The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1879-09-06

The Fishing Fleet of New RedtOrd.-
The Industry and its " alue.

The Fishing Fleet of New Redford.--
The Industry and its " alue. 4
Dealers in whalebone and oil are
awaiting with much interest the arrival
in San Francisco of the Arctic trader Gen
eral Harvey, looked for within ten days.
This vessel was despatched from the
Golden Gate in May last with stores to
the twenty whalers cruising in the nor
thern waters, and to bring back their
seasons catch of oil and bone. Seven
teen of the feet are New Bedford vessels
the other three are from San Francisco
80 that the General Harney's arrival
has something of local interest. Just
now there are fifteen whalers at the
wharves of New Bedford, and should the
news from the Arctic be that small
catch had been taken, these idle whalers
will probably all be dismantled and laid
up until early next spring, when, if the
markets improve, they will be fitted out
for the usual three years cruise. There
are at present 1876 vessels all told engag-
ed in whale fishery, against 66s in 1854.
New Bedford continues to lead in the
business. Counting the ten Scotch
steam whalers now at work in Bafin's
Bay, not more then Is are from seaports
outside of New Bedford. It may be in
teresting to recall that when the bust
ness was at its height, in 1854, New Bed
ford fitted out 419, Nantucket II, Pro-
vincetown 27, Fairhaven 40, and New
London IS. The previous year the re-
ceipts of bone were 5,652,30 pounds
against 2O7, 259 in 1878, the prices rang
ing in 1858 from 81 to 40 cents, against
$3.50 to $500 the present season. The
receipts of oil were, in 1854, 2O8,OO0,
barrels, against 40, 900 in 1873. In this
year OF heavy receipts there were $50
vessels In the Arctic fisheries. There is
very little change in the Whaling grounds
outside of the Attic seas. The whales
run down early in the summer into the
southern ATTITUDES to "calve," but in
returning they keep very much closer
to the ice, and in the Arctic run under
and alongside the fields and bergs. For
twenty years the whalers had not follow
ed the fish west of Point Barrows, but
in 1875 the feet went as far as Comden
Bay and four of the vessels were aban-
doned, since which time not vestige of
these vessels have been met With. The
feet has neve1been SO far west since, Har-
rison's Bay being considered well to the
westward. But as New Bedford parties
are now building steam Arctic whaler
at Bath, Maine, the first of this class
ever sent from the United States, there
may be great change in the Arctic fish
ing grounds, and more economic meth
Cd of following the schools discovered.
This steamer will fit away in September.
It will go direct to and cruise along both
coasts of Patagonia, where the whaling
this season has been unusually fine;
thence it will run up along the of shore
and the line-gtounds, touching in at San
Francisco, after cruising through the
Society and Sandwich Islands, discharg-
ing the catch; and by June next it will
steam directly into the Arctic seas.
The Indian Ocean fleet, and the two
vessels of the New Zealand coast, have
been fairly successful, but the sperm sea-
son of the west coast of New Holland, in
Australia, and the catch in the vicinity
of the Desolation islands, southeast of
Africa, at last accounts were poor. It is
in the last named locality, and also in
the Indian ocean, that the whalers look
in each catch for that knot of diseased
intestines known as ambergris, which
weighs from forty to two hundred pounds,
and is usually more valuable than the
whole cargo of oil and bone. The last
lot brought into New Bedford as on the
Caroline Gibbs, 125 pounds. The whale
was taken off the Tristan islands, in the
South Atlantic, and the lot was sold for
$25, 900 to Boston druggist. It may be
interesting to know that this most disa-
greeable stuff is used in the manufacture
of perfumes. New Bedford outftters
claim that unless vessel can take $500
barrels of sperm oil insthree years, oil
fishing will not pay. AS few have reach
ed this quantity In the voyages ending
this past year, more attention Is being
given to catching the right whale in the
Arctic, in which the bone is.more valua-
BILE. The consumption of sperm oil has
been abridged principally by the intro
duction of lard oil. Nothing would so
80 rejoice the sordid heart of the whale
man as hog cholera at the west. The
failure of the menhaden season this
summer is bit of encouragement to
holders of humpback and similar classes
of whale oil. This is thick oil that does
not strain clear, and is largely used by
tanners and curriers'. The oils take in
the south seas are somewhat similar, but
the Arctic oils are clear and Gmpid, and
are used both for burning and lubricat-
ing purposes. Sperm oil is used almost
exclusively as spindle lubricant, the
English spinners taking from us about
10000 barrels a year. Last fall, when
the catch was large and the market full,
prices fell off to IS. This seemed SO very
low that Englishmen came over and
bought on speculation out of New Bed
ford about $4,000 barrels at SIC. But
the market has since receded to 75c,
with q stock of about $4,000 barrels on
hand, and the spinners at Oldham and
other large English manufacturing GEN.
tres are idle on account of strike. The
sale of whalebone is very large in Paris
and Berlin, where the leading modistes
make woman's costumes an art. Since
the long trains have been fashionable the
slabs of bone that will cut ten feet
lengths have commanded extra prices.
whalebone runs from four to ten feet
long and is now worth $3.50 a pound.
A substitute has been attempted in the
horn from Australian oxen. The
greatest length of these run to seventeen
inches, and they sell at 81 a pound, but
this horn, notwithstanding the care in
its preparation, on being used gives out
disagreeable odor. - 4
The results of this seasons whaling
will be known between the LIST and 18th
of November, but whether there will be
anything to favor an advance or fur
Their decline is not even specialized upon
by New Bedford outftters. One of the
last voyages settled up at New Bedford