Omaha daily bee., 1902-10-12

""T'S WHALE" in New Bedford
I$1 again. "Sparm" are schooling
CO.. and blowing in all the Western
IQWRt Ocedn-the North Atlantic from
- the American coast tn the
Azores.
High bowed, with sturdy stump masts,
spelling power in every rounded line, whal-
ing ships are sailing in and out of Buzz
yards Bay once more. Bankers and street
railway directors, merchants and retired
gentlemen of leisure, come driving down
in smart rigs behind fast horses to the
wharves to get the smell of whale oil in
their n~ostrils once more-the smell that
brings back to them the days when they
piled out of New Bedford as young boat
b Sse~. ana ""Fp0o"''S anu 0''''"''
They assemble around the quaint craft
with he tryworks amidship, with the great
bent wooden davits, black and uncouth,
bolted all along the greasy sides, and they
stare out toward the harbor's mouth and
wish.
They know that the old days Of great
sdvcnturing are ended. They know that
! petroleum and gas have made it unlikely
that big fortunes will ever be made again
out of whale, be they plentiful as they
may, blow they ever so near the coast.
But they see the rev remaining WHdltlS
come in again full" counting their
catches once more by the thousands Of
barrels. They see the old wharf at Union
street covered again with whale oil casks.
They see the Portugee crews roll along the
street again to draw big money as their
share of good voyages.
New Bedford is a city of cotton mills
now. But, all! the sea still beckons with
all its ancient mystery. The harbor's
mouth still shines, a gate to the JOY OF
the open ocean. And the rich, staid old
gentlemen almost.
Think they shall take to the sea again .
To SINCE the beard of the king OF spain,
their king of Spain being a barnacled old
"sparm.' a hundred-barre fish. They
dream of hearing the cry of Thar she
blows once more; Of seeing white
waters en- the slow, gray heave of the
eternal deep.
New Bedford is in a quandary. OF all her
noble whaling fleet of a quarter Of a CEN
fury ago, only a few vessels are now in
commission, and Of those few the most are
, schooners, not adapted to the long cruises
/ OF two or more years that mean a good
voyage" Ships cannot be adapted to whal-
ing. They must be built for 1t. The craft
that must hold a huge fifty or sixty ton
fish alongside in a tumbling sea, hanging
on to the mighty bulk by main strength OF
tackle and timber, must be built far more
massively than the ordinary merchant ship.
So now, with sperm whales playing off
sehore, with whales being encountered
- within two and three days sail from port,
the ancient whaling town is unable to take
full advantage of its new opportunity.
What ships there are bring in gold again
not so much as before the war, when
whale oil was worth dizzy prices, but
enough to make a good voyage mean big
profit. Even the schooneTs, able to remain
out only a few months and able to carry
only a limited quantity of oil, have been
coming home with from 5000 to $4,000
worth of oil and whalebone. The schooner
Pedro Varelo-a revenue cutter during the
civil war-is in after five months with
$4,000 worth Of oil.
The bigger vessels have been doing cor
respondingly better. The whaling bark
Sunbeam, out only two months, has re-
ported from Fayal that she has already OBJ
? aimed $50 barrels of sperm oil. She prom
ises to equal her recent record when she
arrived in port with oil and bone that sold
for $65, 900. The bark Morning Star reports
from Fayal with $50 barrels taken in the
last six months. She has been cruising