Table 1 Length of

• Main Authors: K. A. Kermack, Dorsal Muscle-mass, Fin Whales
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1947
• Subjects: Blue whale; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Balaenoptera musculus
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.548.5556; http://jeb.biologists.org/content/25/3/237.full.pdf

Gray (1936), discussing the swimming of the dolphin and porpoise, demonstrates that, for the horse-power developed per lb. of muscle to agree with that expected by analogy with man and the dog, the flow past the body of the animal must be free from turbulence. An attempt is made here to repeat his calculations for Blue and Fin whales {Balaenoptera musculus and B. physalus). This arose out of observations made on these whales by the writer during a recent visit to the Antarctic on the floating factory Empire Victory. The maximum speed of swimming of which these whales are capable can be estimated with considerable accuracy. The whales are hunted by small, fast steam-vessels, known as 'catchers', and one of the favoured methods is for the catcher to come up to the whale and scare it. The whale then makes off at full speed on a straight course, the catcher following full speed ahead. A 14- or 15-knot boat will by this means catch a whale in about an hour. Thus, it may be fairly assumed that the maximum sustained speed, of which one of these whales is capable over this period of time, is approximately 15 knots. Conversations with a number of the whalers tended to confirm this; and also suggested that it was unlikely that the whale, even in its initial burst of speed when chased or harpooned, ever much exceeded 20 knots.*