on in these ships.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03'The stern slipway was a revolutionary leap for the industry.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08'By being able to process whales at sea, the new factory ships could
0:19:08 > 0:19:12'follow their fleet of catches to wherever the hunting was best.
0:19:14 > 0:19:16'This was called pelagic whaling,
0:19:16 > 0:19:20'and also allowed the industry to escape regulation.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24'The British only controlled the seas up to three miles
0:19:24 > 0:19:26'off their territories,
0:19:26 > 0:19:31'beyond which the entire Antarctic Ocean was fair game.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34'The seeds were sown for the industry's self-destruction.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40'As well as the station at Leith Harbour,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43Salvesen's had two old-fashioned factory ships
0:19:43 > 0:19:46'operating in the Antarctic bays further south.'
0:19:48 > 0:19:53Very nice office. Nicest room in the whole place.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56'Then a young manager visited Leith Harbour, Harold Salvesen,
0:19:56 > 0:20:00'the first of the family ever to make it down south.'
0:20:00 > 0:20:03He had been a lecturer in economics at Oxford
0:20:03 > 0:20:05and had got fed up with that.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08The family were trying to persuade him to join the firm,
0:20:08 > 0:20:10so we came down here to see what was going on.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13He began to apply all of those
0:20:13 > 0:20:18new, rational, systematic, technocratic ways
0:20:18 > 0:20:21of looking at how to run a business.
0:20:21 > 0:20:23And he wrote some marvellous letters home.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29"It looks, for the present, as if a normal or even poor year
0:20:29 > 0:20:31"in the ice could pay handsomely."
0:20:31 > 0:20:33Later on, he wrote,
0:20:33 > 0:20:36"The fishing won't of course last for a long time.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39"The more new factories and especially whale catchers
0:20:39 > 0:20:43"are sent down, the shorter will it last.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47"But possibilities and probabilities are so colossal at present
0:20:47 > 0:20:53"that I cannot conceive of a well-managed, well-equipped factory
0:20:53 > 0:20:56"failing to pay handsomely if sent down the next season,
0:20:56 > 0:20:58"or even for the following."
0:20:58 > 0:21:04He wanted Salvesen's to bank on these pelagic whalers.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08He wanted to make money just as the Norwegians were.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13'The first thing that Harold did on his return to Britain in 1929
0:21:13 > 0:21:17'was to buy two liners to convert into factory ships
0:21:17 > 0:21:19'with stern slipways.
0:21:19 > 0:21:24'He also ordered 13 powerful new catcher ships.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28'This modernisation of the fleet cost nearly £700,000.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31'Over 100 million at today's costs.
0:21:34 > 0:21:38'Harold also knew that demand in Europe was rapidly increasing.
0:21:38 > 0:21:43'The process of turning whale oil into a more valuable solid fat,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47'hydrogenation, had just been improved to produce
0:21:47 > 0:21:50'a spreadable fat without any taste of whale.
0:21:51 > 0:21:53'This allowed more of it to be used in foods
0:21:53 > 0:22:00'and by 1933, 37% of the fat in British margarines was from whales.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08'I visited Norway to find out the impact that this new ship technology
0:22:08 > 0:22:11'and expanding market had on whale catches.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16'The Sandefjord Whaling Museum houses the records
0:22:16 > 0:22:20'that a Norwegian whaling bureau collated annually.'
0:22:21 > 0:22:24So these are the international whaling statistics
0:22:24 > 0:22:28in the years before the Second World War.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30And they're putting in the numbers of whales
0:22:30 > 0:22:33that they're catching every day.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38Giant animals - 84 feet long, 77 feet long,
0:22:38 > 0:22:44one of them pregnant, it says here it had a nine-foot foetus in it.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47The very interesting thing about it is that before
0:22:47 > 0:22:50those big, technological changes of the mid-1920s,
0:22:50 > 0:22:52very few whales are being killed.
0:22:52 > 0:22:58This is the total width for 1920 to 1922, a slim volume.
0:22:58 > 0:23:03But then, after factory ships were introduced in the late '20s,
0:23:03 > 0:23:05things start to expand.
0:23:05 > 0:23:10By 1930 to 1931, you are up to this.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14This is a measure of the vast number of whales
0:23:14 > 0:23:16that were being killed.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20'Meanwhile, the Discovery Investigations were
0:23:20 > 0:23:23'starting to learn some important facts.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25'The greatest concentration of the whales' food,
0:23:25 > 0:23:30'the tiny crustacean krill, was to be found at the Antarctic ice edge.
0:23:32 > 0:23:33'By the 1931 season,
0:23:33 > 0:23:38'three quarters of Antarctica was surrounded by factory ships
0:23:38 > 0:23:39'and their catches.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42'All unhampered by any regulation.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48'But when the season's record haul of whale oil
0:23:48 > 0:23:50'caused the market to crash,
0:23:50 > 0:23:54'the industry realised that some control was necessary.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57'The two major whaling nations, Norway and Britain,
0:23:57 > 0:24:02'agreed to restrict themselves to 2/3 of that bumper year -
0:24:02 > 0:24:05'around 28,000 whales a season.
0:24:09 > 0:24:10'Even with the catch limits,
0:24:10 > 0:24:13'Salvesen's investment in their modern ships
0:24:13 > 0:24:14'was paying off handsomely.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18'Over the decade of the 1930s,
0:24:18 > 0:24:21they posted a profit of £1.1 million,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24'equivalent to 365 million today.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35'Leith Harbour remained an active whaling station during summer.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37'And over winter, it became the service centre
0:24:37 > 0:24:41'for Salvesen's fleets of whale catchers returning from the ice.'
0:24:44 > 0:24:46When the season ended,
0:24:46 > 0:24:47there was a possibility of you
0:24:47 > 0:24:50staying in South Georgia over the winter.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53That was when all the whale catcher repairs were done
0:24:53 > 0:24:55and they were all made ready for next season.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58The engineers and everybody would make a list of things
0:24:58 > 0:25:02that were needing done, the boat was all to be painted, inside, outside.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06They've got everything in there that was required for working -
0:25:06 > 0:25:11they could build a ship. I was put on the deck gang.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13So that's everything from the top of the masts
0:25:13 > 0:25:16right down to the water line! That's what we did.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24It was very well paid and we were well fed. I do know that.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27It was quite an attractive proposition.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30Being out in the country over a year, you got all your tax back,
0:25:30 > 0:25:34so you came home with a fairly hefty pay packet.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37My payoff was £1,100 for 18 months.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40So that was a lot of money at that time.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43You bought a house for £600 or £700.
0:25:43 > 0:25:48Maybe get a new fishing boat built, go into some sort of business.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51Quite a few businesses in Shetland today
0:25:51 > 0:25:54that were started on money earned at the whaling.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01'Without whales to be flensed,
0:26:01 > 0:26:06'the whalers that overwintered had more time to enjoy the island.'
0:26:06 > 0:26:09The big events were the skiing events.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13You had other stations coming in and joining in.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17I thought, "I think I'll get into the ski jumping."
0:26:17 > 0:26:19I liked watching this.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23Danny Morrison was a good skier. He made more of it than me.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28I've got a photo here...
0:26:30 > 0:26:32..of the ski jump here at Leith Harbour
0:26:32 > 0:26:35and I think if you come just about over here...
0:26:36 > 0:26:40..I think we must be pretty well at the bottom of the jump here,
0:26:40 > 0:26:43because here is a picture of a man in full flight.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47So I think the jump itself must be just up there.
0:26:52 > 0:26:58There is something collapsed here, into this little valley.
0:27:01 > 0:27:07I wonder. I wonder. Ah, I think this is it.
0:27:07 > 0:27:12I think that that is the deck of the jump itself.
0:27:12 > 0:27:17Which of course is snowed up in the winter, and maybe even...
0:27:17 > 0:27:22There is the kind of starting gate, there, that top framework.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25So, yeah, I think this is it.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28This is actually the Leith Harbour ski jump.
0:27:28 > 0:27:30How exciting is that?
0:27:31 > 0:27:37The jump starts near the top until the bugle blows.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42And they set off down here, roaring downhill, as fast as they could...
0:27:42 > 0:27:46You're heading down at one hell of a rate.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49And you are all off-balance, you're trying to get your balance.
0:27:49 > 0:27:51HE LAUGHS
0:27:51 > 0:27:54Before you know it, you are on take off.
0:27:56 > 0:27:58You must get past the big flat part
0:27:58 > 0:28:03or it will be like falling off a two-storey building.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05This is where you land.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07Or the bit of slope you hope to get to.
0:28:07 > 0:28:13As long as you got onto the downhill, when you fell, you just rolled.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17Which is what happens. But my next jump was much better.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20It was pretty good. It was pretty good. Danny was pretty good.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23I think Danny was related to a penguin.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32'But life on a remote Antarctic island wasn't for everyone.'
0:28:35 > 0:28:40It's a long time, 18 months. A long time to be away from home.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43Sometimes you got a wee bit fed up at night,
0:28:43 > 0:28:46you wanted to wish you were back home again.
0:28:46 > 0:28:48Life was what you made it.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52It could be good or bad, it all depends on your mental attitude.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55Dr Macintosh talks about whale sickness,
0:28:55 > 0:28:58which seems to have afflicted a lot of people -
0:28:58 > 0:29:00a combination of frustration and boredom
0:29:00 > 0:29:04when no whales were coming into the station.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08But, for some people, depression could be a lot worse than that.
0:29:12 > 0:29:17'Each of the whaling stations on the island had its own cemetery.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21'Whalers who died were laid to rest a very long way from home.'
0:29:26 > 0:29:31They are all so young. 25, 37.
0:29:31 > 0:29:3329.
0:29:33 > 0:29:37There's a friend of mine down there. He found that... At the latter end,
0:29:37 > 0:29:40he just lost the plot.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43'A boy called Tony Ford.'
0:29:43 > 0:29:45He came from Edinburgh.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50Here's Tony Ford.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54"Deck galley boy." 19 years old.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58I've got a record here of his death.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01"April, 1952, Anthony Ford.
0:30:01 > 0:30:06"Mess boy. British. Cause of death, strangulation.
0:30:06 > 0:30:13"Coroner's inquest, suicide. Whilst balanced of mind, disturbed."
0:30:15 > 0:30:17That's a tragic story, isn't it?
0:30:19 > 0:30:21A pitiable end, poor man, poor boy.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38'By the mid 1930s,
0:30:38 > 0:30:41'whale oil had become an essential part of Europe's food supply.'
0:30:48 > 0:30:50Look at this.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53Look what the wind can do here,
0:30:53 > 0:30:56folding in the whole side of the tank like that.
0:30:56 > 0:31:00When it was working, this tank, like the others,
0:31:00 > 0:31:02filled to the brim with whale oil.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07Imagine the number of whales needed to fill this.
0:31:07 > 0:31:12And nearly all of that oil going back to Europe to make margarine.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20'As the Second World War approached,
0:31:20 > 0:31:25'several nations realised they needed to secure their own supply
0:31:25 > 0:31:26'of this vital fat.
0:31:26 > 0:31:30'Seven new factory ships were commissioned by Germany
0:31:30 > 0:31:31'and four by Japan.'
0:31:34 > 0:31:38'Britain and Norway had lost control of the industry.
0:31:38 > 0:31:39'By the eve of war,
0:31:39 > 0:31:44'Antarctic catches reached 46,000 whales in a season.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49'Blowing apart their attempt at regulation a few years earlier.'
0:31:52 > 0:31:57This is the gun that the whalers were given by the Government
0:31:57 > 0:32:02to defend South Georgia during the Second World War.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06But it was a hopeless old thing.
0:32:06 > 0:32:11Here, amazingly, is a shell.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15That went in there, I guess.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19Don't know, I've never done this before.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22And off it went.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26Really nothing happened in South Georgia during the war.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29All the whaling ships were taken away from here.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33The factory ships to work on convoy duty,
0:32:33 > 0:32:35bringing supplies across the Atlantic,
0:32:35 > 0:32:36cos the Government thought
0:32:36 > 0:32:39that was more important than getting whale oil.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42And the catchers to work as minesweepers.
0:32:42 > 0:32:47So the people who were left here were really left with nothing to do.
0:32:47 > 0:32:51And the idea that they could have popped off at some German cruiser
0:32:51 > 0:32:54coming here with this old thing was of course laughable.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07I've got a list here of the Salvesen ships
0:33:07 > 0:33:10and what happened to them in the course of the war.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14It is a very sobering document.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17"Glen Farg, torpedo, lost.
0:33:17 > 0:33:21"Brandon, torpedo, sunk.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25"Albuera, torpedo, sunk." One after another.
0:33:25 > 0:33:31And a huge loss of life - "nine men killed," "all hands drowned,"
0:33:31 > 0:33:33"presumed all lost."
0:33:33 > 0:33:35On and on and on.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39In fact, every single British factory ship
0:33:39 > 0:33:41was lost in the course of the war.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48As the war approached its conclusion,
0:33:48 > 0:33:51Britain was desperately short of food, including fats.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54We were absolutely on our... knackered.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57'The hull of an aircraft carrier
0:33:57 > 0:34:00'was given a new use halfway through being built.'
0:34:00 > 0:34:03It became obvious to the Government that aircraft carriers
0:34:03 > 0:34:05were not nearly as important
0:34:05 > 0:34:08as something to get some bloody food into Europe.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11The importance of a whaling factory ship
0:34:11 > 0:34:13overtook that of an aircraft carrier.
0:34:13 > 0:34:18Therefore, Balaena was converted into a whaling factory ship.
0:34:18 > 0:34:20- NEWSREEL:- So urgently was a catch needed
0:34:20 > 0:34:23that the finishing touches to the factory machinery
0:34:23 > 0:34:24were added after she sailed.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31'The Balaena belonged to the British firm, Hector Whaling.
0:34:31 > 0:34:33'Whilst Salvesen's launched two purpose-built factory ships
0:34:33 > 0:34:35'of their own.'
0:34:41 > 0:34:44'Scientists and some whaling bosses realised that,
0:34:44 > 0:34:47'if the industry wanted a long future,
0:34:47 > 0:34:50'there couldn't be a return to the 1930s free-for-all.
0:34:52 > 0:34:56'In 1946, the International Whaling Commission, or IWC,
0:34:56 > 0:35:01'was established to bring together industry leaders and scientists,
0:35:01 > 0:35:05'including the Discovery Investigations biologists
0:35:05 > 0:35:08'based at London's Natural History Museum.'
0:35:14 > 0:35:18Delegates to the IWC negotiated a quota for the number of whales
0:35:18 > 0:35:20that could be caught each year.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24The figure they set was two thirds of the catch before the war.
0:35:24 > 0:35:28That was 16,000 blue whale units a year,
0:35:28 > 0:35:32which meant they could catch 16,000 blue whales
0:35:32 > 0:35:35or their equivalent in smaller whales.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42'One blue was considered equal to two fin whales
0:35:42 > 0:35:44'or six sei whales.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50'Many IWC scientists realised that this quota
0:35:50 > 0:35:52'was too high to be sustainable.
0:35:54 > 0:35:58'But unable to justify anything lower to a Europe desperate for fat,
0:35:58 > 0:36:02'they reckoned it was better than no quota at all.'
0:36:05 > 0:36:07Feels very James Bond in here.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09THEY CHUCKLE
0:36:09 > 0:36:12'I'm being allowed a sneak view behind-the-scenes
0:36:12 > 0:36:16'with collections manager Miranda Lowe.'
0:36:16 > 0:36:18Fantastic. What are they?
0:36:18 > 0:36:20Well, what you can see here,
0:36:20 > 0:36:23in the jars, are a lot of the oversized fish
0:36:23 > 0:36:25collected on various scientific expeditions.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29They are really mysterious. I mean, how old these things?
0:36:29 > 0:36:32Some of them are over 200 years old.
0:36:32 > 0:36:37Some of the specimens were collected by Charles Darwin.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41'This building also stores a large proportion of the specimens
0:36:41 > 0:36:43'from the Discovery Investigations,
0:36:43 > 0:36:47'established in the 1920s to find out more about whales.'
0:36:47 > 0:36:51We're in the Crustacea collection, so we're passing through the miacids,
0:36:51 > 0:36:54- the amphipods...- The amphipods.
0:36:54 > 0:36:59..isopods and we're going to eventually get to euphausiids.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03- Ah, these are the krill, then. - These are the krill, exactly.
0:37:03 > 0:37:08And we have cupboards full of the Discovery Investigation krill.
0:37:08 > 0:37:12Look at that, it's jar after jar after jar.
0:37:12 > 0:37:16Every single one of them, hauled up.
0:37:16 > 0:37:18More cupboards here.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21We have more cupboards here. And it keeps going on.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24If you think of the months
0:37:24 > 0:37:29and years of people's lives that are poured into these jars.
0:37:29 > 0:37:35A massive investment, but it provides scientists with a huge amount
0:37:35 > 0:37:40of baseline data that they can use to compare to more recent research.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46The scale of sampling was vast.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50You might have thought that the data from it should have provided
0:37:50 > 0:37:53the scientific basis for sustainable whaling.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56But the industry didn't want any reduction in quota,
0:37:56 > 0:37:59and they soon found a way of sidelining
0:37:59 > 0:38:03the scientists by claiming that not enough biology
0:38:03 > 0:38:07had yet been done to prove that a reduction in quota was necessary.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11So they sent the scientists off to do yet more biology.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15'A lot of emphasis was placed on getting more data.'
0:38:15 > 0:38:20But it's not data that's involved, it's methodology.
0:38:20 > 0:38:22It's to know what to do with the data!
0:38:25 > 0:38:28'While the biologists were kept busy collecting,
0:38:28 > 0:38:30'the industry could continue to
0:38:30 > 0:38:33'chase the large, globally-applied quota.'
0:38:33 > 0:38:35Oh, my God! Look at that.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39Look at that!
0:38:39 > 0:38:43Fantastic. Wow!
0:38:45 > 0:38:48'The catcher ships found that they were in a race,
0:38:48 > 0:38:50'as every company tried to bag
0:38:50 > 0:38:53'as much of the allowed total for themselves.'
0:38:53 > 0:38:56Sometimes, a couple of boats would sight whales,
0:38:56 > 0:38:59and it was a race to get to them, to be the first there.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03It's obviously something built for drive and power,
0:39:03 > 0:39:06it's got a whopping great prop on the back there.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11If there was another catcher, you were shouting down to the engine,
0:39:11 > 0:39:13"We need a bit more speed!
0:39:13 > 0:39:16"Someone is racing us here!"
0:39:18 > 0:39:22You didn't want to put up a smoke signal,
0:39:22 > 0:39:24because other catchers in the distance...
0:39:24 > 0:39:27Of course, a puff of smoke told them you've increased speed.
0:39:33 > 0:39:38Something like 14 factory ships down at the ice at the same time.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42Each of them having 14 to 15 whale catchers,
0:39:42 > 0:39:46so you begin to get an idea of the size of the competition.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53That's the galley, there's the cooking range.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58There was radio connection between the factory ship and catchers
0:39:58 > 0:40:03because obviously they would need to inform on what whales had been shot.
0:40:03 > 0:40:05It was all in code,
0:40:05 > 0:40:09so that the other people couldn't listen in to where you were fishing.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12If there was a lot of whales in one particular area,
0:40:12 > 0:40:15certainly the last thing you wanted to do
0:40:15 > 0:40:17was to advertise that to competition.
0:40:23 > 0:40:25'The race meant that companies invested
0:40:25 > 0:40:28'in ever more catching equipment.
0:40:28 > 0:40:33'And the whole quota could be caught in as few as 60 days.'
0:40:37 > 0:40:40'With so much money being pumped into the industry,
0:40:40 > 0:40:45'no-one wanted to reduce quotas to more sustainable levels.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52'Meanwhile, Salvesen's average profits for the early 1950s
0:40:52 > 0:40:55was running at around a million pounds a year,
0:40:55 > 0:40:58'equivalent to 73 million today.
0:41:01 > 0:41:03'Leith Harbour continued to be the nerve centre
0:41:03 > 0:41:06'of their whole Antarctic operation.
0:41:06 > 0:41:10'And some of the money went to improving life for the whalers.'
0:41:12 > 0:41:14Ah, look at this.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20It's the film archive!
0:41:20 > 0:41:25There's a reel, and miles and miles of dumped film.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29Every image...just gone.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34Oh, wow, there it is, there's the projector.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38How amazing!
0:41:38 > 0:41:40The film case there.
0:41:40 > 0:41:46And just imagine that noise, that wonderful cinema noise it made.
0:41:46 > 0:41:50They would show pictures maybe three times a week.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52But after the first three months
0:41:52 > 0:41:54then you were starting to see them all over again.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57What the hell was it?
0:41:57 > 0:42:00The Quiet Man? The Quiet American, was it?
0:42:00 > 0:42:02John Wayne.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06And I thought it was terrific. I saw it 16 times down there.
0:42:08 > 0:42:14So, this is the cinema. There's the projector room at the back there.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18So, that was quite the highlight, you know, the films, three nights a week.
0:42:18 > 0:42:20Here we go.
0:42:20 > 0:42:22"Seven Brides For Seven Brothers.
0:42:22 > 0:42:26"The Prisoner Of Zenda" with Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30"The Last Time I Saw Paris" with Elizabeth Taylor.
0:42:30 > 0:42:36I mean, you can just imagine them all gazing longingly
0:42:36 > 0:42:39into Elizabeth Taylor's eyes.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41Or cleavage.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44Huge, huge up there.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47FILM PROJECTOR WHIRS
0:43:01 > 0:43:02Oh, look, there's...
0:43:02 > 0:43:06There's film with what looks like images on here.
0:43:06 > 0:43:10Let's see if I can...haul that out.
0:43:10 > 0:43:12Look, it's been preserved.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18Hundreds and hundreds of feet...
0:43:19 > 0:43:24..just streaming out of the mound of powder.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28What have I got here? Ah! Australia...
0:43:29 > 0:43:31..hails the Queen.
0:43:31 > 0:43:36That's what's going on - it's the Queen arriving in Sydney.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40On the Britannia with the Duke at her side.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47PRESENTER: The royal yacht Britannia took the Duke way down south
0:43:47 > 0:43:50into Antarctica to see for himself what this ice-bound region,
0:43:50 > 0:43:53inhabited by seals and penguins, was like.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56'On his world tour, after leaving Australia,
0:43:56 > 0:43:59'the Duke of Edinburgh was happy to be seen visiting the region's
0:43:59 > 0:44:02'great contribution to the British economy.'
0:44:02 > 0:44:05PRESENTER: Whaling is the chief industry in these parts,
0:44:05 > 0:44:08and this is how he was transferred to the whale-catching vessel.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13The Duke, who'd grown a trim beard, went to inspect the ship
0:44:13 > 0:44:16and talk to her company about their jobs.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20I dropped an orange box over the side and offered him
0:44:20 > 0:44:25a chance to see if he could hit it with the harpoon gun.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28I can't recall if he hit it or not.
0:44:28 > 0:44:32PRESENTER: He also landed at the whaling station itself.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37of course, it sent them into a complete frenzy
0:44:37 > 0:44:39of excitement and anxiety.
0:44:39 > 0:44:41The royal household were very concerned to know
0:44:41 > 0:44:45whether Salvesen's had a flagstaff here which could be flying
0:44:45 > 0:44:48the Royal standard as the Duke arrived.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50The Salvesen managers were anxious to know
0:44:50 > 0:44:53whether they should wear lounge suits for the occasion.
0:44:53 > 0:44:59He was wearing a duffle coat and he looked as if he needed a shave.
0:44:59 > 0:45:01In fact, he did need a shave.
0:45:07 > 0:45:09'The whaling of the 1950s
0:45:09 > 0:45:13'even became the centre of attention on the silver screen...'
0:45:13 > 0:45:16Whales! To starboard!
0:45:16 > 0:45:19'..with Salvesen's fleet providing the exotic backdrop
0:45:19 > 0:45:24'for a romantic adventure starring Alan Ladd.'
0:45:24 > 0:45:25Watch out for that rope!
0:45:29 > 0:45:34A hit! A hit! A hit!
0:45:34 > 0:45:38'Shooting whales was clearly an exciting and acceptable way
0:45:38 > 0:45:42'for Ladd's dashing hero to prove his manliness and sex appeal.'
0:45:42 > 0:45:46- Some business.- I'm going to get ready to go aboard.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57'By the late 1950s the price of whale oil was falling.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00'It was being replaced by vegetable oils
0:46:00 > 0:46:03'as the preferred fat for soaps and margarine.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05'To find new markets,
0:46:05 > 0:46:08'British whaling companies began their own research.'
0:46:08 > 0:46:12The role of science was to develop, as far as possible,
0:46:12 > 0:46:16by-products based on, particularly, whale meat.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20To squeeze every last drop of value out of the whale,
0:46:20 > 0:46:25the companies started to build meat extract plants like this one.
0:46:25 > 0:46:29They subjected the meat to all kinds of modern processes
0:46:29 > 0:46:34and out of the other end came a dark, viscous, gloopy substance.
0:46:34 > 0:46:38And it was sold in Europe for the new fad of instant soups
0:46:38 > 0:46:41and it made a lot of money for the companies.
0:46:41 > 0:46:43By the early 1960s,
0:46:43 > 0:46:47Salvesen's were making £1.3 million a year out of it.
0:46:48 > 0:46:53'But by now, the effects of a quota set way above any sustainable level
0:46:53 > 0:46:56'for 15 years was plain to see.'
0:46:58 > 0:47:01Well, I think we all knew that time was up.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05You were not getting the catches that you used to.
0:47:05 > 0:47:07There was nothing left.
0:47:07 > 0:47:09We were going down for the season,
0:47:09 > 0:47:12hunting for ages for a fish - you couldn't see them.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15The first year I went down they were all round you, they were everywhere.
0:47:16 > 0:47:21'In 1961, Salvesen's saw that Leith Harbour was losing money
0:47:21 > 0:47:25'and decided to run down the station and scuttle some of the catchers.'
0:47:30 > 0:47:33'Meanwhile, some countries were trying to make the most
0:47:33 > 0:47:35'of what was left down in the ice,
0:47:35 > 0:47:38'by increasing the scale of their pelagic fleets.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43'Japan bought the Baleana from Hector Whaling,
0:47:43 > 0:47:47'and the Soviet Union launched the largest whaling expeditions
0:47:47 > 0:47:49'the Antarctic has ever seen.'
0:47:49 > 0:47:52There was that many people down there, there's that many factories
0:47:52 > 0:47:56were down there - the Japanese, the Russians, South Africans.
0:47:56 > 0:48:00'A push at the IWC for a more realistic quota
0:48:00 > 0:48:03'had merely resulted in the breakdown of the existing system,
0:48:03 > 0:48:07'and the number of factory ships in the ice reached 21,
0:48:07 > 0:48:10'supplied by 270 catcher ships.
0:48:13 > 0:48:17'So, why have the scientists not stopped this happening?
0:48:18 > 0:48:22'I went back to the Natural History Museum to ask Professor Howard Roe.'
0:48:23 > 0:48:27- Howard.- Hello, Adam. - How are you? Lovely to see you.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31This is the place, isn't it, where whale science -
0:48:31 > 0:48:35the heart of whale science - was being done in the '50s and '60s?
0:48:35 > 0:48:38Yes, more or less underneath our feet...
0:48:38 > 0:48:40was the old Discovery hut.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44It was a black shed, basically, constructed in the 1920s
0:48:44 > 0:48:47to house the samples from the Discovery Investigation.
0:48:47 > 0:48:51Why did it take so long for the science, or the investigation
0:48:51 > 0:48:55they were making, actually to impinge on the industry?
0:48:55 > 0:48:58You could not hope to persuade the whaling industry
0:48:58 > 0:49:04or any regulatory body, without the basic data to support the argument,
0:49:04 > 0:49:09which was, after all, exactly why the Discovery Investigation was set up.
0:49:09 > 0:49:13It was set up to provide the data which would allow regulation.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17- And that is exactly what it did. - In the end.- In the end.
0:49:17 > 0:49:25It took until the late '50s/early '60s before the group of scientists
0:49:25 > 0:49:29began to encompass specialists in population dynamics,
0:49:29 > 0:49:34by the appointment of Radway Allen, Doug Chapman, and Sidney Holt.
0:49:34 > 0:49:39Basically, we were bringing what we now call "mathematical modelling"
0:49:39 > 0:49:45from the fisheries world into the whaling world.
0:49:45 > 0:49:50Biologists had been collecting information, measuring the whales,
0:49:50 > 0:49:53looking at their ovaries to see how many babies they'd had
0:49:53 > 0:49:55and that kind of thing.
0:49:55 > 0:49:59But none of those scientists had any what we'd call "numeracy"
0:49:59 > 0:50:05and it was that skill that we brought to bear on the data
0:50:05 > 0:50:09that the biologists had been collecting.
0:50:09 > 0:50:15Tucked in their office drawers was all this stuff about...
0:50:15 > 0:50:18reproduction rates and things like that.
0:50:18 > 0:50:23So the first thing we did the first two years was to assemble it all,
0:50:23 > 0:50:27put it on punch cards and as soon as we looked at the data
0:50:27 > 0:50:31we could tell the situation was absolutely disastrous.
0:50:31 > 0:50:36Within a year the blue whales were very close to extinction.
0:50:36 > 0:50:43The fin whale - tiny fraction of what it had been.
0:50:43 > 0:50:48This is the earplug of a fin whale. Just the core end of it.
0:50:48 > 0:50:51The outer casing goes all the way to the outside...
0:50:51 > 0:50:54and it might be three feet long, four feet long.
0:50:54 > 0:50:56- That much ear wax?- Yes.
0:50:56 > 0:51:01We couldn't, at the time, tell the ages of the whales,
0:51:01 > 0:51:06and being able to say how old a whale is, is crucial.
0:51:06 > 0:51:08This is the important bit.
0:51:08 > 0:51:13This is where the tympanic membrane goes and that creates this inner core
0:51:13 > 0:51:17and it creates alternate light and dark layers.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20The light coloured layer, which is full of fat,
0:51:20 > 0:51:24- when they're feeding... - It's the krill-y layer.- Yes.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27And the dark layer, in the subtropics, when they're not...
0:51:27 > 0:51:29Not breeding.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32Pair of layers equals one year in the life of whales.
0:51:32 > 0:51:37- That is exactly like a tree. A winter and summer ring.- Yes.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40So, what was the effect of that discovery
0:51:40 > 0:51:42on the way people understood whales?
0:51:42 > 0:51:46Well, it gave the statistical people, the modelling people,
0:51:46 > 0:51:50a firm basis on which to base their statistics.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53They'd know the absolute age of the animal throughout its life cycle.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56We'd done our work in such a way
0:51:56 > 0:52:00that it was extremely difficult to criticise it.
0:52:00 > 0:52:05The science was so overwhelming they couldn't deny it.
0:52:05 > 0:52:09We said that the blue whales they should stop killing, anyway.
0:52:09 > 0:52:13And reduce the blue whale units, as they were,
0:52:13 > 0:52:18to a quarter or a fifth of what they had been.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22So, why did industry accept that things had to change?
0:52:22 > 0:52:26- Was it the science? Or was it money? - It was a combination of two.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28They recognised that the science was becoming harder
0:52:28 > 0:52:32and harder to argue against.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35It also knew perfectly well that the number of whales was falling,
0:52:35 > 0:52:37so it was economically much less profitable
0:52:37 > 0:52:39to send whaling fleets to the Antarctic.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42And if you had to choose between those two factors,
0:52:42 > 0:52:46economics and science, which was the more powerful?
0:52:46 > 0:52:48Sadly, economics.
0:52:51 > 0:52:54'By the time Sidney and his colleagues
0:52:54 > 0:52:57'released their damning report on whale stocks,
0:52:57 > 0:53:00'Salvesen's factory ships were making a loss.'
0:53:00 > 0:53:03They were sending down these factories and all these men,
0:53:03 > 0:53:07and not catching fish, so therefore, he wasn't making any money.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10Well, the whales were gone, weren't they? They were gone.
0:53:10 > 0:53:13'Aware that the writing was finally on the wall,
0:53:13 > 0:53:17'Salvesen sold their factory ship quota to the Japanese,
0:53:17 > 0:53:19'bringing centuries of British whaling,
0:53:19 > 0:53:25'including 55 years in the Antarctic, to an end.'
0:53:25 > 0:53:29You were sorry to see your way of life go, that you enjoy.
0:53:29 > 0:53:36But you understood why and I think, along with every other whaler,
0:53:36 > 0:53:41would say they were glad we pulled back from the brink.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44'After British whaling had ended,
0:53:44 > 0:53:48'the IWC quota available to the remaining countries
0:53:48 > 0:53:50'was drastically reduced,
0:53:50 > 0:53:52'although more slowly than the science recommended.
0:53:54 > 0:53:58'The hunting of blue whales was banned in 1966.
0:53:58 > 0:54:02'With new science and anti-whaling campaigns...'
0:54:02 > 0:54:05Stop killing the whales.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09'..the taking of fin and sei whales was banned in the 1970s.
0:54:09 > 0:54:16'Finally, in 1986, the IWC declared a moratorium on whaling,
0:54:16 > 0:54:19'until a time when a sustainable approach could be guaranteed.
0:54:22 > 0:54:28'Japan, Norway and Iceland continue to hunt whales,
0:54:28 > 0:54:31'predominantly the small, more plentiful, minke whale.
0:54:34 > 0:54:39'In total, over 1.6 million whales were killed in the Antarctic.
0:54:41 > 0:54:44'So where does this leave their populations today?
0:54:46 > 0:54:49'Ecologist Mark Carwardine has an up-to-date picture.'
0:54:50 > 0:54:54In some species - humpback whale, for example, southern right whale -
0:54:54 > 0:54:56they seem to be doing pretty well,
0:54:56 > 0:55:00and some of those populations are increasing as fast as theoretically
0:55:00 > 0:55:04possible, so they're doubling every ten years or so, which is fantastic.
0:55:04 > 0:55:10Other species, blue whale being perhaps the frightening example,
0:55:10 > 0:55:12doesn't seem to be bouncing back at all.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14We don't know exactly how many there are,
0:55:14 > 0:55:18maybe somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 worldwide.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21And it may be that they're spread out so thinly
0:55:21 > 0:55:24that there aren't to actually build the numbers back up.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27So, although we stopped whaling in the nick of time,
0:55:27 > 0:55:31literally the eleventh hour, before the biggest animal on the planet
0:55:31 > 0:55:36disappeared altogether, it may still be that it doesn't make a comeback.
0:55:39 > 0:55:41'Leith Harbour's working life didn't quite finish
0:55:41 > 0:55:44'with the end of British whaling.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47'In the mid-60's, Salvesen's had leased the station
0:55:47 > 0:55:51'to a Japanese company to produce whale meat,
0:55:51 > 0:55:54'a high-value dish back in Japan.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57'But after two years even they couldn't make it pay
0:55:57 > 0:56:01'and Leith Harbour was finally abandoned for good.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12'Responsibility for the ghost town has now reverted to the government
0:56:12 > 0:56:15'of this British overseas territory,
0:56:15 > 0:56:19'who are in the process of working out just how to manage
0:56:19 > 0:56:24'this decaying, but unique relic of our industrial past.'
0:56:26 > 0:56:28It's 50 years now
0:56:28 > 0:56:34since Salvesen's last expedition came back from the Antarctic.
0:56:36 > 0:56:37It's now history.
0:56:41 > 0:56:43Of course it should be remembered.
0:56:43 > 0:56:45It happened, it was necessary,
0:56:45 > 0:56:47it happened, and you can't deny history.
0:56:49 > 0:56:52In one way, the whole history of whaling in the 20th century
0:56:52 > 0:56:55is just a business story.
0:56:55 > 0:56:57There was a huge market in Europe.
0:56:57 > 0:57:00Companies came out here. Got the whales.
0:57:00 > 0:57:04And serviced that market - and made a huge amount of money in doing it.
0:57:04 > 0:57:07But, of course, it's far, far more than that.
0:57:07 > 0:57:12The people who came whaling did that with enormous skill
0:57:12 > 0:57:15and courage and enterprise.
0:57:15 > 0:57:19These were, for me, the greatest memories,
0:57:19 > 0:57:23and I would love to go back down there and just see it all again.
0:57:23 > 0:57:27Right, further over. Come on, you can do it.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30I'm very proud to have been a whaler.
0:57:30 > 0:57:31Very, very proud indeed.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37It was part of British life.
0:57:38 > 0:57:41The cost was really enormous -
0:57:41 > 0:57:43over a third of a million blue whales,
0:57:43 > 0:57:47nearly 700,000 fin whales.
0:57:47 > 0:57:52And all for what? To make margarine and soap.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56I don't think we have the right to bring any species to extinction,
0:57:56 > 0:57:59and we ditched that just in time.
0:57:59 > 0:58:01I'm glad it's finished, you know?
0:58:01 > 0:58:05Because it was...pretty cruel when you think about it.
0:58:05 > 0:58:07It's deeply ambivalent, this story.
0:58:07 > 0:58:11And I can't really resolve that.
0:58:11 > 0:58:14And I think that what I feel in the end
0:58:14 > 0:58:17is that I very, very much admire the whalers -
0:58:17 > 0:58:22what they did, the courage they did it with, the skill they did it with.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25But I really, really hate the whaling.
0:58:27 > 0:58:30All I can say is, you know, I don't want...
0:58:30 > 0:58:33whalers to be forgotten.
0:58:33 > 0:58:34That's good.
0:58:34 > 0:58:35CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS