Weekly national intelligencer., 1852-09-11

speedily regained The effort was made With ut pro
lection against exclusion in foreign markets. and gains
bounes by the English Government equivalent to fort
dollars per man employed, sixty per cent the VI u
OF every cargo obtained-bountes not occasionally n
irregulary offered but continued from 1850 1924
amounting In the aggregate to three millions Of pounds
sterling Nor was this all. These bountes, enhanced
with additional offered to the Nantucket
hshermen condition Of their abandoning their country
and becoming inhabitants of the adjacent British colonies
or OF the British islands 1t seemed indeed that crisis
in this great national interest had come Happily there
was on the French side Of the channel least
wearled friend Of America there many wachful
enemies Of England Lafayette wrote several letters to
boston, and arrested immigration from Nantucket to
the British colonies and islands already the eve of
barkaton and then addressed himself to the French
monarch and his Court France at the dangers
OF transfer OF great number of seamen together
with the very secret art and mystery Of whale hunting
to her hereditary and relentless enemy The good but i'll
fated Louis XVI equipped six whaling vessels with Ame
rcan harpooners on his account and offered bounty
OF nine dollars per man. payable by the Royal Treasury
to every American fisherman who should emigrate to
France In whole year only nine families containing
persons accepted this offer and therefore
the King, in compliance with Laayettes first advice
adopted the expedient of discriminating in of Ame
rcan cargoes Of oil and whaebone in the French market
The American whale fishery began revive and in 1897
ao ana l1Ss It employed an average Of l22 vessels
But still labored under the pressure Of competition
stimulated by bounties both in England and in France
In 1870 the Great and General Council of Massachusetts,
appealed to Congress for protection to this great interest
State submitted elaborate reply which, while it was
liberal in its spirit nevertheless closed with the declara
ton that the whale fishery branch of industry SO
poor to nothing with distant nations who did
not support it from their treasuries that our position
placed fishing groud somewhat higher such as to
relieve the National Treasury from giving support but
not to permit to derive support from the fishery
relieve the Government from the obligation to provide
free markets for the productions Of the fishery if pos
| sible."
The enterprise had yet langushed into life when
i fhaE Erap ol,t,a 80
Europe and ultimately the United States in wars that
swept the latter well the French and Dutch from
oil the fisheries and left them in the exclusive enjoyment
Of Britain who achieved in those her now establish
ed preemnence the conqueror of the At their
close the British had hundred and forty vessels in
the Northern whaling ground which captured less
than seven hundred and thirty three whales, and thus
obtained of oil and 43S of whalebone and
ffysx ships in the Southern whale fishery equally sue
cessful. The Americans re-entered the game and
the tables speedily, and, think permanently
turned in their favor In 1924 the British became dis
couraged and withdrew their bountes and in 1912 they
had than eighteen vessels in the North fishery
which captured only twentyfour whales The Southern
fishery declined still more rapidly that in 1S45 not
one British whaler appeared in the South Seas Since
that time all nations have virtually abandoned this har-
dy form of perous enterprise" in favor of the Ameri
The entire whaling fleet of the world in IS47 con-
sisted of about nine hundred vessels forty of which
belonged to France twenty Bremen and other ports in
Northern Europe twenty to New Holland and other British
Poynesan colonies and all Others than eight hundred
in number with tonnage 900 tons, belonged to the
United States. The capital thus employed exceeded
twenty millions of dollars and the annual productions of
the fisheries amounted thirteen millions of dollars
With the decline of this enterprise in Great Britain her
commercial writers began to discounenance whale fishing
altogether; and, while they represent it
gambling adventure they endeavor stimulate the peo-
pie Of continental Europe to substitute vegetable oils
those procured in the seas.
Mr.. President pray consider the cost time dangers
and hazard of the whale fishery Each vessel with its
outfit worth thirty thousand dollars and carries thirty
able-bodied seamen and is afoat single voyage
two perhaps three years 1t finds the whale nowhere
below the sxtieth degree of latitude and can remain
there only during the brief polar of three months
The whole time may elapse without q whale being SEEN
When discovered every stage of his capture toisome
and attended with multiplied dangers the assailants
increased by the shoals the ce the storms the fogs
which protect the animal against his pursuers The
mon seamen In isls Of sItythree British sbips sent
TO Davs Straits ten were lost In 1921 Of sixty nine
eleven were lost OF eighty ships that sailed for
vs Straits in 1880 less than eighteen were lost twenty
four returned ean while not of the remainder had
| full cargo, and only one or two hdyfshed
Pray consider now sir that the great triumph Of the
American fishermen was achieved and is still sustained
not only without aid from the Government but practically
also without aid from the capital enterprise Of general
commerce, and indeed quote the language Of
Jefferson, with auxiares but poverty and rigorous
economy" The whaling fleet Of the United States in
1916 consisted Of hundred and vessels
Of the thirty States, only fve-New Hampshire Rhode
Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts,, and New York
were represented ana all OF them except New York
the States least blessed in fertility and climate New
Hampshire having only single port sent out only one
vessel Rhode Island of the three most dimnutive
States, equipped ftytwo Connecticut small State sent
out hundred and twenty -four New York with her ex
tended territory vast wealth. and supendous commercial
establishments, sent only eighty five and all the rest
proceeded from that State inferior many others in
tent wealth, and commerce. but superior to them all in
intellectual and social Observation-Disclosures
| Wealth does nothing patronage does nothing while
ygor does every thing for the whale fishery In Great
Britain London resigned in favor Of those poor and OBJ
solete towns Hull in England and Peterhead in Scot
land, the Government bountes ceased So Of
the eghtyhye vessels which in 1916 represented New
York in the fishery only from the port Of New
York. the commercial capital Of the State and Of the
tinent, while no less than eight proceeded from Cold
Spring, nook in the mountains which crowd to-
ward each other just above the city, If prevent the
waters Of the Hudson from their destined meeting with
the tides of the All the others sent from
New Suffolk Greenport and Sag Harbor inconsiderabe
villages or hamlet the outward coast Of Long Island
Massachusetts, exhibits the Boston finds
lucrative employment for her capital in spindles in rail-
roads, and in her fields ice and quarres Of granite
and leaves the profits and tolls of the whale fishery
Freetown, Falmouth, Sppican, Wareham, Plymouth,
Holiness Hole, Fall River, Provincetown, Fairhaven,
New Bedford and which, but for their
pursuit Of the whale fishery, would scarcely have been
hopored with designation the chart names in the
gazetteer Most wondrous Of ALL Nantucket is sandy
island fifteen miles long and three miles broad capable Of
maintaining by agriculture only hundred persons and
yet the cradle Of the whale fishery and neither
any town in America in England, In France
has successfully established all maintained the
whale fishery, without drawing merely its knowledge
of whale hunting, but the officers and Of its ves-
sells chiefly from that sandy shoa thus rising above the
surface Of the
Need dwell here on the whale fishery as source of
national wealth and element Of national force and