WILLEM BARENDSZ II
Willem Barendsz, Dutch Whaling Factory Vessel (1949)
Vessel Description
The Willem Barendtz is the final incarnation of the long line of whaling ship designs. The vessel was there constructed as a commercial whaling factory ship in the Netherlands in XXX. The vessel was a modernized version of an earlier whaling factory ship named Willem Barendtz. The ship is optimized for whale oil production and actually is a tanker on top of which there is a factory deck and an exposed work deck.
The vessel has more accommodations than a conventional tanker to allow for the much larger crew needed to butcher and process the whales. The factory floor beneath the exposed work deck contains a variety of large scale processing equipment including boilers and oil purifiers to reduce the whale meat, fat and bones to the largest proportion of oil.
The vessel is a true factory vessel that contains a production line that starts at the ship’s stern where the whale that are caught by the whale catchers are delivered and hauled aboard on the ramp. The whales are cut up on the exposed deck and the smaller sections are then delivered to the factory floor below.
On these modern factory vessels only a very small percentage of the whale is not used and the components from which all oil has been removed are even further processed into fertilizer.
The ship is powered by twin MAN diesel engines and can be operated as a normal tanker when not engaged in the whaling trade.
Vessel History
The Willem Barendtz II went on whaling cruises in the southern oceans from 1955 to 1964. The ship served as a mother vessel and operated with much smaller and quicker vessels that were called catchers. These vessels had bow mounted harpoon guns to kill and hold whales. They also were fitted with air compressors that they could use to inject air into the whale to keep it from sinking. The whales were then towed to the mothership, pulled up the stern ramp, and completely disassembled on the mothership
Whaling operations by multiple nations very rapidly reduced whale stocks, and a combination of loss of profitability and a general concern for the extinction of whales resulted in progressive abandonment of whale hunting by most nations. The possibility of extinction was already recognized in the 1930’s and early efforts at national quotas were actually the first international wild life regulations. Over the years these treaties resulted in near complete cessation of whaling by the 1980’s.
Most, though not all, whaling stocks have dramatically recovered and today we enjoy this recovery with the abundance of humpback whales on the Jersey shore.
Technical Model Description
This model is a scratch-built diorama of a whaling operation, completed in 1999 by Henry Schaefer. It depicts the Willem Barendtz II in full operation with catcher vessels and their catch floating alongside, whales being hauled up the stern ramp. The mothership was constructed from small scale drawings published in a magazine, but the catchers, rather sophisticated vessels in their own right, were interpreted from fuzzy black and white photos.
