The old eighteenth century whaler of about 400 tons burden carried about 30 officers and men, and was equipped for a three years’ voyage. Each whaler carried six whale boats. These whaleboats were about 27 ft. long and built sharp at each end. Each boat was furnished with mast and sails, and was provided with two 200-fathom whale lines. When a whale was sighted four of these boats, each manned by six men, started in pursuit. The boats ranged themselves alongside the whale and a harpoon was driven into it from each boat. The whale immediately dived to the bottom of the sea and remained there sometimes for as long as forty minutes. When he returned to the surface to breathe, more harpoons were thrown and he dived again. Ultimately, owing to loss of blood, the whale kept near the surface and was then dispatched by a lance thrust behind the flipper into the vital parts. The modern Greenland whaler is an iron vessel of about 500 tons. She is fitted with auxiliary engines of 75 horse-power. She carries from fifty to sixty hands and eight whaleboats. She is fitted with tanks for 250 tons of oil. Before the war she would cost about £17,500 to build and £500 a month to maintain. Each whaleboat carries a harpoon gun in order to make sure of the first harpoon getting a good hold. In Rorqual fishing, off Newfoundland, the harpoon is tipped with a bomb and time fuse. This explosive harpoon is discharged into the whale from the deck of the whaler—a fast steamer—and explodes with fatal effect. The chief whale fisheries are carried on off Greenland for the Greenland whale, off the coast of Newfoundland for Rorquals. There is the Norwegian bottlenosed-whale fishery around Iceland, and the American Bowhead-whale fishery in the Behring Sea. In Southern Seas the Humpback, Fin whale, and Blue whale (Sibbald’s Rorqual) constitute an overwhelming majority of the whales captured. The Right whale and the Sperm whale, although captured in relatively small numbers, are individually more valuable. Other smaller species, e.g. the Sei whale (Rudolph’s Rorqual), the lesser Rorqual and the Killer or Grampus, are also found in large numbers in the Antarctic. When the whale has been killed it is either made fast alongside the whaler and cut up, or it is towed ashore to a “factory” to be cut up and stripped. The blubber is stripped off, cut up into small pieces, and boiled down with water to separate the oil. The yield of oil varies for different species, as shown in Table II. The whalebone is removed and, if a Sperm whale, the oil is removed from the skull cavity with buckets. An average large Sperm whale will yield from 2-1/2 to 3 tons of Sperm oil. TABLE II Average Yield of Oil in Barrels Species of Whale. (6 Barrels = 1 Ton).