Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-04
WHALES NOW PLENTY
The Atlantic is Full of the
Big Ones Again.
GREAT CATCHES MADE
OLD WHALERS HAVE THOUSANDS
OF BARRELS OF OIL.
Stories of Life Aboard the Boats
Off New Bed
ford.
GREAT CATCHES MADE
Written for The Evening Star.

Written for The Evening Star.
It's Whale in New Bedford again.
"Sparm' are schooling and blowing in all
the western ocean-the North Atlantic from
the American coast to 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 rostrils once more-the smell that
brings back to them the days when they
piled out OF New Bedford young boat
steerers and harpooners and ordinary crew.
They assemble around the quaint craft
with the tryworks amidship, with the great
bent wooden davits, black and uncouth,
bolted all along the greasy sides, and they
stare out toward the harbors mouth and
wish.
They know that the old days of great
adventuring are ended. They know that
petroleum and gas have made 1t 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 few remaining whalers
come in again FULL" counting their catches
once more by the thousands of barrels.
They see the old wharf at Union street COW
cred 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, ah. the still beckons with
all its ancient mystery. The barbor'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
Iai pF in baiDp Ia
"sparm,'' a huudred-barrel fish. They
dream of hearing the cry of Thar she
blows once more; Of seeing "whitewaters"
on the slow, gray heave of the eternal deep.
New Bedford's Quandary.
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 in commits
sion now. and Of those few the most are
schooners, not adapted TO the long cruises
of two or more years that mean good
voyage" Ships cannot be adapted to whal-
ing They must be built for il. The craft
that must hold a huge fifty or sixty-ton
fish alongside in 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
shore, with whales being encountered with
IN two and three days sail from port, the
ancient WQdlluB Town Is unable to take tull
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 good voyage mean big
profit Even the schooners, able to remain
out only few months and able TO carry
only a Limited quantity of oil, have been
coming home with from five to six thousand
dollars worth of oil and whalebone. The
schooner Pedro Narelo-a revenue cutter
during the civil warts in after five months
with five thousand dollars 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
tained 600 barrels Of sperm oil. She prom
ises TO equal her recent record when she ar
rived I'm port with oil and bone that sold
for $4,000. The bark Morning Star reports
from Fayal with $50 barrels taken In the
last six months. She has been cruising since
October l. 1901. and has taken 1900 bar
rels since leaving port.
Oldest Whaler in the World.
A glorious old-tirne voyage has been that
OF the fine old Canton. the oldest whaling
vessel in the world She is lying at the
Union street wharf now. having discharged
the last five hundred barrels Of a net "yoy-
age" that produced 800 barrels Of sperm
oil in sixteen months-an exceptionally
short cruise with a result big enough to
make even the old whalers of New Bedford
town admire.
The Canton sailed the whale grounds of
all the seven seas long before the garish
days Of kerosene. She carried the Ameri-
can flag around the world long before many
American steamships We're on the seas. She
struck whale in waters almost unknown to
the rest of the maritime world And stout
in every timber. able the day when she
was launched, with ribs so well preserved
that they chip fresh and bright under the
shipwright's adZe. she promises to carry
her white and blue house flag with the
black letter "W'' on the white and the rec
ball on the blue field. the famous old pen
nant of the Wings of New Bedford, around
the world for many years to come.
They treat her lovingly. Scarcely were
the last barrels of oil out Of her before
the ship carpenters were in her-ripping VI
nlanks and sheathfng to investigate hel