Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-08
SEA KING FIGHTERS
Ancient Whalers of New Bed
ford Who Are Still Young
WHEN DEEDS ARE TOLD
THINK HUNTING WHALES IS AN
EASY THING.
What opium Pudd'n Whaling" Really
Means in This Hardy
Section.
WHEN DEEDS ARE TOLD


| Bedford nowadays before he can perceive
| for himself that 1t was and is still whal-
| ing town.
Trolley cars a great deal more hand
| some and convenient and much faster than
| those of vain New York. whisk the visitor
| through a pretty city of shops and big
buildings. The people one sees everywhere
| are trim, lively business folk. When an oc-
| casional whaler comes in good proportion
| of the population wanders down to the an
| cient wharves and gazes at the ship with
| as much curiosity and ignorance as the
visitor from far away.
But underneath the surface, whale Still
permeates the real New Bedford. The VS.
itor who becomes acquainted with the
prosperous citizens soon learns to express
no surprise when a dignifed, elegant man
of affairs breaks in the middle of dis
cussion Of the latest novel or the newest
phase Of finances in Wall street, to remark,
apropos of something, that it reminds him
of the time when he got the iron into bull
sperm off the cape.
Drop into a modern busting establish
ment. and the chances are that the keen
business man who owns 1t can tell you all
about whales-right, sperm, bowhead, fin
back and sulphur bOttom-from personal
knowledge.
Walk into the biggest clothing establish
ment Of the town. and in the rear Office
you will see row Of green wooden boxes,
each box bearing on it the name Of a whal-
ing ship-several of them vessels that were
famous quarter of a century ago, and all
cruising somewhere in far seas today hunt
ing the old sea kings.
The writer, visiting New Bedford recent
ly, called on one of the towns most prom
inent business men on Sunday night. lie
found him reading a history Of whaling.
For three hours the man Of affairs lay in
&c, OH f~ Nd fa1lr o1 of !, Has ND
great ships-ships that long ago sank in un-
known seas or were flung on strange shores
or smashed and splintered In the arctic or
antarctic ice.
middle-aged man. dressed in the height Of
style, dropped in. He was a bank presi-
dent After few moments Of CONVERSE
ton, he laughed:
Reminds me of my last voyage. I was
boat steerer and we got fast to q small
sperm. Well, sir. laugh whenever / think
of 1t. When he went into his furry he
spewed so much blood and water over us
that we couldn't see, and we recovered
only just in time to save the boat from
sinking under us, she was SO full
The Young Old Ones.
The preservation of New Bedford's old
whalers is evidence that whaling is to be
recommended as a road to health and lon
gevity. One meets persons who look as if
they were in the prime of life, who will
talk feelingly and from direct personal ex-
perience of the Alabama and the Shenan-
doah, whose daring commanders bounced
like hawks on New Bedford whalers in the
Pacific and Atlantic during the civil war.
One fine and clipper young person, who
owns q ship-breaking establishment near
the wharf, shakes his head sadly at the
mountains of iron junk and ship hard
ware in front of his place and hanks back
respectfully to the glorious time of 1850.
''Ah, says he, you should have seen my
place then. Used to have junk piled up
from Union street clear away down to the
waters edge. Sometimes we would be
breaking up three or four ships at time
But those days have gone by
wouldn't you like to go a-whaling once
more?"
''Dunno-dunno. Think, though. some
times. that 1 just will take one more cruise
nose'
He confesses to seventy birthdays.
Like the old are the new. One doesn't
see the crews Of whalers rolling through
casional Portugee darby. who swings his
1.-the, tall body along like an old-time
sailor with sheath knife dangling at his
hip.
The majority of the whalers once off the
ship, hasten to put on the best of clothes
and the day after arrival one may rub
shoulders with natty young men in creased
trousers and patent leather shoes and styl-
two before they went smoking through the
South Atlantic in a narrow, fimsy boat be-
hind a whale who was in a mighty hurry
to go somewhere far away.
The Portuguese, white and black mostly
white are the whaling men of New Bed
ford today. The owners like them. They
consider them more reliable than the Amer
lean in point of sticking to the ship, and
equally good as whalers.
Most Of them are young men in wears
and most of them are impressivey old in
experience. There is Capt. Nicholas Vierra
master of the Canton, the Oldest whaling
tie past thirtyfive. But with his last cruise
he had completed a course of thirty years
Of whaling.
Captain Vierra views the seeker for tales
Of whaling adventure with mild wonder
Adventures? In whaling?" asked he
after his arrival with his last big catch Of
oil and bone. why, folk in New Bedford
get hurt and killed every day ashore with
Thirty years and 1 never saw a man killed
excepting only once and then he didn't need
to be. The boat made fast to a whale and
he capsized it. All the men just made a
few strokes and climbed upon the whales
back. and waited there till the other boat
came and took them off. This one fellow
slid off too soon and was drowned before he
reached the boat, because he couldn't swim
Whales Gentle as Cows.
Though I've been whaling thirty years"
continued the captain, Il never saw a fight
ing whale till this last voyage, when a
sperm whale struck one of the boats with
his fiuke and broke the boat steerer's arm.
Whales aren't fierce as general thing, and
they aren't very shy. To be sure, one
mustn't run at them SO that the boat Is in
range with their eyes. But generally there
is trouble in bringing the boat close
alongside of them. Most of them, big and
little, take the iron quietly as if they
were cows. When they are struck all they
want to do is to get away.
"Of course. the whaler must look out for
fiukes, and, in the case of sperm whales
for their jaws. You take an ordinary whale
and you want to remember that his fuke
is as big as that barn door. And our boats
are made Of light scantling-half-inch stuff
We have em light so that we can easily
patch them together again when they get
broken by fish.
well. when a fluke like that comes down
on such a boat there isn't much left But
the men don't get hurt often. When they
see it coming they know that the only
thing to do is to spill themselves out Of
the opposite side and swim for it.
when a boat is smashed the men grab
for the oars and put them crosswise over
what is left Of the boat. Then they are
safe until they are picked up
DO you find that men ever lose their
nerve after their boats are smashed. or