Gibbie began his career cooking and serving meals for the crew and cleaning the boat as a mess boy in the late 1950s.
As the only non-smoker, he would also be sent above deck to steer at night while shipmates stayed below to play cards for cigarettes.
He remembered the conditions on board being hard, but said there was a sense of “camaraderie” among the crew.
“The catchers were wonderful boats and came through a lot of heavy weather, but you never walked along the aft end along the main deck, you had to go via the lifeboat deck because the main deck was awash most of the time,” he said.
“When you were in bed, you were not far from where the gun platform was. You were about a foot-and-a-half from where the sea was. You could hear it rushing by.
“And it was daylight right round the clock. If you were among whales, then you kept going, you never stopped. It was right around the clock until the whales had disappeared.”