Page 17 - Willem Barentsz

then walks around perkily on deck in his tuxedo. When the factory ship is stationary, the AM8 can go
on expedition. As a "leading catcher" they have an R/O on board and can make QSO in short wave
with the "Willem Barendsz". They can then see what the conditions are a little further on. Is there fish
and/or food and are there birds? A busy day is behind us. Many more will follow. Sometimes also less
busy with storms, fog or bad catch.

Finally, at the beginning of April, we go home. The International Whaling Commission has announced
the closing date. The catchers are struggling to get bunkers. The slaughter deck goes over the side
when the last fender fish is in the pot. The factory ship is also heading for the Cape. We go back to
normal sea watch, 4 hours on, 8 hours off and it seems like a bit of a holiday.

Most of the catchers we had were converted navy corvettes. Built in WWII and later converted into
whale catchers, 720 GRT and a speed of over 16 knots. The crew consisted of 18 to 20 men. The
captain/harpooner was always a Norwegian. On the buoy ships, the captains were almost always
Dutch. Only once did we have a Dutch gunner and that didn't last very long. The results were not
great. Couldn't the Dutch learn that? Of course they did, but Norwegians jealously guarded their
monopoly position. Moreover, a novice gunner had to settle for the oldest ship and the least good
sailors. Top scorers knew damn well who the best (South African) sailors were and were happy to pay
a little extra under the table for a good spotter. To deliver a top performance from this situation as a
newcomer was almost impossible. The mates were contractually entitled to a few shots per season,
but usually not much came of it and certainly not for the Dutch mate. In recent years, the mates were
almost always Norwegians. Often these were family members or acquaintances of the gunners. That
does not mean that they were not of good quality. The leading catcher had a R/O on board. I only did
that for one season, from 1950 to 1951.

Radioroom on board of a catcher

My task was to find out as much as possible about the activities of other expeditions with the help of
a battery of receivers. Some used scramblers, others, like us, code xxx. Yet we learned a lot. Later,
when the VHF came, MF traffic was drastically reduced. Nevertheless, we knew who was nearby. The
Russians had their own way of collecting information. They quietly let a catcher stick to your stern for
a week to see what you were doing. (Nothing changed. LV)