New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-05-15
THE DECLINE or WHALING.
ALMOST COMPLETE FAILURE OF THE ENG
LISH CATCH THIS YEAR.

From The London GlOLe.
With the return OF the Davis Straits vessel
IL is possible to estimate the results achieved BY
the Scotch whalers during last season. Ths
catch on this ground Is worth tliOio OF which
El2OOO represents the so-called "whalebone'
and the balance oil. on the Greenland ground
the season was an almost complete failure on,
vessel Ohc Halpna) having caught only one fish
which gave twelve hurdrcdwcight Of bone and
sixty tuns Of OIL worth I'm all f23Vo In order
10 MI up. in default of whales, the ships turned
their attention to Franz Josef Land. where wal
rus are plentiful, and the BalGna captured
round six hundred. whose skins Will bring Il
5000 So far az this one wha!er Is concerned
last seasons operations do not involve n loss o.
money, but We doubt II the nianl'S ~ Walrw
and seven bears the Active's ~ walrus ant
and 10 seals and the Polar stars 81 seal
and two bears. viii bring In sufficient money t
compensate for their several outfits. To AM
one acquainted with the past history d, IN
whaling industry these results are sadiening
AZ compared with last year, the Davis Strait
return shows an Increase. but both ground
have yielded less than In 1894 when from Dayl
Straits the ships brought home M tuns OF Oh
and l2ls tons Of bone and from Greenland 1924
tuns Of bottle nOsed whale and seal OIL and II
tons 81 bone. worth in all about 81 800
Tho introduction NJ steam forty years ag
marked new era in whaling. and enabled bet
ter results 10 be obtained But. unfortunately
by that time the number Of fish in the sea
right" whales in the north and sperm whale
IN the south-hah begun to thin and the use o
steam IN the capture Of the cetaceans has on,
served TO decimate them the more RAPIDLY Il
the ten years prior to 1873 IWhen steam wa
employed for the first tirne) the average annua
number Of whales taken by Peterhead Dundee
Aberdeen and other Scotch ships was 10 whc
yielded 800 tuns II oil and ~. tons IF bone
worth between them 1924 900 II viii he seeI
what falling-off there has been between lg5
ana 1871 But go further back and the con
traSt becomes tar more pronounced. During tn
FOUR years lSl4-11. the number of voyages mad
from Scotland was l94 and the total catch wa
l.ON2 whales. which yielded 1863 tuns NJ d
and s?l tons Of bone. English ships in the sam
FOUR years made 392 voyages and the tots
catch Of whales was 33fS
The average VI the Davis Straits geba-s us
about two-thrds of this and the gross VAIN
OF the frcights II the two fleets Gncludinc IN
Government bounty Of 30s per toni with oil A
t.l2 and whalebone at $50 per ton exceede.
t'oOoOO for the one year Whalebone ,o-da,
~ worth II 800 per ton. and oil f2O per tun
The price II oil has diminished owing 10 III
progress Of gas and other illuminanfs and d
the substitution ~ mineral oil in manufactures
but tie value Of bone has advanced for owe
seventy years past. and. no really effectlv
substitute has yet been found the price bid
fair 70 20 up still higher In proportion rs whale
become moro rare.
sperm whaling ~ In even worse case tina,
right whaling. few small srhnnn.rs go gu
from Colonial ports after that variety. and tn
American ileet spend some part OF the year Il
the fnfliic looking for it. But neither can boas
~ much success We In this country were lon,
behind the mon OF New Bedford and Nan,ucAe
I'm searching FOR the 'spermacetty." and ",
went out Of II long before them But 4 Is 4
the enterprise Of IN Englishman that the ratiom
We're indebted fOr the sperm whale fishery hay
ing been opened out To its greatest extent Al
attempt made to establish this branch from
London in 1915 was "A failure Ten years late
the English shipmasters discovered the haunt
Of the sperm whale. and in 1888 as much a:
81 tuns ~ sperm oil were brought 10 this coun
try. From this time. with oil NJ tf3 per tun
and with hountcs rising from GOO 10 200 \
may be said that the English whacrs. unit
they quilted the game were as successful al
the Americans. They all hunted the SAINT
grounds-the region OF the line. the Gull O
Guinea, the coast of Brazil and the Falkland
Islands. Before Samuel Enderby whale'
seems to have thought Of passing out ~ I'M
Atlantic either by way OF Cape Horn to TN
west or the Cape of Good Hope to the east
In the autumn of 17SS Enderby. vessel tne
Amelia. under Captain Shields. rounded tht
Horn. and after nine months absence. returned
to London with 13J tuns ~ sperm oil Imme
diately there was rush for the, Pacific of botn
English and American vessels. and by the emu
or lol the import into Great Britain had qua1
fupled. After dccimating the ocean of the feru
Wan and chiiian coasts. these ships spread
rorthward and westward. They met with mucn
success OFF New Zealand. In 1903 some Of them
had got as far north IA the MOluccas Had they
penetrated a little further they might nave
anticipated Enderbys second enterprise. IL
1919 that man fitted out the Siren. a vesse Oh
800 tons Uhe whaiers of those days seldom
exceeded 300 tons). and sent her to look toI
whales Oft Japan. This second triumph was
greater than the first The Siren came nome
with 3f6 tuns of sperm ol-the record cargo
and AZ before. whaiers were dispatched poS'
haste for the new ground. in order 70 obtain
share OF the spoils New South Wales took
hand. and for the first time In 1871 ShipPeS