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Originally the Greenland Trade Department was established to
conduct whaling, which was unsuccessful and therefore was
abandoned. In 1924 the Greenland Trade Department, however,
resumed whaling, marked by the purchase of the whaling
steamer Sonja, which was built in Leith in Scotland in 1910,
originally for a Norwegian shipping company, and the purchase
of the engine schooner Sværdfisken (The Swordfish –
formerly Munkebjerg), which was built in Korsør in 1920 for a
local ship owner.
The idea was for the two ships to co-operate,
having Sonja catch the whales, which were then flensed on
board Sværdfisken, which also had the cargo capacity for the
gained blubber. It worked, but was not a very profitable arrangement,
for as the whaling proceeds diminished at the end
of the 1920’s, the Sværdfisken was transferred to regular
navigation, while Sonja continued whaling.
In 1951 the old Sonja was replaced by a newer whaler, Sonja Kaligtok, built in
Oslo in 1935 and active until 1960, when whaling by the
Greenland Trade Department was definitively at an end.

Issued 20.10 2003 Greenland Philatelic