The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-10-09

| isl nd called Smeerenberg. The English
J also Tss9rted to these seas in the seventeenth
/ century At the end of that century the
| Dutch had rs many as go ships and $4,000
! sailors employed in the industry.
! But toward the close of the ninth cen
! lury there is a record which shows that
! whaling was then business. 1t is as fol-
| lows; "Our excellent King Alfred received
from one Octher, Norwegian, an account
| Of lis discoveries northward on the coast
I Of Norway, and he told the King that ne
, sailed along the Norway coast so far north
| as commonly the whale-hunters USED 10
| travel. He visited this country
| also with a view of catching horse wnales,
which had bones of very great value LOT
| their teeth, of which he brought some 10 the
| king: that their skins were good Tor max
| ing rones for ships. These whales are
/ much less than other whales, being only
five ellis long. The best whales were caught
in his own country, of which some were As.
| some 30 wards long. lie said that he was
| one OF six who had killed sixty in three
| days"
1t is shrewdly suspected that the sixty in
! this case should be six, but that whales
were abundant in those times cannot be
| doubted. AS to whale being fifty yards
! long, that is moonshine. They were so
/ abundant when the Dutch and English
/ were cruising off Spitzbergen centuries aft
1 erward that mutual animoSities were for
! gotten In the recognition of the fact that
! tnefe was plenty OF blubber for all. The
/ whales OF those days were as the dodos of
| Reunion. The dodos were without fear,
/ and were Knocked down easily. The whales
were without fear. and were harpooned
/ easily. But mems warfare taught them a
lesson. and from once familiar haunts they
nave long disappeared, never, probably, to
! reappear
From others description there can be no
| doubt that the whales fifty yards in length
! were right whales. The measurement must
have been taken loosely, because seventy
/ feet is a good length for the biggest bow
head or right whale now captured, al
/ though there are cases of captures ninety
! feet in length. The skeleton of a whale
! hangs in the museum at Edinburgh ninety
| feet long. 1t was captured, or rather il was
| grounded. in the Firth of Forth.
Long after the Norwegi rs had hunted
! the whale, we find that the Biscayans fol-
! lowed its capture as a regular commercial
| pursuit. This en- erpriSe continued from the
twelfth to the fourteenth century There
was 1.-THE on the tongues of whales i'm
ported into Bayonne. and whaebone seems
to have been applied TO useful purposes
When whales, as In other peiagian waters
ceased to visit the shores of Biscay, the en-
terpTise fell off. So in successive periods
We cannot fail TO note that the shifting of
the whales ground corresponds with the
| vlgor of mans attack upon the whale. From
| the Norway coast, from the Biseayan coast
| the leviathan takes to feeding grounds in
| the Arctic around Nova Z-mbla and SpiZ-
bergen. From that region the fukes dsap-
pear in profitable number and then the
Greenland whaling arises. There the work
OF determination, OF at least thinning, is
rapid, and whaling is now q very precaI ious
calling In DAVIS Straits or Baf1ins Bay, or
IN any OF the numerous ice-blOcked lanes
between the frozen islands of the Arctic
The whale shows intelligence in retiring to
the TeceSSes OF the sea where it is compare
lively safe.
II it were only for the oil it yields the
baSena would be practically free from
moleStation. Mineral oil has rendered
animal oil procured at such vast expense of
very little value But the whalebone of the
Jaws Is an animal product fer which nature
IN the mineral or artificial chemical sense,
has provided no substitute. The chemist
may succeed eventually in manufacturing
whalebone and indiarubber. He has
produced acknowledgements diamonds-in
minute crystals. WhalebOne is more COM
pick But why not succeed in this also.
The reward of SO a pound is a stimulus.
When substitute Is found for the whale
bone the whale will go unmolested except
by the ESQuimauX, who want its flesh for
food. and then it may increase and be
plentiful as in the dark centuries Of the
past. The sperm whale was almost ex-
terminated in the equatorial and south
seas, but as its oil is no longer in such de-
mand the fleets Of wore no longer keep up
the pursuit. and it is again becoming
abundant in the deep waters. AmbergriS is
valuable, but the sperm whale is not always
rich in this substance. In fact numbers of
whales are caught without any of this
diseased growth being found.
Early in the seventeenth century whale
fishing was q pursuit among the American
coonsts. New York, Delaware and Mas
sachusetts all took hand in it. Massachu-
sets had royal charter fer the business, a
privileges which no doubt did not aid the
prOprietors much, seeing that the whale
was not consenting party The first New
Highlander on record as having killed a
whale Is William Hamilton, but the date is
so obscure as TO come between 1860 aud
1870 Doubtless many whales were dis
patched before this period without atten-
ton TO chrOu olOgy.
The art of suTf-dispatchinE must for a
lon0 period on the New England shores /
have been studied within shoal waters. /
When whales were sighted from the shores |
or headlands boats put out and es5ayed the /
capture, but deep-sea whaling was not at |
that period dreamed or About 174S," |
says Captain Scamm0n, ''the whales having |
been driven from the contiguous shores, |
were pursued further seward in slOOps and
scho0ners Of fifty tons, such of which had a
company of thirteen men and lowered two
boats in the chase. In 1765 the whale fish
ing from Boston and adjacent ports
amounted to 100 small vessels, which
cruised as far 10 the northward and east
ward as the Straits OF Belle Isle, the Gulf of
St. Lawrence and TO the Western islands.
But at the island of Nantucket or among
the Nantucket men originated the grand
whaling enterprise which has reached every
accessible point around the world.
Captain Scammon gives vivid local color
description of the life at Nantucket The
people were hardy and God-fearing. When
shore whaling gave out. they equipped large
vessels and went seward for whales, and
eventually oeeanward for cruises OF years.
They employed Indians to certain extent
It is recorded that in open seasons their yes-
sells reached latitudes as high as 81
degrees.
New Bedford history In whaling is men,
orable. Scammon describes Ii as becoming
and as retaining the title Of the whaling
metropolis Of The world II was IN 1871 that
the ship Rebecca pat out from New Bed
ford and doubled Cape Horn Oh a cruise
for whales. among the first, If not the first,
to work round the cape on such voyage.
AT t at time she was considered large
vessel, but actually she was only 175 tons,
mere jolly. boat that could hang at the
davits on some OF our modern steamers. 1t
is also mentioned by Captain Scammon that
''the first whale ship that yentnred into the
| Pacific was sent by the Nantucket colony Of
whaling men from England in 1877, and the
first officer of the vessel, Archelus Ham,
mond, struck the first sperm whale known
to have been captured 10 that ocean"
Whaling. was much greater industry in
recent years than at present Thus we
learn that Sin 1876 the American force en-
gagged was CTS ships and barks. 50 brigs and
p schooDers, aggregatlDg 233. 1S9 tons, valued
at 81, 075, COO At the same time all the
investments connected with the business
are said to have been at least $1,000, 600. and
10000 persons derived their CHI ief support
from tie whaling interests. The first bow
head whales taken in the North Pacific or
in Boring Sea were by the American ships
Hercules, Captain Ricketsop, and Janus,
Captain Turner, which were on the coast of
Kamchatka In 1913. In 1847 bowheads
were discovered In the Okhotsk Sea, and in
1S48 Captain Royce, in the bark Superior Of
IN