, 1902-04-12

Capt. John A. Cook of Provincetown,
Mass. has started for San Francisco.
where his stanch steam bark Bowhead
awaits his coming ere pushing through
the Golden Gate to nose her way In
quest of whales Behring's straitwaId
and beyond. Capt. Cook goes to Ell
gage in the ninth campaign of his "A
years of Arctic whaling life. With
him goes the sunny-faced wife who
has shared with him on other voyages
all the rigors and monotony of Arctic
winter life experienced while frozen 10
on s%hipboard.
Capt. Cook is one OF the few men Of
this generation who have been suc-
cessful in this perilous and little un-
derstood pursuit. Mrs. Cook is one of
the few white women who have pene-
trated to the very heart of the wilder
ness of foes and bergs lying within
the Arctic circle-the one. in fact. who
has wintered farthest northeast on
that side of the continent: the one,
too. whose period OF s%ojourn in that
land of desolation. darkness and dead
ly storms unquestionably exceeds that
of any other white m past or
present.
Capt. Cook is only As years old. but
he has been a sailor for % years, for
he took ship at the age of II, and
was a master at the age of 10. In 1873,
at the age of %. he made his first whal-
ing trip. in the North Atlantic. as
boat steerer on the schooner William
Martin Of Boston. In the autumn of
1879 he sailed as second mate of the
schooner Amelia of New Bedford on Il
similar cruise. In May. 1881, he went
out third officer on the ship California
of New Bedford, cruised in the South
Pacific, was absent 81 months. and the
voyage proved splendidIy remunera-
tive.
He began his neXt cruise as first Of
ficer on the bark John and Winthrop.
in 1885, and secured New Zealand and
Australian seas, and in 1887 he went
out in the same capacity on the bark
Coral for a cruise in the Okhotsk sea.
On his e voyage. in the Arctic, in
1889. he was chief officer on the bark
Ohio-"the ship which never re
turned"
While the Ohio was threading tho
watery lanes in Behring's icy strait,
north bound, her bow was crushed in
below the waterline by a submerged
foe, the accident occurring just as the
ship was emerging from a closing field
into a wide expanse of open sea.
The crew hastily broke out and
shifted cargo aft, thereby tipping the
ship by the stern and lifting the bow
upward. this proceeding enabling them
to bring the crushed portion above the
surface. when, with blankets and
boards, they temporarily "~smothered"
the leak. The ships head was then
turned south in an endeavor to get
from the ice-thronged sea, but the Aoes
enwrapped the craft afresh, wrenched
away the improvised leak-stopper for
ward. STAYED in the bows, and drove
the ship hard and fast upon an adj
jacent island.
The masts were cut away, spars.
provisions and sails were gotten upon
the barren island. and the crew began
to make provision against future hard
ships, but on the day succeeding the
catastrophe other whaling vessels ap-
peared in the vicinity. The Ohio's
castaways were rescued and distribute
ed among the fleet. Cook being as
signed to the Josephine, on which
craft he finished the season as boat
header.
In 1890 he sailed into the Arctic as
master of the bark John and Win
throp. Early in the cruise the craft
was wilfully fired by some of the for
ward hands. The fire was started in
the lower hold, away up "in the eyes
of 'er," right on top of a tier of casks
which contained 200 barrels of oil.
Prompt action and arduous labor alone
saved the ship from destruction. De-
spite this inauspicious and alarming
incident, the cruise proved a money
winner.
The staying of the arctic whale is not