Series MS-0021 - Consolidated Whaling Company records

The Consolidated Whaling Corporation, Ltd. was incorporated by Letters Patent dated April 26, 1918. The authorized capital stock was $2,500,000 divided into 25,000 shares of $100 each. By an agreement dated May 21, 1918, the company agreed to purchase from William Schupp all the property and assets of the Victoria Whaling Company as well as shares owned by Schupp in the American Pacific Whaling Company and the North Pacific Sea Products Company. Schupp was to receive $2,500,000 which he would use to buy stock in the Consolidated Whaling Corporation and to reimburse directors for stock they had already purchased. The company was registered in British Columbia as an extra-provincial company on May 15, 1922 (B.C. Gazette May 18, 1922, p. 1558). Annual reports of the company, listing directors, are on file in the Companies Office from 1922 to 1943; in addition, the Companies Office holds supplementary Letters Patent dated 1923 and 1927 decreasing the capital stock of the company. The annual report for 1943 lists the directors as William Schupp, Bellevue, Washington, President, Corwin S. Shank, Seattle, and H.B. Jones, Seattle, Lawyer. According to a newspaper article by T.W. Patterson, Foreign competition, too much hunting threat to whalers, Victoria Colonist, July 4, 1965, pp. 6-7, the whaling fleet was tied up for the last time in 1942. The company's vessels and office equipment were auctioned off on March 31 and April 1, 1947 (Victoria whaling industry ends..., Victoria Colonist, April 1 1947); the company was dissolved on February 12, 1953 (Companies Office records). According to the Colonist article of April 1, 1947, the company was in bankruptcy at the time of the auction. The Victoria Whaling Company was preceded by three earlier companies: the Pacific Whaling Company, the Queen Charlotte Whaling Company, and Canadian Northern Pacific Fisheries, Ltd., and records of these earlier companies appear in the papers. However, while gazette notices were found for the Pacific Whaling Company (license to an extra-provincial company, B.C. Gazette September 21, 1905, p. 2088) and the Queen Charlotte Whaling Company (notice of incorporation, B.C. Gazette January 6, 1910, p. 157) no gazette notices were found for the Victoria Whaling Company or the Canadian Northern Pacific Fisheries, Ltd. No company records were located for the Pacific Whaling Company or the Queen Charlotte Whaling Company. According to an article in the Colonist, Provincial happenings, February 24, 1910, p. 15, the Queen Charlotte Whaling Company planned to absorb the Pacific Whaling Company. Records include reports, correspondence, certificates and log books.