Year: 1993
Type: other
Abstract: Arthur Edward Hay, one of the last surviving members of the southern whaling fraternity of the 1920s, died on 26 January 1993 in his ninety-first year at his home in Queen Camel, Somerset.He was born on 18 May 1902 in Liverpool and was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and Liverpool University, where he read naval architecture.He represented the University at lawn tennis, and played rugby for Waterloo.From 1924, at the age of 22, until 1935, Hay was technical engineer for the Southern Whaling and Sealing Company, spending nine months of most years at Prince Olav Harbour, the northernmost of the whaling stations on South Georgia.This was the smallest of the shore stations, operating from 1911 until 1935, and was leased from 1919 by Lever Brothers of Liverpool.Hay was responsible for overseeing the design and conversion of the whaling station transport ships Southern King, Southern Queen, and Southern Princess to factory ships in 1928.This involved the addition of a stern slipway for winching whales onto the flensing deck, and the installation of a processing plant below deck.There was little contact or communication between Prince Olav Harbour and the other stations on South Georgia.Despite his frequent summers spent at'POH,' he visited Leith and Grytviken only once in 10 years.During his time with Southern Whaling, he travelled on factory ships engaged in pelagic whaling, voyaging as far as Enderby Land to the east and along the Antarctic Peninsula to the west.He also visited the whaling station near Durban, Natal, and worked briefly at the station on Isle of Lewis, Scotland.I first met Eddie Hay when he was 88, and we struck up a close friendship.He had not spoken to anyone who was either interested in or had any knowledge of South Georgia for more than 50 years.He talked vividly, lucidly, and in great detail about his experiences at Prince Olav Harbour, and brought out boxes of notebooks; ledgers of catches, fuel consumption, rations, and ship and station running costs; and photographs of the stations and catchers (including Southern Flower, Pride, Shore, and Wave) in operation, including one remarkable shot of seven foetuses taken from one blue whale, and another of a group of 'free range' pigs wandering through the station.They had remained unseen and in perfect condition in sealed tins since the 1930s.We were able to join up the films and transfer them to video cassette.The films, video, and other archival material have been deposited in the Scott Polar Research Institute archives, and I presented Eddie with a copy of the video for his ninetieth birthday, 55 years after he had last viewed the film.Following his association with the whaling industry, Hay married in 1937 and settled down to farming in north
Source: Polar Record
Author: R.I. Lewis Smith
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4236328176