Onassis OLYMPIC CHALLENGER souvenir catalogue - Lardex

Arts and crafts
As house flag, Onassis chose a pennant with a white cross on blue ground (the Greek
colours), with the Greek letter Omega – the initial of his name – on a yellow rhombus in the
cross intersection. On the funnel and house mark this pennant was framed above and beneath
by two curved chains of five interlocked rings in the Olympic colours, programmatic of the
vessel name and the challenge this name would pose to the established whaling nations:
OLYMPIC CHALLENGER. The house mark of Olympic Whaling Company is featured on many
of its give-aways and promotional gifts, but also on officers’ uniform parts and mess room
tableware.
Hunting the largest animal was a thing naturally fascinating a man like Onassis. He liked
whaling, not just the business side, but also the very idea of it. He took friends whaling off
Peru, and the furnishings of the bar on board his private yacht CHRISTINA were the gossip of
the yellow press in his time, for the hand rails of the bar were pairs of sperm whale teeth, and
the bar stools were covered with whale penis skin. The lighters he had made in the form of a
harpoon cannon were men’s toys, reflecting his own fascination with the whale hunt (page 6).
Hunting the largest animal also fascinates the common whalemen. Whalers with an artistic
vein often express their fascination by creating folk art. As with almost all folk art objects,
their works are unsigned. Once the artists, their shipmates, friends and relatives are dead, the
artistic expressions of their creativity will pass into anonymity for good.
In this exhibition, styles and hands can be discerned in the scrimshaw and related whaler folk
art. But in most cases, we have to resort to “Notnamen” (substituted names), for the real
names of their makers have already been lost in the oral transmission of the past half-century.
It is hoped that this exhibition stimulates research among the surviving crewmembers of the
Onassis whaling venture, so that at least some of the artwork can be salvaged from
anonymity.
Some Onassis scrimshander names are recorded, though:
- Richard Ehlers, engine room man on board OLYMPIC ARROW (boat 9) made scrimshaw
penguins.
- Kurt Mahler (* 1925), 1 st flenser on the factoryship, created various kinds of sailor folk
art incorporating whale bone and teeth. Though information is contradictory, he may
possibly be the “Onassis flat-S scrimshander” (see next page).
- Erich Reupke (1922-1999), radio operator on board OLYMPIC LEADER (boat 1) carved
some small pieces in whale bone and tooth.
- Walter Sievers (1912- ca. 2005), from OLYMPIC boats 1 and 6, made penguins and other
Antarctic scrimshaw; in the 1980s he turned to creating more challenging objects – esp.
harpoons and harpoon cannon models – from whale bone and teeth collected in the
1950s (page 15).
- Hans-Günter Worm (* 1918), whale worker on the factoryship, fashioned decorative
objects from whale ivory appealing to the wavey taste of the 1950s (page 12).
Some of these men may also have made scrimshaw work, for which we have to resort to
substitute names.
From the hand of the “Onassis flag painter” at least seven works are known, distinguishable
by flags (Panama, Honduras, Olympic Whaling Co.) and Olympic Rings, which are painted
on whale teeth and baleen slabs. Often, there are also commemorative inscriptions in German
(page 10). One shipmate in possession of one of his works claimed that the “flag painter” was
a steward on board OLYMPIC CHALLENGER.
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