THORSHAMMER whale factory vessel

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aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

THORSHAMMER whale factory vessel

Post by aukepalmhof » Fri Nov 27, 2009 8:05 pm

Tristan da Cunha issued a set of stamps for the 50th Anniversary of the Norwegian Scientific Expedition to the island in 1937.
One of the largest sponsors of the expedition was Lars Christensen, the owner of the whale-factory vessel THORSHAMMER.
The expedition travel south in whale-factory vessels, and during their stay the expedition was able to describe rare species of fauna, and new species of plants and grasses with links to adjacent continents.
Five scientific volumes, several books, and numerous papers resulted from these studies.

After four months on the island, 12 members of the expedition were taken back to Norway in the whale-factory vessel THORSHAMMER.

Built as a tanker under yard No 459 by W.Doxford & Sons, Sunderland, U.K. for Eagle Oil Transport Co. Ltd., London.
09 June 1914 launched under the name SAN NAZARIO.
Tonnage 10.064 gross, dim. 525.5 x 66.5 x 41.4ft.
Triple expansion Doxford 4-cyl steam engine 795 nhp., speed 11 knots.
September 1914 delivered to owners.

At that time she was the largest tanker in the world.

23 July 1928 bought by A/S Bryde & Dahl’s Hvalfangerselkap (Lars Christensen) Sandefjord, Norway and converted in a whale factory vessel.
Tonnage 12.215 gross, 7.147 net, 16.050 dwt. Dim. 535.0 x 66.5 x 41.5ft
Renamed in THORSHAMMER.
1931/32 Further rebuilt in Rotterdam. Then managed by A/S Thor Dahl.

When in January 1941 the German surface raider PINGUIN (HK33) surprised the Norwegian whaling fleet in the Antarctic, only the THORSHAMMER under command of Capt. Einar Torp, and her seven chatchers escaped to Grytviken, South Georgia.

Whaling was later resumed but under guard of the British armed merchant cruiser QUEEN OF BERMUDA and CARNAVON CASTLE.
11 April 1941 she sailed to New Orleans to discharge her valuable whale oil.
Then she made an other whaling voyage to South America west coast off Peru in the fall of 1941, but when Japan entered the Second World War, whaling was suspended during the rest of the war.
The THORSHAMMER was the rest of the war used as a tanker.

After the war again refitted in a whale-factory vessel by Framnæs Mekaniske Verksted in 1948, and Harland & Wolff at Liverpool in 1949.
1952 Sold to Thor Dahls Hvalfanger A/S, Sandefjord, Norway.
1963 Bought by Cant. Nav. Santa Maria, La Spezia, Italy, she arriver there on 06 September 1962 for scrapping.

Tristan da Cunha 1987 50p sg437, scott 419,

Source: Register of Merchant Ships completed in1914. Watercraft Philately Vol. 35 page 16.
http://www.warsailors.com/freefleet/norfleett2.html Pesca, A History of the Pioneer Modern Whaling Company in the Antarctic by Ian B. Hart.
Attachments
tmp1E9.jpg
thorshamr.jpg
Last edited by aukepalmhof on Thu Oct 26, 2023 3:45 am, edited 2 times in total.

aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: THORSHAMMER whale factory vessel

Post by aukepalmhof » Sun Dec 03, 2017 8:04 pm

This four stamps don’t show a ship, but the THORSHAMMER who picked the expedition members up from Tristan da Cunha is on a stamp.

Norwegian Tristan Expedition 1937-1938

Anne Vaalund, Museum of University History, University of Oslo

The expedition was led by the botanist Erling Christophersen. In the spring 1933 the Botanical Museum of the University of Oslo received a parcel of botanical samples collected on Gough Island. They were collected by the whaling ship-owner Lars Christensen in just a few hours, but despite this, the collection contained 12 species new to this island, and three previously undiscovered species. Christophersen was intrigued with Tristan da Cunha, and started to plan an expedition.
Earlier scientific expeditions to these islands had stayed for less than a week, whereas this lasted for four months, from December to March. This was the whaling season in the Antarctic summer. The whaling industry was important in Norway and essential for the expedition. The botanist Christophersen contacted Christensen for funding and support, and he was more than willing to help. His whale factory ships could transport the expedition to the island at the start of the season and pick up the crew on the way back to Norway.
The expedition had 13 participants and could hardly have been more multi-disciplinary with: botanist, algologist, land zoologist, marine zoologist, geologist and a surveyor. But this was not only meant to be a science expedition. In 1937 there were 188 Tristanians on the island who were to be studied by a physician, a dentist and a sociologist.
The expedition members arrived onshore 7 December, 1937. They brought with them equipment weighing 100 tonnes, including building materials for the research stations. They were given a warm welcome and were installed in the parish hall until the expedition station was erected.
The dentist and the physician had their field lab inside the expedition station. On the 35p stamp the physician Henriksen and the medical assistant Oeding are photographed while doing lab work. The man in the background is the sociologist P.A. Munch. He, of course, had no need for a lab. He visited the Tristanians in their homes and observed them in their work to study the society.
The dentist Sognnæs had his field lab and a dentist chair with all equipment next to this lab. He was intrigued by the good dental health in the population. He wanted teeth for his lab research and the deal he offered was a chocolate bar for a tooth!
The goal of the expedition was to collect everything of interest. To do this, one needed to map the terrain. The 70p stamp shows surveyor Crawford at work. He started out mapping the coastline and worked towards the centre of the island. Later, official maps were made based on his surveys. The geologist Dunne analysed the volcanic islands, asking questions like when were they formed and how has the climate shaped them over time.

The £1 stamp shows Tristanians lined up on a bench outside the field station where they were tested for tuberculosis by the physician Henriksen. The population wasn’t just known for their good dental health, but also for their good health in general. Henriksen joined the expedition to try to understand why they were so healthy.
The biologists did fieldwork around the island, and from boats around the coast. In addition to the main island, they did fieldwork at the islands Inaccessible and Nightingale. To get to these islands they had hired the Norwegian adventurer Erling Tambs with his Norwegian Spitzgatter RS SANDEFJORD. The islands are populated with many birds. The land zoologist Hagen led the work of ring marking two thousand Great Shearwaters (Puffinus gravis). Some of them were later found outside Newfoundland and in Norway. They also found a Tristan thrush (Nesocichla eremita) which was considered extinct. On the £1.50 stamp from Nightingale the marine biologists Baardseth and Sivertsen are watching Hagen together with a Northern rockhopper penguin. They are sitting outside their simple field lab, with walls of tussocks grass.
On 29 March the whaling factory THORSHAMMER arrived. The field station and most of the remaining equipment was given to the Tristanians. A small gift compared to all the help the expedition had received during the months on Tristan da Cunha. Back home in Norway the expedition members analysed their research materials and in the following years published more than 50 scientific papers from this expedition to Tristan da Cunha.
Expedition members:
Erling Christophersen (Botanist and leader), Egil Baardseth (Algeologist), Allan B. Crawford (Surveyor from England), J.C. Dunne (Geologist from South Africa), Ragnar Eggesvik (Radio Operator), Yngvar Hagen (Land Zoologist), Sverre Dick Henriksen (Physician), Yngvar Mejland (Botanical Assistant), Peter A. Munch (Sociologist), Per Oeding (Medical Assistant), Erling Sivertsen (Marine Zoologist), Severin Skjelten (Handyman), Reidar Sognnæs (Dentist)

Technical details:-
Photographs courtesy of Museum of University History, University of Oslo
Printer: Cartor Security Printing
Process: Lithography
Perforation: 13 ½ x 13 ¼ per 2 cms
Stamp size: 28 x 42mm
Sheet Layout: 10
Release date: 7 December, 2017
Production Co-ordination: Creative Direction (Worldwide) Ltd

Source: http://www.pobjoystamps.com/contents/en ... -1938.html
Tristan da Cunha 2017 35p/£1.50 sg?, scott?
Attachments
2017 norwegian expedition.jpg

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