AN armada of little ships will be putting out during the week from this Norwegian port on one of the great adventure voyages still left to jet-age man - whaling.
The 1965 Norwegian Whaling Expedition will journey 8,000 miles down the South Atlantic, round Cape Horn and through the Roaring Forties to the vast icy oceans of the Antarctic. There they will remain until April.
Between November and April the expedition hope to kill more than 7,000 whales - the giant mammals of the sea which some experts believe will be almost extinct within five years - which will be used for pet food and margarine and soup-meat extract.
Britain and most other countries have withdrawn from this highly competitive annual slaughter, leaving the field to Japan, Russia and Norway.
But in spite of the scarcity of whales, there is still enough profit in them for the
Norwegians to send four factory ships, 36 catchers and 1,587 men out among the icebergs this year.
Asdic, a British wartime invention for locating submarines, has ensured that for the whales there is little safety in numbers.
TANNER. SUN. NORWAY. 18.10.1964.
WHALE CATCHERS PREPARE.
Captain-Gunner Thorleif Karlsen is preparing to take his fleet of whale catchers to the ice on a six month whale hunting expedition. "ASDIG" is an important development in the hunt and 6 out of 7 of the operators are British.
O.P.S. Capt. Karlsen makes a test shoot out in Sandefjord.
Industry - Whaling