This 1946 photograph shows fishermen loading barrels of shark oil extracted from basking sharks caught off the Western Isles, Scotland. The barrels used by the whale industry a century earlier would have been essentially similar.

Ex-Scots Guards Major Gavin Maxwell purchased the small island of Soay to build a shark factory and also owned the boat used for hunting, 'The Snow Leopard'. His crew of seven launched the vessel when a shark was sighted and used a harpoon gun, specially designed by Maxwell, to kill the fish before it was hauled ashore. A basking shark produced 160 gallons of oil worth £90 a barrel; the flesh was salted and exported and the skin sold too.

Gavin Maxwell went on to become a celebrated writer. His works include 'Ring of Bright Water', the story of adopted otters.

©SCRAN/Hulton Getty
Fishermen loading barrels of shark oil