St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-08-20
HAS sHRUNK FORTY TONS.
Whalers Estimate the Animal
to Have Been Five Hun
dred Years Old.
THE WHALING APPLIANCES.
Interesting Sea Tales Related
by Whale Oil Gus, an
Old Salt.

Anchored at the Diamond 10 dock at
the foot of Jackson street is a 'long,
low. rakish crafts" not of the Pirate
Kidd variety, but genuine Erie canal
boat. 1ti is under command or Capt. 0.
Anderson, and is quite an object of in
tereSt to land lubbers. On board there
is on exhibition a curiosity to jewellers
in inland districts. III the shape of a fin
back whale siXty-tive feet long. A
GLOBE reporter viewed the amphibian
last night. and had an interesting talk
with the exhibitor, Whale OIL Gus.
whose true name is Augustus E.
Folger. He is an odd char
acter. He said that the whale
was captured off Cape Cod, 12O miles
from Boston, by Capt. Nickison, of
Province Town. When captured, his
whaleship weighed seventy-fiye tons.
His total cost 10 date is $4,000. OF this
sum 1000 was paid for the carcass, and
1t cost $4,000 to embalm him, which was
done by the Boston Embalming COM
pany, in June, 1888. His whaleship
owes his demise to shot from a whal-
ing bum gun. Since the monster of
the deep was embaImed, he has shrunk
about forty tons. HE is supposed to
have been about 500 years DID," said
Whale Oil Gus. The whales mouth is
curiosity. 1t is distended, and the i'll
terror is fitted up as a sort of drawing
room, capable of holding about twenty
five people.
Notwithstanding his big mouth"
remarked Whale Oil Gus, ''his 'swal-
lower is so small that an orange would
have cboked him. Along either side
of his jaws are 365 strips of whalebone.
This was worth 20 cents pound in '43;
now 1t is worth 81 pound. This whale
is very large for his kind.
'It is interesting to know that whales
suckle their Young like COW does its
calf. There are twenty-seven different
varieties of this mammal, only one of
which has teeth-the spermaceti.
have been a whaler for eighteen years,
and came of family of whalers from
old Nantucket. Come with me-" The
reporter followed him into the hold.
where he was shown a great variety OF
marine curiosities. which seemed
strange, viewed as they were OH the
placid waters of the Miss isSippI.
Among these were harpoons, some
of which date back lao years, besides
lances, whale guns. etc. One modern
harpoon contains two pounds Of powder.
arranged so that on entering tine body of
a whale it will explode. raising hob with
his blubber, and, incidentally, eXtiu-
gushing life. Whale Oil Gus showed a
number OF curiously twisted harpoens,
so contorted by the death struggles of
tria boS IF
a calabooSe at Tukamana, Chilli. with
which he and thirty-one other sailors
escaped in 1867. He has knife that
killed the second mate of the whaler
New Bedford in 1871 at the hands of a
Norwegian sailor. Gus was once lost IN
the Arctic ocean. H took four days
vacation, la DR.. Tanner, without food
or water. He has been through numer-
GUS shipwrecks. He showed the
reporter quaint old logbook,
and collection of whale teeth. Two
of these, he sale, were taken from a 107-
barrel whale. These two teeth caused
the death of two shipmates Frank B.
Kempton and Benjamin L. Pease, Of
in the shape of an old shipping list of
whalers. dated 1913. Gus is quite a
linguist. He speaks seven different
anguages-English, German, Portu-
guese, French, Spanish. besides the
Kanacka and Kaffir tongues. He has
with him the son of Capt. Albert G..
Brown, known as Little Monday"
who is the only American ever born on
Yankee wDaler.
The canal boat came here from Boston
by water, through lakes, rivers and
canals. and finally reached st. Paul by
way of Green bay, down the Wisconsin
river. 1t will be here about three weeks,
and will then so down the river 10 New
Orleans.