The raider was Pinguin, and both the factories and the hunters were sent to Brest.
The whale factories were used as Tankers, while the boats were used as ASW escorts, either as Vorpostenboote (suffix VP) or as Ubootjäger (UJ).
One of these boats is still preserved in Bremerhaven
http://www.janmaat.de/rau.htm Rau IX served as UJ 1212 with the 12th ASW flottilla. Note the high number which simply means "12th ship of the 12th Flottilla".
The first german whale factory, "Jan Wellem", a converted freighter, was used as a refueller for the ill fated Narvik expedition and burnt out after hits from RN warships.
However, german whaling was restricted to two expeditions in the winters of 36/37 and 37/38 which accounted for about a third of the whales killed in these years.
Whaling was deemed necessary as germany was actually the prime importer of whale oil, which cost foreign currency (which the 3rd Reich was notoriously short of). Before 1933, the risk was essentially too high for german companies to invest in whaling, but after 1933 it was highly subsidized by the state.
After 1945 germany tried to take up whaling again, but that was blocked by the Norwegians.