The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-04 00:00:00

THE NEW DAVIS STRAITS' FISHERY.

The successful voyage of the Lady Franklin promises
to introduce a new era in the history of our Davis Straits'
whale fishery. Captain Penny has shown how the
whales of the Arctic regions may be followed up, and
the treasures of the frozen ocean turned to good account.
And this discovery is no less opportune than it is impor-
tant. The oleaginous products of Russia are not legiti-
mately at command, and this stoppage of our usual sup-
plies of oils and other fatty substances has come on us
at a time when science and art, in their endless variety
of applications, have made them more than ever neces-
sary for manufacturing and commercial purposes, both
on sea and land. Add to this, the failure, year after
year, in the ordinary fisheries f Davis Straits, and to
some extent also in the South Seas, and the value of the
new enterprise becomes strikingly apparent.
In these circumstances, it is our purpose to set before
our readers as full a statement of the facts of the enter-
prise as can well be obtained, and to urge the commer-
cial world to give them a careful consideration.
So far back as the year 1839, Captain Penny published
his views on the subject of a resident whale fishery in
Davis Straits. In the ordinary pursuit of his calling, as
commander of one of the Aberdeen whalers, he came to
learn from his intercourse with the Esquimaux on the
west land, that a large number of whales sought the
bays and inlets for shelter during the winter season.
From one tribe in particular he gathered such informa-
tion as enabled him to draw out a chart of one of their
most common resorts, and, on his return, he brought
with him an intelligent Esquimaux, with the view of
having him educated and employed as a pilot in the fol-
lowing season. His owners, however, did not sympa-
thise with his project so heartily as he had expected, and
hence, although he was able to fish to some advantage
in the new Strait, he was not permitted to push the en-
terprise beyond a safe distance, lest he should get his
ship fixed in the ice for the winter.
Captain Penny's subsequent connexion with Captain
Austin's expedition in search of Sir John Franklin in-
terrupted his labours in the direction of a new fishery ;
but on his return to England he resumed them, and
projected a company with a capital of 100,0001., to
carry out his views. He proposed to get a charter, like
that of the Hudson Bay Company, and to establish
fishings at various points along the shores of the best
land, near the haunts of the whale. The application for
a charter was successfully opposed, on the ground that
it would interfere with the claims of private enterprise.
Meanwhile, two vessels were fitted out at Hull for a
winter residence and spring fishery in the newly disco-
vered Strait, but the project was rashly undertaken and
failed. Capt. Penny, however, succeeded in getting his
company formed as a private enterprise, to an extent
which enabled him to purchase the two vessels with
which he had been engaged in the Arctic search, and
to fit them up with tanks and apparatus suitable for a
fishery in autumn and spring. He had iron tanks made
to fit the vessels, and so arranged that the oil, when
boiled, could be conveyed by gutta percha and other pipes
to every tank in the hold. He had also a supply of
coals and good boilers, it being his intention to boil the
oil on land in his winter quarters. The ships were also
fully provisioned, the store being of the best description,
and such as from large experience had been found con-
ducive to health and comfort in the Arctic regions.
Thus equipped the two vessels, manned by 33 men
and three boys, left Aberdeen on the 13th of August last
year. The weather was stormy when they reached the
Danish settlement of Lechterfells, which prevented
Captain Penny from getting one of Moravian Mis-
sionaries whom he meant to engage for the spiritual
benefit of the Esquimaux lie proposed to employ in the
work of the fishery. On the 17th of September the
ships reached New Aktelek. Here they found abun-
dance of whales, and set to work to kill at once,
notwithstanding the ice would not permit of getting
the ships forward to winter-quarters. From the 20th
of September until the Ist of November, they killed 10
large whales, and were obliged to stow them away chiefly
on the decks of the vessels, as they best could manage.
On the deck of the Lady Franklin there were four and
a half whales, besidefi the bone of all the whales killed.
On the 3d of November Captain Penny got to the
shelter of art inland in Hogarth's Sound, which he had
chosen as winter quarters. Here he found the remains
of a boiling-house, which had been erected by the
Hull Company, but which had been dismantled by
some American whalers who bad been disappointed
in their expectations. He rebuilt the place, and located
there 30, out of 50 Esquimax, he had engaged at Aktelek
to assist in the spring fishery, the remaining 20 being
located nearer to the fishing grounds. Having
snugged the ships, and seen the Esquimaux comfort-
ably settled in their snow huts, the process of boiling
the oil was carried on during the winter months, and it
was most successful. The glass was at times 40 degrees
below zero while they were engaged at this work, yet
none of them were injured, and all of them enjoyed the
best of health. The active duties in which they were
employed kept them always hearty, and no one felt the
time to linger on his hand. During the week they were
thus at work, and on Sunday they had rest and religious
service the same as at home. In the course of the win-
ter they boiled 165 boilers full of oil.

But -a
season of great alarm was now experienced. The
cholera, which had made its appearance in the south of the
inlet, now made a complete circuit of the island, and was
awfully fatal. It began among Captain Penny's Esqui-
maux with one of the chiefs. Stimulants were ad-
ministered by Captain Penny and the surgeon of the
Lady Franklin, but without effect. The chief died, and
seven others, includingbis brother, his mother, his wife,
and children, all fell victims to the scourge. The sani-
tary state of the patients was most deplorable. Every-
thing was done which could be done by Captain Penny
and his men to save the poor creatures, but they died
almost like sheep in the rot. To get into one tent, Cap-
tain Penny had to cut an entrance on the wind side,
and on carrying out the bodies to bury them, •he found
a child of three years old yet alive, and clinging to
the dead body of its grandmother. He took the child
away, and had it cared for until it got better, and it is
now in the Sophia at the fishing ground. From hut to hut
the pestilence spread, the living flying from the dead
without any compunction of feeling, husbands leaving
their wives, parents their children, and children their
parents, to perish. All this time Captain Penny and
his crew were unceasing in their endeavours to check
the disease, and while they were at length successful, it
was their happiness to realise a perfect immunity from
the scourge themselves. Diarrhcea, in some cases, ap-
peared, but, by the timely application of proper medi-
cine, the disease was checked. All the bodies were buried
on the land or in the sea, by letting them down through
the ice ; and by spring time all was well.
The preparations for the spring fishing being made,
Captain Penny found that whales were plentiful be-
yond the edge of the ice, but the distance being above
twenty miles from the ship, his men were at first un-
willing to enter on the fishery. They were at length
induced to undertake it, and the Esquimaux were all
in readiness to carry the blubber over the ice in their
sledges to the boiling-house on the island. The fish-
ing then commenced, and 17 whales were killed and
sledged in this way ; the Esquimaux with their dogs
were indefatigable ; they travelled over the ice with
nearly 50 sledges, a distance on the whole (counting the
drive out and in from the boats to the ship nearly 50
miles) of 14,000 miles l

,
Having thus killed as many whales as the Lady
Franklin could boil, Captain Penny left for Aberdeen,
intrusting the remainder of the fishing to the captain
and crew of the Sophia. He is about to return imme-
diately, and intends to pursue the same course during
the next winter and spring. He is of opinion that,
with a large commercial company, the fishery could be
prosecuted along an extensive coast line, and with
great advantage, one or two ships being appointed to
different whale haunts or bays; with boiling apparatus on
land ; but he fears that, if a number of ships run to Ho-
garth's Sound and fish where he was fishing, they may
drive the whales off, and thus damage a fishing which
would be most profitable to a few ships quietly working
out. There were, it seems, two small American ships
at the same fishing as Captain Penny, one of which was
full ; but had Captain Penny not been fully provided
with all the apparatus we have described, he would not
have succeeded so well.
No traces of Franklin were found in this latitude.
The natives told Captain Penny of a supply of provisions
which had been left at Navy Board Inlet, but none of
the expedition of Sir Edward Belcher had been met with.
Captain Penny, however, still holds to the belief that
there is a milder climate and a polar basin yet to be dis-
covered. He mentions that in 1850, when at Baillie
Hamilton's Island, in lat. 76.2, he found the saxifrage
in the flower ; while, on the 29th of the same
frainodi tontfigh4 winer!.o
Abundancedegreesfurtnhfedreseoruatnha, iottwhears onlywild
. animalscoming
were met with last winter, but vegetation was m
a very
low state. The weather during winter was unusually
severe, and this leads Captain Penny to hope that the
ice might be broken up in higher latitudes, and facilitate
the work of the expeditions.

[ADVERTISEMENT.]—HoIIoway's Ointment and Pills
surpass all other remedies for the cure of sores, blotches,
—''''----
and bad legs. Mr. Liddell, druggist, of Norwich, states,
1852, that a
Bsoarte was suffering Bd;eadfully from
mina an letter
named to
Kaye Pro fe s
bad legs ; they were covered, from e nee to the ancle,
with sores and proud flesh, interspersed with, red and
white blotches. He recommended Holloway's Pills and
Ointment, which produced a most extraordinarywa result,d
for in less than three weeks the sores were . heae
he walked about with ease and comfort. His legshealed,
now perfectly sound and well, and his bodily health much
improved. Sold by all druggists, and at Professor Hol.
loiray'o gstabliohments 2i4, Strand, lOU*.