Reijo Simojoki

Reijo Simojoki

Job Description
2nd Mate, Skipper

Period
1958 - 1974

Reijo was born in Finland and went to sea in 1945. He was in the merchant navy on a Swedish ship which sailed from Christmas Island to Albany carrying phosphate. He signed off in Albany and met Billy the Fin (Billy Appel) who worked for the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company, and through him obtained work as Able Seaman, 2nd Mate and later as Skipper.

He was married in Fremantle to an Australian woman and became a naturalized Australian in 1961. Michael and David Simojoki are twins and stepsons of Reijo, both boys eventually worked for the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company in 1971, Michael in meat meal bagging, packing and whale solubles, David as Deckhand on Cheynes III.

Reijo remembers bringing home Humpback whale meat to cook (boil). Meat is very rich and oily. The house would smell like a whaling station. He also remembers a Humpback whale which was shot just near the station – pumped with air- when sharks started to attack it they put holes in it and it sank. The whale was lost and the harpoon.

One time, before a Sperm whale was shot, Reijo noticed it was swimming in an odd way. After it was shot and they tried to tie it to the side of the ship the tail fell off. There was a long line rope from a tuna boat which had wrapped around the whale’s tail. The whale was dying because the rope had cut right into the tail.

Another incident on Kos VII, the harpoon was fired; the grenade exploded and a piece of shrapnel flew back and went through the funnel. The ship had to have a new funnel fitted. This was done in Albany at the wharf.

Sometimes if it was too rough to chase whales the ships didn’t go out for weeks at a time. This time was used for maintenance on the chasers and for splicing rope. No one was put off work.

Bunker fuel was piped from chasers through pipes on a cement block just outside the station.