Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1886-01-09
TEE DECLINE Of The WHALING
INDIsIRY.
London stan ard /

London Standard
The las, OF the Dundee Whalers
having returned from the Arctic re-
gious. the owners have now the
painful satisfaction of knowing the
worst AS long as sur Of them were
unreported, there was still 5 hope
that the absent vessels would redeem
the fortunes Of the season. This eX-
pectaiiOn i, however. no longer
possible. for ali the steamers are
safe il the Greenland Dock, and
the extent OF the failure is matter
Of figures. The total earnings OF
the feet, including the returns from
the seal fishery" amount 10 little
over forty-nine thousand pounds, an
amount that can scarcely repay the
outlay, and as every man aud boy on
board a whaler is, in his own small
xay. directly interested in the cargo
which be has helped to put on board,
there will be dull times this winter
among that large section OF Tayside
folk who are dependent on the
whale fishery. The trying out" Of
AAkE D4AbDEl ka1h viii Lot bLALHF
very long, and then as the ships are
laid up until March or April, when
the majority of them essay their
luck al the Jan Mayen or NewfouHd-
land sealing, the men must exc out
their ''oil" and "boue money by
shipping foreign" until they are
once more required. This. to the
whaling seamen, is a sore trial.
Most of them have been bred from
their boyhOod amid the Arctic ice.
Hundreds of them have not since
they were first bound 'prentices seen
corn growing, and their chief &C
quaintance with green leaves has
been glimpse of the fir woods as
they scudded along the Scottish
shores in the last days of October
Their skill is only TO be acquired by
long practice, and in the majority of
Instances is hereditary, since both
shippers and and men are often con
nected with the Greenland trade"
by an ancestry in which masters.
mates, harpOoners and "spectioneers'
are as numerous as Knights of the
Garter in Ducal pedigree. Hence,
if once the men are allowed 10 scat
ter, it is difficult to obtain a crew in
every respect fitted for business in
which they must not only reef,
hand and steer" but be able to hunt
the most gigantic of all game, cut a
dock in an icefield, work a vessel
through an archipelago of bergs,
and then. when their monster quarry
is alongside. be ready TO 'fense" its
blubbery TANKS, while the blind
shark and the noisy mollemoke con-
tend for their share of the greasy
feast. Practice, nerve, q clear head
and stout heart are all required for
this, and when another year of sbuu-
dance calls for the full muster of ex-
perienced hands, the owners will not
know where to turn for men.
The pursuit of the Greenland
Whale" is, in truth, like the trapping
Of furs, or the digging for gold, or
the Longtime fishing-a highly res
pectable branch of gambling. 1t is
impossible TO reckon on the results.
This year the vessels have returned
with half empty tanks, or altogether
clean. Newt season the men who
have kept their courage up may come
back with 'full ships" Indeed, of
late there has been rather more conf
dence in the trade. The number of
steamers has increased, and, as
rule, the catch has not disappointed
the fishermen. There cannot, how
ever, be doubt but that the whale
is on the decrease; or that it has
been driven by persecution from its
| old haunts, and all but extermiLated
in places where at one time it was
quite common. Two centuries ago
it disported itself so abundantly in
the bays of SpitZbergen that the
| Dutch built village ashore, where
the visch harpooned within short
distance of the shore was flensed,
| and its blubber reduced to oil. The
old writers give curiously picturesque
| accounts OF this Arctic colony of
Smeerenberg the very site of which
is now difficult 10 trace except by
the graves of the Adventures who
are buried near the place where it
stood. Even until late last century.
and well into the present one, the
Spitzbergen whaling was profitable
pursuit. Nowadays, however. it is
SD rare to see whale in the vicinity
of this archipelago of islands, that IN
the fauna of the group compiled BY
the Swedish naturalists, who have
explored it so thoroughly, the Balens
mysticetus is not included. As for
the Dutch, whose personality OBJ
truded itself so largely in the early
history of the Walvischfang, we are
not aware that they have now q
single vessel engaged in the hunt.
The traditions of the hardy Batavians,
however, have survived their pres
enee in the flesh. The English
Whaler still shouts "a fall a fall =
when fish is seen; this cry being CT
course, only a corruption of Wal
wal ~ whale, whale. Then ht
talks of fiensing, or tlincning the
huge brute, and the dignitary who
has charge of the stowage is known
as the spectioneer. which very
slight pathological knowledge enable,
any one 10 see has nothing TO dc
with inspection, but is derivative oi
the word spek, fat or blubber
There are still merry legends among
English Whalers of the time when
the Danish post of Godhsven, oil
Lievely. on Disco Island, was the
rendezvous of the feet. II is nc
longer. Many modern whSer ha,
never landed at this dreary outpost
of civiliz alton, for there are nova
days no whales to catch in or about
the Whalefish Islands, The hsr
poons aud lsnces are rusting in the
| Colonibestyrr's loft, and the boil