Ballener: whale hunting in the South Atlantic
Introduction
In this work an archaeological recognition of a territory is undertaken in which it is not possibleArgentine in that territory. We are talking about the South Georgias Islands that are located 1650 km. To the east of the island of the states (American continent), they have an extension of 3850 km2. The main island is that of San Pedro about 160km. long for about 30 km. wide, it is crossed by the San Telmo mountain range whose maximum peak is Mount Paget with 2935 meters above sea level. On this island a very prosperous whaling industry emerged at the beginning of the 20th century that conducive the colonization of the territory by the Homo sapiens of the Antarctic continent.
Brief history of the whaling industry in the South Atlantic
As Deleuze (1990) points out, capitalism is a system that needs to expand to survive. Therefore constantly incorporates new spaces, resources and people under their orbit. Thinking about this infinite accumulation process can be an interesting line to discuss strategies through which the system tried to achieve its mission. The arrival of man to the South Atlantic Islands and Antarctica has been the result of the expansion of capitalism and its constant search for resources to supply a growing market.
Since the first third of the 18th century, the sustained demand for whale oil increased the hunting of these cetaceans that were tracked in the seas around the world. The southern areas assigned by papal bulls to the Spanish crown potentially rich in this species attracted whales of different backgrounds. The Spanish crown decided to strengthen its presence in the South Atlantic and take advantage of these resources through the establishment of the colony in Puerto Soledad, Malvinas Islands and the Fort and the Royal Fishing Company, in Puerto Deseado (Caviglia, 2015).
The most specialized whaling ports were on the Atlantic coast of the United States and owned shipyards specialized in the construction of this type of ships and all complementary and derived industries. They were also processed, at least in part, the raw materials obtained for subsequent refinement. Derived products were also made. In 1774 Dartmouth, which will later be called New Bedford, began its promotion as a whaling port. Most of the South Atlantic Ships ships departed from this port. In 1841, 75 whaling ships sailed by New Bedford and the city was quickly becoming one of the richest in the North American nation. The Whaleman’s Shipping newspaper lists 20 ports in 1855, most in the New England and New York region.
In Great Britain, London was the mall of most shipping companies. Especially in Britain the Lobera and Ballenera industry was part of a maritime fleet or much greater marine community. Even knowing the commercial size of fisheries, in the word of Jones it was just a drop in the ocean in relation to imperial trade.
During the 1860s and 70s, it was thought that there was a shortage of whales. Actually it was only a decrease in the number of traditionally hunted species. Until then, the species that swam at more speed were not hunted, which are the ones that begin to take advantage of, in principle, the Norwegian whales. The Norwegian Svend Foyn of Tønsberg introduced the technology used in modern whale between 1863 and 1870, replacing the old vest and rowing vessels, with steam vessels that reached speeds of up to seven knots (Vairo et al, 2007). In the bow of the boat was the harpoon canyon. Each harpoon contained a grenades device that were activated after impacting the animal. It also had a drag system to climb the whale to the boat and process it in the place. Modern machinery for the first time allowed the bodies to remain fresh enough for oil and meat. Non -edible waste was used to make fertilizers or animal food. In 1905 it was discovered that whale oil could be hydrogenated and its products used in the manufacture of soaps and foods which gave more impulse to the whaling industry.
A Norway whaling expedition arrived in April 1894 and remained briefly in the South Georgias. C. A. Larsen, leader and captain of the “Jason” boat was accompanied by the “Hertha” and “Castor” ships, Cumberland Bay and Royal Bay explored . In 1902 Larsen returns to the South Atlantic in command of the Antarctic ship that led to the Swedish Antarctic expedition, 1902-1903, directed by Nordenskjóld to the Antarctic Peninsula. The ship arrived at the Georgias del Sur in April 1902 to Cumberland Bay. This expedition explored parts of the island of San Pedro. On that occasion, Grytviken’s name is given- the pot of the pots- appointed by the lobo pots in the Cumberlan East Bay Caleta. The ship later returned to the Antarctic Peninsula to re -approve the members of the expedition that had spent winter on Snow Hill Island. They could not reach them and, they were surrounded and crushed by ice. The expedition was rescued after very difficult circumstances by the ARA Uruguay corvette at the end of 1903.
C. A. Larsen is convinced that the South Georgias would be the most appropriate basis for the hunting of Antarctic whales, when arriving in Buenos Aires after their rescue, he managed to interest Argentine capitals to exploit whale hunting. This created the Argentine Fisheries Company (CAP). He traveled to the South Georgias, with "Louise", "Rolfe" and "Fortuna" arrived in Grytviken on November 16, 1904 and the first whale hunting station is created. The CAP was created with the contributions of Pedro Christophersen, Ernesto Tornquist, Teodoro de Bary and Heinrich Schlieper, who contributed 200 thousand pesos gold. The company was recognized by government decree of February 29, 1904 and registered as such on April 8, 1904. He was presided by the first of those named.
In 1908/09 there were 19 hunters operating on the South Atlantic Islands. Basically they hunched hump whales (megaptera novaeangliae), but also end (Balaenoptera Physalus) and blue (Balaenoptera musculus);Sometimes Free (Eubalaena Australis), Sei (Balanoptera Borealis Schleglii) and a few sperm whales (Physeter MacroCophalus). The whaling movement in Georgias was very large, over time in the various bays other companies (7 factories) settled and more than 1 came to live.500 people, as much as in all the Falklands. The highest production of the CAP was obtained in the 1924-25 season, 5.790 whales slaughter and a production of 411.500 barrels of oil .
In 1905 Argentina established a weather office on the island, the second in Antarctica, as the first had installed it in the Orcadas Islands. In 1905 Larsen’s wife, Andrine Thorsen arrived, accompanied by her seven children, aboard the "sperm whale". Summer passed there and they returned in March to Buenos Aires. There were other relatives present in the various shots anchored in the bay. Many whales or factories workers lived in the place with their families, even with children. Some married and had their children: on October 8, 1913 Solveig Gunbjorg Jacobsen, a girl, the first human being born in the Georgias was born. Later another was born, Aase Jacobsen, on July 31, 1918.
With so many people on the island, something like sports games were organized in which teams from the different ports that were based there, also in the factorial ports, there were libraries, cinemas, theaters and hospitals. Between the first and Second World War several ships from the Argentine Navy provided coal to the island. Sometimes specially contracted whales were used. World War I imposed a stop in the flowering of the whaling industry and when the depression of 30 was raised again, it was also felt in such distant places (several of the factories closed). Larsen then sold his part in the CAP to the other partners. The last president of the Argentine Fishing Company (1945-1963) was Alfredo L. R. Ryan, born in Gibraltar, maritime entrepreneur of the repair workshops of the Río de la Plata, of Irish family.
By 1950 there were only three factories: Salversen, English, in Leith, who closed in 1964;Husvik, Norway, in that bay, which did so in 1960, and the Argentine Fisheries Company, which began in 1904 and closed in 1963. Ryan sold his part to Albion Star Ltd., that belonged to his own group and was based in Malvinas, transformed his whaling ships into tugs for port use and rented the facilities to a Japanese whaling company that operated between 1963 and 1965. Grytviken’s facilities were abandoned in 1967, Ryan tried to sell them to the Soviets, but to avoid it they were acquired by British capitals headed by Christian Salversen who bought all the factories ports of the Island of San Pedro;In turn, this company, in 1981, sold them as scrap metal Constantino Davidoff with Argentine nationality. The dismantling permit of them, granted by the English government to Davidoff and then unknown by said government, gave rise to the South Atlantic conflict in 1982 between Argentina and Great Britain.
Today there are the remains of these factories as they were since the end of the 60s of the last century, as a testimony of the expansion of the capitalist system in the Southern Atlantic Sub -Antarctic Islands.
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