The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-07-30

dain to listen to Octber who related the adventures
ola voyage along the coast Of Norway $50 far North
"a commonly the whale-hunt ere used to travel"
nor was the stranger suffered to depart until he
had submitted to the King ga most just eur
vey and description" of the Northern Seas. not
only as they extended upwards 10 the North
Cape, but also as they declined downwards
along the southeast coast of Lapland, and 80
the icy beach of Russia to where the
river Dwina discharged its waters into the White
Sea, or, as 1t was then called, the Sea of Archangel
Perhaps my poor speech may end In some similar
lesson. The incident have related 10 the burden
Of the earliest historical notice of the subjugaton
OF the monster Of the seas to the OF man. The
fshery was carried on then, and near six hundred
years afterwards, by the Basqucs, Biscayans, and
Norwegians, for the food yielded by the tongue,
and the oil obtained from the fat of the animal
Whaebonc entered into commerce in the fifteenth
century, and at first commanded the enormous
price OF seven hundred pounds sterling per ton,
exceeding value in this age of ten thousand dol
lars. Those were merry times, il not for science.
at least for royalty, when, although the material
for stays and hoops were taken from the mouth, the
law appropriated the tail OF every whale taken by
an English subject to the OF the Queen, for the
supply of the royal wardrobe.
In 1856 the Portuguese reached the Cape Of
Storms, and. in happy augury Of an ultimate pas
sage to India, changed it's ill-omened name to
that OF "Good Hopes" and Immediately thereafter
tho Northern States of Europe, especially England
and Holland, began that series of voyages 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 dis
closed the refuge Of the whales in the bays and
creeks Of Spitzbergen In 1916 London mer-
chant wrote TO foreign correspondent for advice
and direc ton as to the course OF killing the whale,
and received instructions how to build and equipa
vessel of two hundred tons, and to man it exclu-
sively with experienced whale. hunters of Biscay.
The attraction of dominion was stronger in that
age than the lust Of profit. The English now
claimed Spitzbergen, and all it's surrounding ice
and waters, by discovery. The Dutch, with truth,
alleged an earlier exploration, while the Danes
claimed the whole region part of Greenland,
pretcnsion that could not then be disproved; and
oil these parties sent armed forces upon the fishing
ground, lees to protect their few fishermen. than
to establish exclusive rights there. After some
fifty years, these nations discovered fret that it
was absurd to claim jurisdiction where no perma-
nent possession could ever be established, by
son OF the rigors of climate; and secondly, that
there were fish enough and room enough Tor all
competitors. Thencefurward, 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 we'll as the art OF using
them. And they established also the system which
we have since found Indispensable, OF rewarding
all the officers and crews employed in the fishery.
not with direct wages or salaries, but with shares
in the spoils Of the game, proportioned to skill
and experience. Combining with these the ad-
vantages Of favorable position, and of frugality
and perseverance quite proverbia'. the Dutch even
founded fishing settlement called Smcerenburgh,
on the coast of Spizbergen, within eleven degrees
of the North Pole, and they took whales in its vi.
cinity in such abundance that ships were needed
to go out in ballast to carry home the surplus oil
and bone above the capacity of the whaling yes.
sells. The whales, thus originally attacked, again
changed their lurking place. spitzbergen was
abandoned by the fishermen, and the very site of
Smeerenburgh is 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, as we call
il, Newfoundland, and the Basques, Biscayans,
Dutch, and English, Immediately thereafter COM
menced the chase for whales in the waters sur
rounding it. -..su.,t .
Scarcely bad the colonists OF Massachusetts,
planted themselves at Plymouth, before the sterili-
~ OF the soil and the rigor of the climate forced
them to resort to the to exc out their subsist-
encc. Pursuing the whales out from their own
bays, in vessels OF only forty tons burden, they
appeared on the fishing ground off Newfoundland
in the year 1880. Protling by of position
and economy in building and equipping ships,
and sharing also in the bounties with which Eng
soon exceled all their rivals on the Newfoundland
waters, as well as in Batins Bay and off the
coast OF Greenland. Thus encouraged they ran
down the coasts of America aud Africa, and in
the waters rolling between them they discover
ed the black whale, a new and inferior species,
yet worthy Of capture; and then stretching off
toward the South Pole, they found still another
species, the sperm whale, whose oil is still pre-
ferred 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 enterprise geographically by the designa-
ton OF the Northern and Southern fisheries. In
l775 the fisheries were carried by the Ameri.
cans. the English, tho Dutch, and the French.
The French employed only a email fleet, the Dutch
a larger one of 1873 SAIL The English had only SO
ships, while the Americana had 1872 vessels in the
Southern fishery, and lit in the Northern fishery,
manned with 1000 persons, and bringing in oil
and whalebone of the value Of one million one hun
dred and eleven thousand dollars, This precoc-
ousncss OF American naval enterprise ELECTED from
Ia H.
colonies, tribute familiar to countrymen, and
perhaps the mcst glowing passage that even that
great orator ever wrote spake:
"Look at the manner in which the people Of New
Whilst we follow them among the tumbling noun.
tains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the
deepest recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davs's
Straits, whilst we are looking for them beneath
the Arctic circle, We hear that tbcy have pierced
into the opposite region of Polar cold-thnt they
are at the Antipodes, and engaged under the
frozen serpent OF the South. Falkland Island,
" hich seemed too remote and roma tic an object
for the grasp Of national ambition, 10 but a stage
and resting place in the progress of their victori
pus industry. Nor is the Equatorial heat more
discouraging to them than the accumulated win
ter OF both the Poles. We know that whilst some
OF them draw the line and strike the harpoon on
the coast Of Africa, others run the longitude,
and pursue their gigantic game along the coast Of
Brazil, No ocean but what ia vexed with their
fisheries, no climate that is not witness to their
The activity of France, nor the dexterous and firm
sagacity Of English enterprise, ever carried this
pcrious mode OF hardy enterprise to the extent to
which it has been pushed by this recent people,
people who are stll, as it were in the gristle, and
not yet hardened into the bone OF manhood"
But Britain did not conciliate. The Revolution
vent on, and the American whale fishery persisted,
eaving not one vessel on either fishing ground.
Yet it is curious, Mr.. President, to mark the
elasticity Of our countrymen in this their favorte
enterprise. A provisional treaty of peace between
he United States and Great Britain was concluded
IN the Both OF November. 1852, On the Sd of
February, 1885," Il read from an English paper
# that Period,) /" the ship Bedford Capt. Moores,
to Massachusetts, arrived in the Downs.
She passed Gravesend on the 4th, and on the 9th
vas reported at the custom house in London. She
vas not allowed regular entry until after some
between the commissioners of customs
md the Lords of the Council, on account of the
many acts of Parliament yet in force against the
ebcis Of America. She was loaded with 5S7 barrels
# whale oil, and manned wholly with American
eamcn, and belonged to the island Of Nantucket
The vessel lay at the Horsley Downs, little below
he Tower, and was the first which displayed the
hiItecn stripes Of America in any British port
Nevertheless, the lost vantage ground not
asly nor speedily regnined The effort was made
gainst protection, against exclusion in foreign
markets, and against bountics by the En- glsh go.
eminent equivalent to forty dollars per man EN-