The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-03-26
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
THURSDAY, r 25.


Few of our readers are perhaps aware of the ex-
tent that the North Pacific whaling feet has de-
creased. In the fall of 1852; 275 whale ships arrived
at these islands. Each year since the number has
been decreasing, till last fall Q856) the number of
whalers touching at the islands amounted to only $50
But large as is the above decrease, the number OF
whalers visiting the North Pacific this season, to
recruit at our islands during the fall. will be smaller
than for fifteen years past. As near as we can now
ascertain, the number will not exceed $50 vessels, a
list of which we are preparing, and will publish as
soon as completed.
This great decrease is not owing in any degree
to a falling off in the productiveness of the North
Pacific whaling grounds. They still remain the most
lucrative grounds known. The chief cause which has
led to a withdrawal of the fleet, has been the very
high price of sperm oil, the demand for which con-
tinued to near the close of 1856, so far beyond all
precedent as to induce the owners of whale ships that
formerly cruised in our northern seas, to send their
vessels sperm whaling only, and the number of YES
sells now in the sperm fishery is larger than for any
year since 1850.
The annual visits of whaleships have heretofore
been considered a main reliance of the business of our
principal ports. and the withdrawal of them must be
seriously felt, unless we can find some other purchasers
of the produce of our labor. The American whaling
feet have left here annually in payment of provisions,
outfits, repairs, &C., over half a million of dollars.
Although perhaps they are the best customers we have
had, yet it matters not a great deal whether whale
men or California or other countries take away and
pay for our-surplus produce. But this must not be
forgotten, that if the whalemen decrease or leave us,
foreign countries will not take what we have been
supplying to the former: we must produce Tor the
latter what they want, and are continually calling
for. They want our sugar, molasses, Coffee WOOL,
cotton, hides to an indefinite amount, far beyond our
ability to supply them. If California and Oregon are
ready to purchase from us five hundred thousand dol
lars worth of the above staples, which can and ought
to be raised here to q far greater extent than is now
done, the attention of our producers should be turned
more to producing them than the perishable supplies
now furnished to whalers, and it will matter but very
little in the end if our customers are changed, though
at first the change may be felt. An entire Withdrawal
of the whaling feet (Which, however, is quite i'm
probable) could not then be felt to any great extent,
for our staple productions would have a permanent
and increasing demand, while that created by the
wants of the whalers is fuctuating and uncertain,
the amount taken by them depending in a measure
on the success of their cruises.
But it is not only by changing the character of our
agricultural products or supplies to meet the wants
of o change OF customers that q remedy IS TO DeIOunO
and the business prosperity of the kingdom to be in
sured. We must commence and carry on the whale
fishery on our own account and for our own benefit.
For this business we possess facilities, equalled by
those of no port in the world. 1t is true that the old
whaling ports of New Bedford, Nantucket and New
London have built up for themselves colossal wealth
with which to prosecute the whale; fishery but our
port, though only commencing in the same branch OF
trade on her own account, has a great advantage in
| being placed in the middle of the cruising grounds.
Our capital is limited, and our merchants cannot and
should not withdraw hastily from other branches Of
trade to embark in this. But a beginning has been
made in the sure way, and we hope that as Eastern
ports withdraw their whalers from the North Pacific
to place them in the sperm fishery, our own merchants
will step in and occupy the field.
In our issue of Dec. Is, we alluded to this subject.
and gave a list of thirteen vessels owned at the islands
that had been engaged in the whale fishery during
1856, two of which were lost in the ice. We now
give a list of the whalers owned and fitted out here
for the year 1857: