The Wichita daily eagle., 1893-12-02
there SHE BLOWS. F"

search Of sperm whales, have not been
heard from since midsummer, but no great
news is expected from their adventures.
Five of the fortunate steam whalerS, with
1913 whales to their credit, are shut in by
the ice and must winter in the Arctic The
Narwhal is reported as having taken 62
whales, which is something almost unprece-
Gented in the history of American whaling.
The average annual slaughter of whales
the world over has been about l 500 for the
past 80 years, with yield of 300, 600 gal
Ions of whale oil, or 2, 200 per carcass A
catch of Al whales by single whaler from
a Scotch port was thought remarkable so
years ago, when whaling on the whole was
more profitable than it has been for the
past 40 years. That is believed to have
been the greatest whaling cargo ever
brought into British port. The whole
product OF that catch was worth about
100000. For many years the greatest
catch Of New England whaler was that
Of the Pioneer of New London, Conn,
which returned in September 1865, after a
year in the north Pacific with ,391 barrels
of oil and great lead of bone. worth in
all s15O0CO Before that New Bedford
whaler's cargo, valued at S132, ,450. was the
-
even the present low price Of oil and whale
bone the catch of the arctic feet ought to
be worth considerably over 81 200, 600. An
authority here estimates the catch at
rather more than l, 400 pounds of bone and
at 1900 gallons of oil per whale This
would give the Narwhal nearly 10000
pounds of bone and about $1,000 gallons of
OIL
The American whaling feet now num-
bers rather less than 100 vessels, and the
entire tonnage of the feet cannot greatly
exceed 10000 tons. New Bedford is still
the hailing port of more than half the ves-
sells, but most of the steam whalers hail
from San Francisco, and they alone have
been the lucky vessels this time. Even the
New Bedford steam whalers rendezvous at
San Francisco, because by far the larger
part of the whaling is done northwest of
that port, and it is expensive business
steaming home through the straits of Ma
gellan and up the Atlantic coast of South
America.
The popular notion that whaling is played
out received shock two years ago when
the Mary ID. Hume, which this season is re-
ported with IA whales, took 30 whales in the
Arctic. The decline of whaling is not alto
gether to be traced to the cheapness of min
eral oils, the discovery of substitutes for
whalebone and the ecarcity of whales One
determining influence has been the timidi-
ty of whales and the difficulty of finding
them in their old haunts. Whales have ap-
parently become scarcer during the last 10
years, and they certainly have changed and
limited their habitat.
The first whaler to enter the Arctic by
way of Behring straits was a New Bedford
vessel away back in lSiS. She found i'm
mense schools of whales, and her example
was promptly followed by other vessels.
The European whaling business had al
ready begun to decline, and in spite of the
discoveries in the Arctic the luck of Amer
ican whalers soon after began to fail off.
Nearly 200 years before, the Dutch had TAX
en- 10000 whales in single decade in the
arctic waters of Europe. y century and q
half later the Basques were catching many
small whales in the bay of Biscay, but their
trade gave out long ago, although a whale
of the species that once haunted the bay
was killed in the Mediterranean only l5
years ago. Coast whaling is still pursued
for about three months of the year at a few
points along the coast of California. Here
mum mbers. 1t was the habit of these crea-
lures to breed in the shallow bays along
the coast, and great schools of the females
gathered at such times in these protected
waters while the males disported them
selves outside the reefs. The business OF
pursuing the gray whale was so sharply
prosecuted that the species almost disap-
peared from the coast.
Steam whaling is comparatively recent
thing, and II Is prosecuted chiefly il the
Behring sea and the Arctic ocean. The
steam whalers also carry sails. Few OF
them exceed 500 tons and they are built in
peculiarly strong fashion SO as to resist the
cutting power of the ice and as we'll to
stand the strain that comes upon a vessel
when nipped in the foe. Each steamer has
tankace for go TO go tons of oil Such a yes
-, ~ be built in Europe for about 81. 900
10 s., coo, AMI here for perharsa little more.
The cost of running steam whaler OF 400
TO 500 tons Is aboa, s.. so per month Pay
ment IS mainly in lays but sometimes
part of the crew receives wages and part
both lay and wages. Ihe lay of a cap
tain in the New England whaling fleet is
about oue-i welfth Of the catch on the aver
age, while in the san Francisco fleet it is
about one-ffteenth. the shares decrease
RAPIDLY, ana q cabin boys iay is on the
average one-one hundred and sixty-ffth in
the San Francisco fleet and oae-txo hun
dred and twenty fifth in the New England
feet. t.. y. fALLASpIEG..
- MIGHTY FORCE.