Panamanian whale floating factory Olympic Challenger 1943-1975

Drawing made by G.J. Frans Naerebout and published in Op de Lange Deining

IMO 5199442. Completed as the t2-tanker Oregon Trail in 1943 at the Kaiser Company, Swan Island yard, Portland, Oregon, USA with hull number 34 and USMC number 826,. T2-SE-A1 design with as dimensions 523 (over all) x 68 x 30 feet, a gross register tonnage of 10.448 tons and a loaded displacement of 21.880 tons. The horsepower of 6.000 shp allowed a speed of 14,5-16 knots. Cargo capacity 141.200 barrels. Origin was a deadweight of 16.613 tons recorded. Renamed Herman F. Whiton 1949. In 1950 converted into a whaling factory Olympic Challenger with as dimensions 172,4 (over all) metres, a gross register tonnage of 13.019 tons and a deadweight of 16.920 tons. Renamed in Japanese service Kyokuyo Maru II, converted into a oil sludge vessel and renamed Ocean Green 1974 and finally broken up by Korea Iron&Steel Co. Ltd. at Masan 26 December 1975.

She operated as a floating whaling factory processing between 1950-1956 a staggering number of more as 22.000 whales. She was property of the Greek Aristoteles Socrates Onassis and managed the first three seasons by the Erste Deutsche Walfang Gesellschaft, Hamburg, Germany and the last two by Olympic Maritime Agency, Hamburg. In the season 1953-1954 she was not employed. In 1956 was she sold to Japan and renamed Kyokuyo Maru II. The Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf dated 20 April reported her passing Hoek van Holland, Netherlands that morning at 10.30 o’clock underway to Rotterdam, Netherlands to be revised. Another Dutch newspaper Java-bode dated 3 September 1951 reported that a whaling fleet was to leave Kiel, Germany on short notice towards the South Pacific. The Olympic Challenger was even fitted out with a helicopter with floats to search for whales.