Weekly national intelligencer., 1852-09-11
SPEECH OF Mr.. SEWARD,
On tie Whale Fishery, and Americaa Comnerc
in the Pacific Ocean
OF NEW YORK,
Is SENATE OF THE U. STATES, july 30, 1852.

A bill reported by Mr. SEWARD, from the Committee
on Commerce for survey and reconnaissance of Dehr-
ing Straits the Arctic Ocean, and the courses of rade
between America and China being under consideration
Mr.. SEWARD rose and said Mr.. President some
years ago, when ascending the Alabama, saw stag
plunge into the river, and gaantly gain the
bank while the despondng sportsman whose rifle be had
escaped down to his i'll luck under the deep
magnolia forest that shaded the eastern shore You sir
are dweer in that region, and are, all the world
knows gentleman Of cultivated taste and liberal for
times Perhaps, then you may have been that unrtu-
nate hunter Howsoever that may have been, wish to
with you Of the chase and yet not of deer
or hawk or hound, but of chase upon the seas and
still not of angling trolling Of the busy toi Of
those worthy fishermen who seem likely to embro u.s.
certainly without reluctance part controversy
about their rights in the Bay Of Fundy, but of nober
sport and more adventurous sportsmen than Izaak Wal
ton Daniel Boone, even Nimrod, the mightiest
well most ancient Of hunters, dreamed ofthe
chase of the whale his broad range of the universal
ocean.
Do hastily pronounce the subject out of order or
Improbable or unworthy of this high presence The
Phnicans the earliest mercantile nation known to US
enriched themselves by selling the celebrated Tyran dye
and glass made of sand taken from the sea and theyac
qured not only those Of wealth. but the ar of
navigation ITSELF in the practice of their humble calling
as fishermen. thousand years ago, King Alfred was
laying the foundations Of empire for Young Englan as
we are now doing for Young America The monarch
whom justly have surnamea the Wise as well as the
Great did not dsdan to listen Octher who related the
adventures Of voyage along the of Norway so
far north commonly the whale hunters used travel
the stranger suffered to depart until he had sub
mitted to the king most just survey and descripon
OF the Northern seas only they extended upwards
to the North Cape but also they declined downvards
along the southeast coast of Lapand and SO following
the icy beach of Russia to where the river Dwina dis
charged its waters into the White Sea- or it was then
called the Sea of Archange Perhaps my poor speech
may end in similar lesson The incident have re-
is NJ fba A.
subugaton Of the of the to the uses Of man
The fishery was carried then and near six hundred
years afterwards by the Basques Bscayans and Norwe
gians for the food yielded by the tongue and the oil OBJ
tanned from the fat of the animal Whalebone entered
into commerce in the fifteenth century and at first
manded the price of hundred pounds ser
ling ton exceeding value in this age of ten thousand
dollars Those were merry times, if not for science,
least for royalty when although the material for stays
and hoops was taken from the mouth the law appropri
ated the tail of every whale taken by English subject
TO the use of the Queen for the supply Of the royal
wardrobe.
In 1916 the Portuguese reached the Cape Of Storms
and, In happy augury of ultimate passage to India,
changed its il-omened to that of Good Hope -
and Immediately thereafter the Northern States of Europe
especially England and Holland began that series of voy
ages not even yet ended In search of passage to the
East through the floating fields and mountains of ice in
the Arctic Ocean The unsuccessful search disclosed the
refuge OF the whales in the bays and creeks of Sptzber
gen. In 1915 London merchant wrote to foreign cor
respondent Ior auvce and direction to the of
killing the whale, and received instructions how to build
and equip vessel of two hundred TONS and to man it
exclusively with experienced whale hunters of Biscay
The attraction of dominion stronger that age than
The lust OF profit. The English claimed Spitzbergen
and all its surrounding ice and waters by discovery The
Dutch, with TRUTH alleged earlier exploration while
The Danes claimed the whole region part of Green
anda pretenson that could then be dsproved and
Ill these parties sent armed forces upon the fishing ground
to protect their few fishermen than to establish ex
fty yparS hes ua-
ions discovered first that it absurd to claim juris
hcton where no permanent possession could be
aoshed by reason Of the rgors of climates and secondly
that there fish enough and room enough for all com
pettors Thenceforward the whale fishery in the Arctic
Ocean has been free to all nations.
The Dutch perfected the harpoon, the reel the line,
and the spear as well as the art of using them And
established also the system which have since found
of rewardng all the officers and
ployed in the fishery not with direct wages salaries
but with shares in the pos Of the game proporoned to
skill and experience. Combining with these the advan
of favorable position and of frugaity and perse
verance quite proyerbia the Dutch founded fish,
ing settlement called Smeerenburgh the of Spz-
bergen within eleven degrees of the North Pole and they
took whales in its vicinity in such abundance that ships
were needed to 60 in ballast to carry home the
plus oil and bone above the capacity of the whaling
ses The whales thus vigorously attacked again chang
ed their lurking place. Spitzenbergen abandoned
by the fishermen, and the very site of Smeerenburgh
now unknown. In the year 1896 Sebastian Cabot in the
spirit of that age seeking northwestern passage to the
Indies gave to the world the discovery Of Prima VISTA
Or, call it, Newfoundland, and the Basques, Bis
cayans Dutch, and English Immediately thereafter
menced the chase for whales in the waters surround
ing it.
Scarcely had the coonsts Of Massachusetts planted
themselves at Plymouth before the stey of the soil and
the gor Of the climate forced them resort to the
to exc out their subsistence Pursuing the whales out
from their bays in vessels of only forty burden,
they appeared the fishing ground of Newfoundland in
the year 1890 Profting by Of position and
economy in building and equippng ships, and sharing
also in the bountes with which England then stimu
latng the whale fishery they exceed all their rivals
on the Newfoundland waters, well in Bafins Bay
and on the coast Of Greenland Thus encouraged they
ran down the coasts Of America and Africa, and in the
waters rolling between them they discovered the black
whale new and inferior species yet worthy of capture
and then stretching of toward the South Pole they found
snl another species the sperm whale, whose oil is still
preferred above all other and thus they enlarged the
whale fishery for the benefit of the world which since
that time has distinguished the two branches of that
erprse geographically by the designation Of the North
ern and Southern fisheries In 1775 the fisheries
carried on by the Americans the English the Dutch and
the French The French employed only small feet the
Dutch larger one Of l29 sail The English had only 80
ships while the Americans had 1872 vessels in the South
ern fishery and III in the Northern fishery manned with
4OoO persons and bringing in oil and whalebone Of the
Nalue Oh Sl,llOOO This precociousness OF American
nautical enterprise ELECTED from Burke in his great speech
for conciation to the colonies tribute familiar
counrymen and perhaps the most glowing passage that
even that great orator ever wrote spoke:
Look at the in which the people of New England
have Of late carried the whale fishery Whilst follow
them among the tumbling mountains OF ioe and behold
them penetrating into the deepest Of Hudsons Bay
and Dayis Straits whilst looking for them beneath the
Arctic circle we hear that they have pierced the opposite
region Of Polar codthat they are al the Antpodes and
gagged under the frozen serpent Of the South Falkland leland
which seemed too remote and romantic object the GRASP
Of national ambition but stage and resting place in the
progress Of their victorious industry Nor il the equatorial
heat dscouragng them than the accumulated winter
Of both the Poles We know that whilst some OF them draw
the line and strike the harpoon The cons Africa other