Unitas
1937
(Mercator M-491)
- Type: Whale oil factory ship
- Displacement: 21,846 tons
- Dimensions: 602 x 80 x 49 ft.
- Machinery: Steam reciprocating, exhaust turbine, twin screw = 12 knots
- Builder: Deutsche Schiffs-und Maschinebau A.G. Weser, Bremen, Germany, 1937
- Service: Owned by Jurgens van den Bergh Margarine-Verkaufs Union GmbH, a member of the Unilever group. Operated by Unitas Deutsche Walfang GmbH in Hamburg. Built as a sister ship to Terje Viken, but with an extra shelter-deck, giving her more tonnage. Her eight whale catchers were copies of the Smith's Dock Co's Southern Star. Her first season 1937-38, a total of 1,715 whales were caught, yielding 20,000 tons of whale oil. The 1939-40 season was cancelled by the outbreak of World War II. Postwar taken as reparations by Britain and renamed Empire Victory and operated for the Ministry of Food in the 1945-46 season. Afterwards sold to the Union Whaling Co in Durban. Name changed to Abraham Larsen in 1950. Sold in 1957 to Taiyo Gyogyo KK of Japan and renamed Nisshin Maru II. Her last whaling season was 1964-65 in the Antarctic, after which she was converted to a floating fish-processing factory in 1967.
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