Connecticut western news., 1892-11-10
LUCK IN THE FAR NORTH.
All Hands on the whaler Hume win Be
 Capitalists for Awhile.

All Hands on the Wha1er Hume Win Be Capitalists for Awhile.
 The chartered steamer Bertha, Cap tain Anderson, of the North American
 Commercial company, arrived from the Pribylov seal islands, via Oonalaska.
 The steamer brings quite batch of in
 teresting news, the most important item
 of which is the phenomenal catch of
 thirty eight right whales credited to
 the steam whaler Mary D. Hume during
 her 21S years cruise near the mouth of
 the Mackenzie river, and well within the arctic circle. It is estimated that the catch will amount to over $40O, 900 when sold.
 The Mary D. Hume may be expected to arrive here at any time, as she left
 Oonalaska three days ahead of the
 Bertha. She has on board 40, 900 pounds
 of bone, which will be shipped east on
 its arrival. An additional IL, ,000 pounds
 of this seasons catch has already been
 shipped here by another vessel. When , the news of the immense catch reached
 here there was joy in the hearts of many
 outside of the stockholders of the Pa
 ciic Steam Whaling company. The boarding house masters, from old Horse
 shoe Brown down, who will get the crew toehonor their establishments with their presence, were wild with delight. The lowest whaler on the lay scale on this lucky vessel will not receive less than @, 900, while the scale will rise un-
 til the captain will pull down something
 like $40,0 900. Every whaler on the Hume
 will be little king while his money lasts. However, had these men had a disastrous season and come home empty handed it would havlAmade an awful difference with them. Many of the
 sailor boarding houses are we'll filled with boarders who have disposed of
 their ''pile," and the Hume's crew would
 hardly have found place to stop at, let alone be welcome, but for their present prospective wealth.
 The steam whaler Grampus, which
 accompanied the Hume two years and 8
 half ago to the mouth of the Mackenzie river, returned a year ago in command of Captain Norwood. The men on the Grampus told terrible tales at that time
 of cruelties practiced on the crews by
 the different captains, and how the men tried to desert and were captured. These stories all dated over the two win
 ters that had been spent in the ice and
 before any whales were taken.
 There wintered with the two steam whalers at Herschel's island the schoon- CT Nicoline. Captain Louis H. Heren-
 deen, of the latter vessel, who is one of the oldest whalers known here, was the instigator of the whaling expedition to the mouth of the Mackenzie river, some 300 miles to the eastward of Point Bar row. No whaling vessel had ever pene-
 trated that far before.
 Indeed such 8 voyage was equal to try I ing to find 8 northwest passage. Two weary winters were passed by the three
 crews. Up to the time the ice broke up
 last summer the expedition had been a failure. Captain Herendeen became discouraged, and after cruising around
 awhile made start to get out of the | Arctic ocean. The Grampus and Hume, however, worked to the eastward, and were rewarded with sixteen and twelve
 immense whales, respectively. The Grampus returned and the Hume re- | mained over another winter.
 Only the whalebone in the head of a
 whale is taken, the blubber being thrown | away, as the Hume is only eighty y-eight tons net, and has no place to store the | hundreds of barrels of oil that the whales she has taken would have made had they been tried out.-San Francisco Chron- icle