The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-04
BY j. w. MULLER.

perceive for himself that it was and
Is still whaling town.
Trolley cars, a great deal more
handsome and convenient and much
faster than those of vain New York.
wisk the visitor through pretty city
of shops and big buildings. The peo-
7le one sees everywhere are trim, live
w business folk. When an occasional
whaler comes in good proportion of
the population wanders down to the
ancient wharves and gazes at the ship
with as much curiosity and Ignorance
as the visitor from far away.
But underneath the surface, whale"
still permeats the real New Bedford.
The visitor who becomes acquainted
with the prosperous citizens soon
learns to express no surprise when
dignified, elegant man of affairs breaks
IN the middle of a discussion 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 a bull sperm, off the Cape.
Drop into a modern busting estab-
1ishnnent. and the chances are that the
keen business man who owns it can
tell YOU all about whales-right,
sperm, bowhead, finback and sulphur
bottom-from personal knowledge.
Walk into the biggest clothing estab-
lishment of the town, and in the rear
office YOU will see a row of green
wooden boxes, each box bearing on it
the name of a whaling ship-several
of them vessels that were famous
ouarter of a century ago, and all cruis-
ing somewhere in far seas to-day hunt
ing the old sea kings.
The writer, visiting New Bedford re-
Gently, called on one of the towns
most prominent business men on ..
Sunday night. He found him reading
history of whaling. For three hours
the man of affairs lay in his chair and
talked of great whales and great ships
ships that long ago sank in unknown
seas or were flung on strange shores
or smashed and splintered in the arc
tic or antarctic ice.
While he was talking a rosy-cheek-
ed middle-aged man, dressed in the
hight of style, dropped in. He was a
bank president. After a few moments
Of converse ton, he laughed:
Reminds me of my last voyage. I.
was boat steerer and we got fast to a
small sperm. Well, sir, I laugh when
ever think of it. 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 U.s.
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 longevity. One meets per-
sous who look as if they were in the
prime of life, who will talk feelingly
and from direct personal experience
of the Alabama and the Shenandoah,
whose daring commanders pounced
like hawks on New Bedford whalers
in the Pacific and Atlantic during
the Civil War.
One fine and clipper young person,
who owns a ship-breaking establish
ment near the wharf, shakes his head
sadly at the mountains of iron junk
ana ship hardware in front of his
place and harks back regretfully to
the glorious time of 1850.
All" 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 a time. But
those days have gone by.
Wouldn't. you like to go a-whaling
once more?"
sometimes that I just will take one
more cruise and get the smell of sparm
into my old nose"
He confesses to seventy birthdays
Like the old, are the new. One
doesn't see the crews of whalers roll.
ing through the streets, with the ex-
ception of an occasional Portugee
darby, who swings his 1.-THE, tall body
along like an od-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 stylish hats,
and never dream that a month or two
before they went smoking through the
South Atlantic in narrow f1imsy boat
behind 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 Bedford to-day. The owners like
them. They consider them more re-
hable than the American in point of
sticking to the ship, and equally good
as whalers.
Most of them are young men in
Years, and most of them are impress
slvely old in experience. There is
Capt. Nicholas Vierra, master of the
the business. He seems to be little
past So. But with his last cruise he
mad completed a course of thirty
years of whaling
Capt Vierra views the seeker for
tales of whaling adventure with mild
wonder.
Adventures? In whaling?" asked
ne 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 cars and things.
Now I've been whaling thirty years
ana l never saw a man killed except
ing 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 few strokes and
cnmoed up on the whales back, and
waited there till the other boat came
ana took them off. This one fellow
sld off too soon and was drowned be-
Iore he reached the boat, because he
couldn't swim.
Whales Gentle ms Cows.
Though I've been whaling thirty
years" continued the Captain, II new
ct saw fighting whale till this last
Noyage. when a sperm whale struck
She OF the boats with his fiuke and
oroke the boat steerer's arm. Whales
@Ieh I herce as a general thing, and
icy aren't very shy. To be sure, one
iinusnt run at them so that the boat
- IN range with their eyes. But gen
z-twa