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The
slipway up which the whales were pulled out of the bay.
The slipway is located on the bay side of the Bluff
perhaps 100m from the end of the Bluff, more less across
the harbour entrance channel channel from Thirsty's
Bar. That's John McDonald and his wife Arlette you can
see at top of the slipway.
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The
top of the slipway showing the metal strips which made
it easier to pull the whales along. A specially designed
flatbed train would have been waiting at the top of
the slipway and the whale would have slid across onto
it from the slipway.
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Moving
around to the sea side of the Bluff we pass the sewage
works (on the site of the original Union Whaling Station)
and then reach the security hut at the entrance to what
was the Premier Whaling Company's whaling station and
was later bought by Union Whaling. It operated alongside
the original station until that was sold in 1953 and
the Premier Station became the only whaling station
on the Bluff.
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Next
is the Admininstration block where I found the Union
Whaling Company logo set into the floor in the entrance.
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The
Meat Meal store.
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The
whale oil sulphurising plant was located in this building.
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The
Flensing Deck
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Seen
here is the main whale flensing deck. The train carrying
a whale (or whales) would have stopped at 1 opposite
the platform. The whale would have been pulled off the
train to 2 where the flensers would have got busy on
it with their knives. Once cuts has been made in the
whale, the flensers would have attached cables to the
whale and used the steam winches (3) to pull off the
whale's skin and blubber. Off to the right (4) is a
smaller flensing deck which was mostly used for sperm
whales which had to be flensed separately, because the
sperm oil they produced could not be mixed with the
oil from baleen whales. The building at 5 was the whale
meat chilling and freezing plant.
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A
view from the southern end of the whaling station looking
back towards the staff quarters on the left and the
dining room and kitchen on the right.
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The
staff dining room and kitchen.
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At
the southern end of the whaling station are the quarters
used by the Japanese whale meat butchers. My informant
John McDonald commented that he has never seen a group
who worked harder than those people did.
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The
Japanese workers cooked and ate their own food, which
was specially sent out for them from Japan by their
employers. They also had baths built, left, in the Japanese
pattern for their use.
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