Morning journal and courier., 1891-09-15
THE WHALE CATCHING BUSINESS
Captain and Sailors Paid on the Co.,
 Operative Plan.

Few people are aware, writes a Seattle correspondent, that cooperation has worked very successfully in the whaling vessels of the Northern Pacific ocean and of the Behring sea. The men, instead of being paid regular wages, receive a per centage of the profits.
 The captain on the sailing vessels re- ceives a twelfth, the first mate nine teenth, the second mate and boat headers each a twenty fifth, the third mate A thir- tieth, the fourth mate, carpenter, cooper, and steward, each fftieth, and the sail ors, each one hundred and seventy fifth. On steamers the rates are little lower. A captains wages range from nothing to $7,000 or $S, 900. according to the number of whales taken. If the ship gets six whales during cruise, the captain will have about S1, 400 and a sailor S100.
 The sailors usually receive an advance of S60, and during the cruise are allowed to draw clothing, tobacco, etc, from the ships supplies to the amount of S60 or $50. Consequently even if there are no profits to divide, the sailor is sure of about $40.
 On these Pacific whalers the captains and other officers are usually men of character. So it is to be presumed that co operative plan, or any other fair division of profits, will work successfully. But the common sailors are Portuguese, Italians South sea Islander, and others of an inferior grade, yet they seem to appreciate the benefits of CO operation, and toil with great zeal in the hope of extra reward.
 The whales seem to be gradually dissp- bearing from the Pacific ocean, and the whalers are going further and further north for them. A few years ago these whales were plentiful in the northern Pa cific ocean, Behring sea and Okhotsk sea. In short time the whalers found it neces- sary to chase them through Behring strait a little way into the Arctic. Thus the whales have been driven further and furth CT into the inaccessible regions of the north, until now the whaling fleet annually rounds the most northern extremity of the American continent, and this year, for the first time, a few of them will wiEter in the Arctic, at the mouth of the Mackenzie riv- CT. To escape this deadly pursuit the whales try to hide in the ice, and after them the whalers force their way. The business is so dangerous that during the last twenty years more than a hundred vessels have been lost.
 The history of whaling operations in the Paclhc-thOugh It has been published be- fore-is of interest. The older sailors on the coast will tell you that as early as 1S4l fifty whalers had found their way from New Bedford and Boston to Behring sea. From 1S42 and onward for & number of years annual complaints were made to the Russian government by the Russian-Amer- ican Fur company of the encroschments of the Yankee whalers. In 1852 the whaling fleet had increased to PTS vessels, and the value of the catch to Sl4 900, 600. This | was, probably, the most profitable year of the whaling industry in Alaska Since then it has, in the main, decreased
 uutil in 1862 the value of the catch was less | than $500, ,000. This increased again in 1867 to s, 200, 900. In 1880 the first steam CT was added to the whaling fleet, be- | ing sent out from San Francisco. Last year there were twenty-three from New Bedford in the trade; they captured 151
 whales, which yielded 213, ,070 pounds of
 whalebone and l2, 243 barrels of oil. This
 season there were ten steamers and thirty | eight sailing vessels employed in the north ern waters with & very light catch reported up to midsummer.
 Though whales used to be valuable chief | ly for the oil, the discovery of petroleum | has wrought 6 change and the whalebone
 is the main thing sought. This product is worth from S4. 50 to S5 per pound. A | good seized whale contains about 2,000 | pounds of bone and is valued at from SS, 900 to S10, 0,000.