New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1856-02-18
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Among the many diversified interests of our co

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Among the many diversified interests of our coull-
try which include indeed almost all that are of use
or profit elsewherein the actual sense of the word
use-there are very few that in quiet and unostenta
tious but nevertheless effective manner surpass that
whose field of operations is the frozen sea- and whose
home is where the eternal icebergs pile themselves,
like Peion upon Ossa, to pierce the heavens In those
regions where the sun makes but long day in the
year, embracing months instead of hours, and gives
over all the rest to night and darkness the venture
some voyager finds harvest richer than any of the
fertile praries of the West or the broad fields of the
South finds great field to which no title deeds are
needful, beyond personal hardihood and unhnching
courage, and from which may be CLEANED surer
wealth than what is harvested out of the mines Of Cal
ifornia; finds great fortunes in flnback whales and
competence in their greasy blubber.
The courage and skill which is prerequisite and
necessity to those abors that lie in the shadow of the
poles-in either the Arctic or Antarctic oceanshave
nowhere 50 full and complete d life as in our own
country; and of those who plunge with pleasure into
their many dangers and hazards there are none like
that class of men who nursed near Nantucket,
New Bedford, and so forth on their long voyages
like a lady making call upon some near and dear
friend. From childhood up their education is watery.
They know Neptune in all his reaks-angry and pleas
ant-washing the sandy beach with curling wavelet ;
leapng towards the sky with many whitened crest ;
in action, at rest in sport, at war They know him
and bride him, as the mariners Of no other lands
can do.
Among the many papers published in this country,
devoted to almost every interest appertainng to it,
there is no one more curious than that at New Bed
ford, Mass, called the "halemen's Shipping List"
which gives the statistics of commerce in this especial
field, and enlightens us, who live the equator,
of what our brethren are doing around the pole.
From recent number We gather some information,
which, as it is novel to u.s. may prove to read
ers, and may give them an inkling of business con
corning which they have hardly dreamed. It gives,
too, an additional evidence of that energy, zeal and
activity which crowns our people with aurels, greener
than all the titles spangles and decorations, that any
royalty can bestow.
The journal to which we refer gives the number of
American vessels which entered that port for 1856,
from foreign ports as hundred and fortynne and
the number of foreign vessels in the same period of
time, nineteen; making total of one hundred and
sixtyeight. Of this number sixtyfour were engaged
in foreign trade, and all the rest-one hundred and
four-saed under the stars and stripes, chasing the
behemoth of the deep and reddening the cold waves
of the north sea with his blood.
Some idea of the extent of the business may be
gathered from the fact that the amount of duties re-
ceived on merchandise imported to that place, in
DISTINGUISHING principally of such articles as are
useful for the pursuit of the whale amounted
to $7s7s. The value of the sperm oil entered reached
as high as $3005 ,971 the value of the whale oil was
405 4S, and the value of Whaebone was $649 ITO
making grand total of the harvest, from amid the
icebergs of the polereaped by American enterprise
and American tars in American bottoms-no less than
six Millions sixty thousand eight hundred and eighty
nine dollars! In this there is for boast
ing-sone reason for pride! It is victory where
manliness, courage and Skill are the essential pre-
requisites for any whatever; it is peaceful
triumph Of commerce, more credtable and prof
table than all those empty laurels of war; for which
fierce and costly contest is waged by the nations of
the old world. We may add that the whole number
projections granted, from this single port to Amer
lean seamen during the year, were 2,272.
1t is sometimes sneeringly asked, when the preten
sons of this country to being first rate power,
under discussion-"W is your navy? How can a
country whose war-ships are surpassed four-fod by
those Of England alone, lay claim to the rank which
is challenged by the United states?" A partial
answer lies in the figures have given. A nations
naval strength does not consist alone in the number of
vessels she may have rottng in her DOCKS but in
the number and character of the sailors she has with
which to man them. Here is the power of America !;
that from her merchant marine she could tomorrow,
man every war vessel the world holds, and so man
them that they would be excelled by no other force
of an equal size which the world holds. Paul jones'
would spring up like the armed warriors from those
teeth sown by Cadmus, and challenge the world to
arms would meet the worlds navy on equal terms.
In this lies American strength and every figure that
goes to show its increase is gaddenng to the heart of
patriotism May the day be far distant when those
who now fight the whale and defy the poles shall be
called to fight their felowmen; may the career of
our peaceful prosperity flow on in quiet and unin-
terrupted stream but should the day arrive when an
appeal to is needful, where is the country that
could successfully encounter the thousands of brave
mariners whose education was gathered amid the poles
and the icebergs, fighting the whale and the north
wind?