ray thacker

[sue thacker]

my dad raymond thacker was on the southern harvester in the 50s does anybody remember him?

[Gulliver]

Hello Sue! Welcome Aboard The British MN-Looking for Old Friends Site.
Hope you will receive some replies.Meanwhile I've got some information about your dad's ship for you....
Whaling Factory Ship Completed 10.1946 as SOUTHERN HARVESTER at Furness Yard ,Haverton Hill as Yard No.392 for The South Georgia Co.Ltd(Reg'd .Leith)
Official No. 181179
Gross Tons 15,088
Deadweight Tons 20,120
Length Overall 169.5m.
Beam 22.7m.
Propulsion 2 screw ST 12 kts
History
1963 To Nippon Suisan KK Japan (Tokyo )
1966 Returned to The South Georgia Co.Ltd.(Leith)
1968 To Akers Mek Verksted A/S Norway (Oslo )
1971 Broken Up at Santander,Spain 21.6.71
　
Two Pix here:-

http://www.photoship.co.uk/JAlbum%20Ships/Old%20Ships%20Sl/slides/Southern%20Harvester-01.html
http://www.photoship.co.uk/JAlbum%20Ships/Old%20Ships%20Sl/slides/Southern%20Harvester-02.html　
There are also a few threads about Whaling Ships on the Ships Nostalgia site.(You may have to register to join,similar to this site).


http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/showthread.php?t=35463&highlight=harvester

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/showthread.php?t=1950&highlight=harvester　
All the Best
Gulliver
　
　
　

[Doc Vernon]

Hello Sue
A warm Welcome to this site,i hope you will find a lot of info on what you want,and also of course enjoy your stay! Hope its a long one too!
All the best

Just a Pic and a wee bit of info that may interest you!
Cheers

http://www.mclaren.gs/new_page_2.htm

http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/i...umber10182.asp

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchi...0-%200798.html

Historical records of ambergris lump discoveries:
- In 1883, sailors on the bark "Splendid" of Dunedin, New Zealand found a very large block of amber gris; it weighed 983 lb. and was worth $25,000.
- On December 24, 1908 a "boulder" of ambergris weighing 1003 lb., the largest ever found, was brought in by the whalers of Larvik in Norway.
- Another lump which weighed 926 lb. was found in the Antarctic by the whaling ship "Southern Harvester" in 1953.
- The Spanish whaling station Getares on the Falkland Islands found a whale with a 304 lb. lump of ambregris in 1927 that it sold to the Norwegians, owners of the only other whaling company in the Falklands, for Kr400,000, considered an outrageous price (high or low is not mentioned).

See this Link too!
Thanks to Chiefen

http://www.merchant-navy.net/forum/s...?t=3192&page=2

The factory ships had a displacement of around a hundred thousand tons which was considered large in their day. In essence, the bottom of the ship was a tanker with a factory built on top, on top of which was the flensing deck and built on that level would be the forward bridge structure which also contained officers' cabins, galleys and ship's dining areas. Amidships was a structure which ran across the main flensing deck, containing two sixty ton winches and was known as Hell's Gate. Aft was the main accommodation of three storeys consisting of accommodation for the crew, ship's engineers and helicopter personnel. On top of this accommodation were two funnels, side by side, with the helicopter hangar in between and the helideck aft of this and over the accommodation block at the stern of the ship. From the helideck to the sea was sixty feet and the ship when loaded drew sixty nine feet of water.

The aft accommodation was split by a large tunnel that led up from the sea to the aft flensing deck and it was up this tunnel that the whale carcasses were hauled to be cut up and fed through ports to the factory below. Conditions in the aft accommodation were extremely noisy, as a whale was hauled up every half an hour, and unbelievably smelly, as the whales, used as fenders, began to rot!
John Cameron remembered it vividly, " The smell was so powerful you couldn't even entice an "Airwick" out of its bottle."

[Ivan Cloherty]

Hello Sue
]

http://www.merchant-navy.net/forum/s...?t=3192&page=2

The factory ships had a displacement of around a hundred thousand tons which was considered large in their day. In essence, the bottom of the ship was a tanker with a factory built on top, on top of which was was up this tunnel that the whale carcasses were hauled to be cut up and fed through ports to the factory below."

With a ship of approx 15000 tons Gross and a Dwt of approx 20,000 tons, the net tonnage would be about 9000tons or even lesss, so the displacement would be circa 29 - 30,000 tonnes, where does the 100 000tons displacement come from, even the biggest whaling factory ships didn't reach that displacement

Rgds Ivan

[Jim Brady]

Hi Sue,The Southern Havester and The Abraham Larsen used to come into Liverpool every year I was aboard the two of them(as a kid in the Sea Cadets)Aboard those ships you would think you were in a factory,from pulling the whale aboard to processing it,diferent decks and conveyor belts everywhere.No Helicopters in those days.They paid the Norwegians off here until a lot of them went home with no money after 12 months away after that,the story was they Only Gave Them AŁ300 sub until they got home.That was in the 50's.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Doc Vernon]

Hello Ivan
Dont want to say that you are incorrect,as i dont know too much about all that!
However if you want to put the point over go to the following site,and post your comments there!
Possibly they will clear it up! ??
Cheers

http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/287...photos-58.html

This posted by someone!
R5848495617th June 2005, 17:55
There was a Southern Harvester, a whale factory ship of 15364 tons, registered in Leith and owned by South Georgia co ltd ( Chris Salveson co)

So possibly that Item i found may refer to the Fleet of Factory Ships that time! of the Company??

From Mirimar!

ON LR/IMO ID Year Name Tons Change Starke Ref. Registered Owner Port
181179 5335436 1946 SOUTHERN HARVESTER 15088 V1946 #559 The South Georgia Co Ltd GBR Leith

5335436 1946 SOUTHERN HARVESTER 15088 1963 V1946 #559 Nippon Suisan KK JPN Tokyo

5335436 1946 SOUTHERN HARVESTER 15088 1966 V1946 #559 The South Georgia Co Ltd GBR Leith

5335436 1946 SOUTHERN HARVESTER 15088 1968 V1946 #559 Akers Mek Verksted A/S NOR Oslo

[happy daze john in oz]

The smell mentioned reminds me of the whaling station in Durban, that smelled like a dead sewer rat at times. Ambergris I believe was used in the manufacture of perfume which made it so costly.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Hello Ivan
Dont want to say that you are incorrect,as i dont know too much about all that!
However if you want to put the point over go to the following site,and post your comments there!
Possibly they will clear it up! ??
Cheers

http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/287...photos-58.html

This posted by someone!
R5848495617th June 2005, 17:55
There was a Southern Harvester, a whale factory ship of 15364 tons, registered in Leith and owned by South Georgia co ltd ( Chris Salveson co)

So possibly that Item i found may refer to the Fleet of Factory Ships that time! of the Company??

From Mirimar!

ON LR/IMO ID Year Name Tons Change Starke Ref. Registered Owner Port
181179 5335436 1946 SOUTHERN HARVESTER 15088 V1946 #559 The South Georgia Co Ltd GBR Leith

5335436 1946 SOUTHERN HARVESTER 15088 1963 V1946 #559 Nippon Suisan KK JPN Tokyo

5335436 1946 SOUTHERN HARVESTER 15088 1966 V1946 #559 The South Georgia Co Ltd GBR Leith

5335436 1946 SOUTHERN HARVESTER 15088 1968 V1946 #559 Akers Mek Verksted A/S NOR Oslo

Sorry cannot find an item that is relevant, and why can I not make my observations on this site, as you seemed to be well versed in the other site perhaps you could extract the article you wish me to read so that I can ascertain what point you are trying to make. Having drydocked a number of ships and also attended new buildings I had to be aware of ~~~~~~~ light displacement, nett tonnage, gross tonnage, deadweight and final displacement, any factory ship displacing 100,000 tonnes has to be a VERY big ship, that was my comment, was not saying that the contributor was incorrect but that if it was referring to the Southern Harvester then the figures do not add up

Regards Ivan