The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1871-08-12
n she Blows"

Undeterred by the awkward experience of pre-.
Vlous attempts to grapple with the subject of the
departure of the whalers, the Gazette of tbi,
week persists in again quitting its foot into it,
1t intimates its belief that the business of Arctic
whaling will before long have become so unprofi-
table as to be almost entirely abandoned by shin
owners on the Atlantic coast, but yet that it will
still be prosecuted on a small scale by people in
this ocean long after it is given up by New Bed
ford and New London. Now if the old-estab-
lished ship-owners-the '' Nabobs of the cities of
blubber," as the Gazette has elegantly termed
them-with all their experience in the business.
and with all the facilities for outfits and men at
hand, cannot afford to continue the whale-6sberv.
where are we to find the margin on which to op-
crate from the ports of this ocean, where the cost
of vessels and everything pertaining to the bust
ness is dearer, and where men-.sg green hands,
more properly-of the requisite class are not it
is said available? But the truth is, in favor of
San Francisco as a place of resort for the whalers.
that the supplies, purchased and manufactured
cheaply IN the Atlantic ports, can be sent over
land more promptly and at less charge for trans
portation than they can be sent here via the Horn.
and the same remark will apply to the procuring
and transportation of crews. 1t is quite proba-
BILE that the 'Nabobs =" before-mentioned have
taken all these facts into consideration before or
dering their ships to rendezvous at San Fran
cisco, and that they are quite as well posted on
all the pros and cons of the case as the sapient
Gazette.
But by way of a clincher to the arguments in
favor of Honolulu as a cheaper place of call and
discharge for the whalers than it's rival. the
Gazette very ingenuously concludes
1T is almost unnecessary to point out the great
difference IN the price at which crews are paid off
here and that at which they will be paid of in San
1t may have been when a half dozen ships
visited that port they could get the Consular rates
from here at which to pay of, but the moment the
whole beet resort there they will have to paw of at
rates equal to the market price there, and on the full
OF oil and bone landed. If, as we are told,
owners frequently lose by paying of at Consular rates
here, it is evident that their losses there would be "a
great in this respect as to be ruinous.
"These reasons, together with the fact that San
Is a home port, where all the difficulties of
the season can be, and generally are, settled, as some
have found to their very great inconvenience will
make San Francisco an impracticable and extensive
port, and one, in our opinion, at which whalers can
recruit 30 long as the business is carried on from
ports in the East"
Which, being submitted to the process usually
applied to blubber, means, when .. boiled down"
that, acknowledgements from the practice
which has obtained in Honolulu, crews will be
off IN San Francisco at honest and fair rates.
N all that they catch and that if any injustice
las been done or outrage committed on the crew
uring the season, the remedy will there be
'romptly found and applied" Really, the zeal OF Z
ur contemporary hath eaten up his discretion, and
etrayed him into a most unfortunate wav of .
putting things" Well may the masters and Z
wners of whalers exclaim, Save us from our 4
riends =" r