The San Francisco call., 1897-11-23
SEALERS ARE
DISAPPEARING
Only One Vessel From This
Port Will Go Hunting
Next Season.
The Whaling Fleet Is Meeting
With a Similar Fate on
This Coast.
Disasters and Deaths Have Almost
Wiped the Two Fleets Out
Of Existence.

The whalers and sealers are deseltire
San Francisco. A few years ago between
forty and fifty vessels cleared for the Arctic
to hunt the whale, while from thirty te
forty schooners left for the coast of Japan
and Bering Sea, seal hunting. All thi:
is changed now, and where 1000 men were
employed, not tenth of that number will
secure berth next season.
Two years ago about TWEEN ty-five schoon.
ers left this port on a sealing cruise. Next
year only one schooner, the Kate and Ann,
will go out. All the others have either
been sold or lost. Out OF the men who
went out on those vessels during the past
two years. over 300 never returned. They
lost their lives at sea, and the majority oi
the fatalities occurred on tho japanese
coast.
During the same period five whalers
have been wrecked, and there are only
twelve of the fleet lett to go to sea this
season. Twelve vessels are frozen up in
the Arctic, and sight of them may never
come out again, and out of those now in
port not more than seven or eight will be
fitted out this year.
The old bark California is ready for
bv William LIE Wis, and will get away for
her regular cruise in a few days. She
will go first to Honolulu, from there to
the Okhotsk Sea, and finally bring up in
the Arctic. Her crew IS aboard, and they
expect 10 eat their Thanksgiving and
Christmas dinners somewhere on the high
seas.
Reinsurance on the British bark Tay-
mount still keeps climbing up. She is now
out 206 days from Liverpool, and was last
spoken on June 6, in latitude 10 south,
longitude 38 west. When speaking about
her, British ship captains shake their
heads and say that any vessel taking m lore
than 200 days to make the trip from Liv-
erpool to San Francisco must be having a
very bad time of it. The British ship
Natuna is out 1874 days from London, and
fears for her arc also expressed. She was
| last spoken in latitude 48 south, Longitude
| 63 A west, on July %.
The American bark Alexander Mcneil
is now out eighty days from Newcastle,
N. s. W., and quite number of vessels
that left after her are now safely in port.
Henry Peterson's 8 new gasoline boat, the
William d, was launched yesterday. In
a race from Oakland Creek to Folsom
ST rect wharf the William d beat the Amy
by nearly half a mile. The latter launch
is to be cleaned and overhauled, and then
Peterson says there will be a genuine
race. The new boat is q larger and
roomier craft than the Amy.
Two whalers, Manuel Antoine and Mike
| O'Brien, started out 10 celebrate the facr
| that they were about to start on anothet
cruise to the Arctic yesterday and both
wound up in tho Waterfront Receiving
Hospital. Antoine was suffering from q
dislocation of the right shoulder blade
and O. Brien from dislocation of the lett
one The men were drunk and tum bled
down the stairs of their lodging house on
Clay street.
The men on the bark Imperator, who
are suffering from yellow fever, are get
ting along first rate. The apprentice is
the only one who is very sick, and in his
case the fever has not reached crisis If
no new cases develop the Imperator will
be released from quarantine the latter part
of this week.
The brig Galilee is di.charging cocoanuts
at Section of the seawall and tile arabs
who in fest the waler front are having a
royal time of it. L. S. Sresovich, the
owner of the nuts, has a special watch
man to keep the boys in check, but he
cannot be in half dozen places at once,
and never a day pass but the younsters
get away with 70 or 100 of the nuts.
The gun boat Wheeling was to have gone
out on her official trial trip yesterday, but
few minor repairs delayed her. She will
probab bly, go out to-day and have 48-hour
test before Uncle Sam accepts her as one
Of his navy.