The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-04-18
A Salt Laker's Experience as
a HarpOOner.
HOW THE WHALE Is VALUED.
Cruise OF the "stamboul''-Inter
ing Tale OF Life Afioat in the
Frigid Zone.

who brave the storms. ice and dangers
of the Polar waters in their endeavors
to discover the North Pole, comes the
whaler. In point OF daring, the men
who go down to the sea in ships" and
fish for whales may be considered
among the best and pluckiest of sea
men. The risks encountered from
wind. floating ice and dreary fogs are
more numerous in the latitude Of the
fishing grounds than in other portions
o; the watery world. Hence, the man
who takes passage in a whaler for whal-
ing purposes takes chances which or
binary merchantmen do not.
This preface is suggested by the re-
cital of the experience of a young
Utah man, who has just returned from
q cruise in the northern Pacific and
southern Arctic ocean. Peter Robert
son, a Scotch youth, residing with his
mother in the Eighteenth Ward, left
Salt Lake in September, 1 SS4, for San
Francisco. On arriving there, and find
ing no employment, and anxious to see
what kind of life a sailors was, he en-
gagged to go before the mast on the bar
que StambOHl, Captain keenan,, on a
voyage to the whaling grounds of the
northwest. The preliminaries of pre-
pairing for the trip were lengthy and 1t
was not until March of last year that
they set sail. They had fair passage
to the anchoring grounds off Point
Barrow, on the northwest coast, in
Alaska. This station was once a mill
tary post. but is. now occupied by a
solitary white man, whose occupation is
TO look out for whales, and he with the
natives do good service for those who
frequent that locality in hunting the
monsters of the deep. Ii was June
when they reached the point mentioned,
and while laid up. they encountered
considerable floating ice, frem which,
at times. there was great danger of be-
ing crushed. AS occasion offered. the
StdmboUt took a short cruise after
whales. and after two or three OF these
brief sails, left for he,Siberian coast.
whittier, they learned the whales had
migrated in schools.
What is the process OF catching
whales 7" inquired the reporter who saw
Mr.. Robertson, yesterday.
with the harpoon," he responded;
''to which is attached a gun containing
a bomD. AS soon as the harpoon strikes
the whale, the gun Is discharged and
the bomb explodes, its contents enter
ing the mammoth and sometimes in
stantly killing il, but often wounding il
so that il goes down, often as far as
fortyfathoms, and they die under water.
Ifit dies on top the body remains float
ing
dives2"
''Oh, they pay out the line, and the
fishers await his coming to the top.
But frequently he has TO be hauled up"
lis there much danserin the business |
of whale killing2"
"a great deal, sometimes. The ami
mal-we oftener call him an animal |
and furiously lashes the water, many |
times upsetting the boats and ducking |
and sometimes drowning his assail- |
ants"
after the killing. what is dcne with |
the animal2"
when he reaches the top. and after |
he Is dead, he is cut up and landed on |
the deck of the vessel. There the car |
cass is put through the process of be
ing rendered INTO oil and extracting the |
bones"
How is that done?"
THE blubber is cut into pieces about |
two feet long and six inches wide; these |
chunks are again sliced and put into |
pots and rendered for oil. All the bone |
taken out is the jaw. This latter is |
purchased by an extensive French firm,
who convert it into threads, dresses.
fans and numerous other articles. An
immense business is carried on in |
whalebones and fortunes have been
made by those engaging in it,"
What do you suppose single whale
will yield7"
"oh, guess abou; IS. co.,"
And how many are caught and /
killed on a voyage?"
Why some ships return with as
many twenty and two dozen. We were
not so lucky; our catch was only
three"
Did you experience much hardship
while you were away2''
Not much extraordinary nothing
but what every whaler goes through
We had a boat upset in the Behrinr
sea, but apart from giving the hands q
cold bath and each one a severe cold
that was not so hard. And one Of our
mates, named Allen, who had been suf-
leIluB lIOm Sickness before leaving the
Golden Gate, grew respondent While
outward-bound, and suicided. The
rigor OF the climate at certain season,
the hazard and perils of being crushed
by ice after the breakup in the sprinc
are terrifying in the extreme very often
and many and many a time a fellow IL
brought 20 a reflection that II there is
as Beecher intimates, no warm sheol'
there IS certainly a frigid one in The
regions Of the Arctic circle"
did you have any experience with
bears or hostile natives ?" ,
"Yes, whenever we'd land for WOOD ;
or water, the boys would tackle few
Polar bears, and two or three times the
tacklers came near being tackled.
hug from one of those fellows would re-
suit in an instantaneous yielding IN Of
the ghost. l can tell you. But the bovs
KILLED several on the trip"
when a whaler starts out. does he (,
-o'alone, or has he company on the
Foyage?"
There were about forty in one feet
which left when we did. Five of then,
sever returned; were wrecked in a pale :
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