The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1871-08-09

supply. and would consequently return
here. OF course we refer to the whalers,
and we now propose to give some reasons
why We believe that ship-owners at the
home ports will soon be convinced, not
withstanding the facilities they viii have
for shipping oil and bone East from San
Francisco, that it viii be much to
;heir advantage to send their ships here
for recruits-not forgetting at the same
time that a very important consideration
in the whole matter is, whether in the
course of few wears the business in the
North Pacific viii not have become so
improbable as TO be almost entirely aban-
doned by those ship-owners on the At
lantic Coast who have hitherto carried it
on. 1t is probable that whaling in the
Arctic win be prosecuted on 4 small scale
by people in this ocean long after it is
given up from New Bedford and New
London. The class of vessels fitted from
there requires to be large and expensive,
and must be provided with material and
provisions for voyage of several years,
whereas vessels fitted from here may be
much smaller and less expensive, and
only require provisioning for q few
months. 1t has been for many years
an absolute necessity that the utmost
economy should be exercised in the con
duct of voyage in order to make it pay
expenses, and net fair profit to owners,
The same necessity now exists, and among
the most important economies of the
voyage is the ability to procure good
crews, when necessary, on reasonable
terms, and the possibility of settling with
them at the expiration of the voyage at 4
fair rate. 1t has generally been the case
in San Francisco that merchant vessels
have had great difficulty in procuring
crews. In many cases this class of vessels
have resorted-Or runners and shipping
masters have reSorted-to the most Grim
inal measures in order to procure a
sufficient number of men to enable them
to proceed to sea. 1t may be that at the
present time seamen are plenty there, and
that men can be procured with compare
lively little trouble, for merchantmen, but
those who are acquainted with the char
acteristics of sailors know very well that
unless 1t is absolutely necessary, that class
of seamen will not engage on board of
whalers. We have seen in cases where
they have done so, that they have made
disobedient and refractory crews, greatly
endangering the prospects of the voyage
of the vessel in which they have been.
1t may be said that landsmen can be pro-
cured for the crews of whalers as is done
in the East: this may be so though we
doubt it; but grant 1t to be the case, any
one acquainted with the business will see
that to take a crew unaccustomed to the
sea and proceed Immediately to the North,
ii would be extremely difficult to navi-
gate the ship, to say nothing of pursuing
the business of the voyage Landsmen
shipped in New Bedford have, before
they reach the whaling grounds, several
months practice, become Injured to their
business, know what is expected of them,
and become reconciled to the hardships
they have to undergo, whereas the same
class of men shipped in San Francisco
would, at the time they were required to
exert themselves most for the benefit of I
the voyage, be most worthless in every |
respect. Take II on the other hand, the /
seamen to be procured here are Injured /
to the business, it being with majority
of them a trade. They are, the day they |
leave port, as well trained as they viii be
when they return; they are tractable,
and generally as anxious and
Jealous in working for the success of the
voyage as their officers are.
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 VIII be paid off in San Fran
,isco. 1t may have been when a half
lozen ships visited that port they could
get the Consular rates from here at which
o pay of. but the moment the whole
ieet resort there they viii have to pay
IF at rates equal to the market price
here. and on the full amount of oil and
zone landed. If, as we are told, owners
lose by paying off at Consular
ates here, 1t Is evident that their losses
here would be SO great in this respect as
0 be ruinoas
These reasons, together with the fact
hat San Francisco is home port, where
il the difficulties of the season can be,
nd generally are. settled, as some have
ound to their very great inconvenience,
vii make San Francisco an impractieable
nd expensive port, and one, in our
pinion, at which whalers can not recruit
o long as the business is carried on from
or<s In the East
d.