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The voyage to the Antarctic
of a Norwegian commercial whaling fleet
in 1948/49
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 In
the late summer of 1948 Fut Jensen, a Danish film photographer was engaged
by Anders Jahre, a Norwegian shipowner, to film the whaling voyage of Kosmos
III to the Antarctic. Fut Jensen joined the ship in Sandefjord, Norway,
and in the course of the 8 month voyage he made a unique portrait of the
Norwegian hunt for the great whales. His footage and stills photography
covered life and work on board the factory ship - Kosmos III - and the
fleet of harpoon ships which pursued the great whales. Commercial whaling
was nearing its peak and Norway led the field. When he returned to Denmark
in the Summer of 1949 and completed his film, the shipowner decided that
it should never be released. The film disappeared. All attempts to discover
its whereabouts have failed. |
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| But Fut Jensen had
his own private film stock on board Kosmos III, with which he made his
own film. Fut never released his film. When he died in 1983, it had never
seen the light of day - for 50 years his story has remained untold - until
now. |
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| "The Kosmos Assignment" is a television
documentary - based on Fut Jensen's footage - currently in production by
Channel 6 Television Denmark for Danmarks Radio TV. This programme tells
the story of the rise and fall of commercial whaling in the Antarctic,
as seen and told by Fut Jensen and a few surviving Norwegian whalers -
with the advantage of the hindsight of history, and the wealth of scientific
knowledge about the marine environment, this production puts the story
of one voyage in its historical perspective. |
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| Follow the links below to discover more
about this exciting story. To Navigate back to this page, click on the
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