Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1890-01-31
WHALING.
THE ROMANCE HAS DEPARTED
FROM THE BUSINESS.
The Money in Oil Now-Long Voyages
The Harpuon Fired From Gun
Whaling Grounds-N"
Shanghaiing.

''The whaling trade has seen its hes,
days on this coast" said Captain Will
iams, the veteran whale master to u San
Francisco Chronicle reporter. There is
no money in oil now, and we should have
to give up if it were not for the bone"
"How many vessels are employed in
the whaling trade from this porta"
"About twenty-five New Bedford YES
sells and thirty San Francisco craft. OF
these last five are steamers and are owned
by the Steam Whaling Company. There
is not much romance about the Whaling
business nowadays. 1t is matter of
business with men who own the ships
aud the sailors WHO go out in them.
Whatever will make money or save
money, that is the thing For instance,
we uso guns like this, after the whale has
been harpooncd, to discharge bombs
with time fuses in the whale. The fuse
is timed about ten seconds"
The speaker exhibited II short, heavy
gun, very like an old-style blundcrbuss,
with brass barrel of IN inch caliber and
brcech attachment for inserting the
bomb.
1.-THE harpoon is also fired with dot
ting gun, on the same principle Of saw
ing time and money"
sis the risk to the whalcr's life les
sened?"
al don't know about that. II does
not often happen that II man is lost on Il
whaling cruise, either by disease or acci-
dent Indeed, the risk is less than in
the merchant service, in proportion to
the number OF men,"
"Whcrc are the principal whaling
grounds?'
"All along the coast, from the Ant
arctic to the Arctic, you may say. But
the best catches are made up in Behring
sea, the Japan sea, the Okhotsk sea and
off the Alaska coast.
GLOW are the men paid3"
each man gets II proportion-all
share of the profits of the trip. AS to
the profits, everything depends on the
relation between the size of the vessel
and the amount of the catch. What
would pay well on small schooner
would mean dead loss on one of the
large s.camera But the men must come
out pretty well or there wouldn't be such
Il flush Of money on the l3arbary Const
and along the city front after the wlalcrs
have come in"
''What class of whales is most sought
for2"
"Thc polar whale, the right whale,
and the sperm whale. There's no money
i'll the others. The little fcllows-thc
'iinbacks, for cxamplc--wc don't catch
ut all. They don't pay for the catch
ing"
'Do the men on whaling craft get any
pay, or do they depend solely upon the
catch?"
"Thcy are usually paid an advance of
$50 before they so away. There is no
complaint on that score. They get
plenty of clotl.ing-our ships are COM
PEELED to carry it. We have also to
furnish them with tobacco ut an advance
of only ten per cent. over wholesale
prices. The provisions of the Disby bill
apoly TO whalcrs also. We ship our
own men. They are of pretty nearly
all nationaities. We have everything
from parson dcwu to digger Indian "
"What is the usual duration of the
trips?'
"''1hc vessels that 90 north and start
for the south this fall will probably be
gone from ten to eleven months. The
usual time for vessel that goes directly
north is about seven months"