The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1873-04-17
The Last Ship.

We read with about the same emotion
rs Of the engulfing of city by an earth
quake, or Of the overflowing of a kingdom
by armies, that the last whaling ship Of
Nantucket has been disposed of and that its
oleaginous fame is therefore now only a
thing of the past. Yet thirty years ago a
hundred brave ships manned by many
hundreds OF the most skilful and intrepid
seamen that ever trod Il deck or were
crooked in the cradle of the deep" Who
that has ever read COopcr's sea tales, but
can imagine Long Tom Coffin rising in
his watery shroud, and denouncing the
decentralization of the age2 And who
can imagine the seagirt isle, whose broad
brimmed shippers could dart harpoon
as a duelist snutfs q candle, and whose
very maidens could become enthusiastic
over the tales OF the great cetacean wars,
subsding into a humdrum ocean resort
for mere pleasure-seekers? And yet to
this complexion has it come at last The
glory Of llium is gone-there is no more
occupation for its EIectors, the Coffins of
a later age. Ocean has encroached upon
the land over vast areas, and now the
land letorts in some sort with petroleum
the rocks and not the waves, shall yield
Us light and fabrication, and therefore
what further need of ye ancient mariners
Of NantHcket's sea-girt shoresp
But the event should not occur with
only passing notice. 1t is an incident of
national interest, and far less noticeable
events have formed the theme of the poet
and historian. The history of Nantucket
and its whalemen dates back into the old
colonial times. when in sharp row-boats
alone its sturdy mariners pursued the
whale in the Atlantic, until by slow but
steady progression, like the ancient Ar
gonauts, they extended their voyages be-
yond their own shores, and reached even
the ''Spauish main.' In this hardy school
were trained the seamen who did so much
with little means in the great struggle of
the revolution; and in the war of 1912,
with our 'fir-built frigates," swept almost
like chaff before them the oak-ribbed ships
of England; and in the rebellion, they
formed an important element in the valor
that gave tame to Farragut and other
names. But when peace prevailed, their
adventures and conquests were no less
remarkable. No ocean. no strait, no gulf
or bay, under all Gods sunlight, where
whale could enter or man pursue, that
white sails WED with Arctic and Antarctic
ice and snow, or glistened in the hot glare
of the tropics. They discovered islands
and people unknown before to christen-
dom; they made charts of unknown seas,
by which ordinary commerce is now safe
ly pursued; and enriched our knowledge
in geography, and in many other subjects,
in degree beyond the worlds general
recognition. And in their occupation
they were the first. English, French,
Germans and the hardy seamen of the far
northern seas, often entered into competi-
ton with them on the fields of their ex-
poits, but were so uniformly beaten that
such rivalry was extinguished, and our
whalemen were recognized as the proper
lords of those domains where whale
could 'spout," and then yield its "blub-
ber'' to Nantucket harpoon. Their fame
was worldwide, and we feel sure will
not prove to be evaneScent. Their rocky
island will be levered by our people as
much as the rock at Plymouth is by the
purtans.
The cause of their decadence is not
alone the competition of petroleum. In
the rebellion, the cowardly miscreant
Slmmes signilied his valor rs an cad
mraf' by destroying large numbers of
the defenceless ships, and for the period
of the war ruined the business; and two
or three years ago some fifty or more
ships were wrecked in the Arctic ocean by
the early closing in of winter The in
terest has never recovered from these
blows. There are still few Whaleships
sailing from New Bedford and other ports :;
but we fear the glory and romance of the
whalefishery sailed with the last ship from
Nantucket. Fayetteville, N. Y, Recorder
For three hours did Mr. Nathan Hosier,
OF Daviess county, Ind, stand out by the
fence and rave, and cuss, and tear his
hair, and dare his wife to come out doors
all this with the chill winds of March
whring up his trousers legs Hosier was
milk peddler and had just sold his farm
and was going West into some we'll
watered region to grow up with his COWS.
tie had slowed away his last years earn.
ings, amounting to $500, in a parlor stove
that had not been used for some time.
While tearing up" the carpet preparatory
to moving, Mrs. Hosier started fire in
the parlor, and before she thought of the
money it was entirely destroyed At last
accounts her husband had eloped with the
town pump, and the injured wife says let
the guilty couple go.
The wasp with a yellow hustle is no
insignificant agent in dispensing q crowd,
but nervous woman making through a
crowd for the cars with valise in one
hand and an umbrella in the other is
about as appalling an object as the human