In windswept Wellington (pop. 122,400), the seaport capital of New Zealand, mothers hurried their daughters off the streets, hotels and pubs increased their liquor stocks, restaurants and roadhouses and easy women prepared for stirring times. Steaming into port was the factory ship, Slava, and a fleet of 25 whalers. Aboard were 1,060 officers and men, back from eight months of solitude and hard work in the Antarctic with a catch of 14,000 whales and just over $160,000 in spending money. Wellingtonians nervously awaited the first landing party.
But the whaling crew were...
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