The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-20
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WHALE IS DISAPPEARING
FROM THE BRINY DEEP
Failure Catch Sets Old WhaIers Recalling Gores
of The Past
\ EW BEDFORD, Mass, Mar. 19.-With |
II ten whalers out of the Arctic fleet |
of the Past.


EW BEDFORD, Mass, Mar. 19.-With
~ ten whalers out of the Arctic fleet
of twenty returning to port clean
without having turned up finland
with only 10000 pounds of whalebone to
show for the entire cruise of the whole
fleet the old whalemen of New Bedford
are in these days trying to find comfort
In telling again about the achievements
Of Yankee whalers in the past and the big
profits some of the cruises brought. For
instance it was a Nantucket man, Capt
Folger, who first charted the Gulf Stream.
BENJAMIN Franklin caused this chart to
be engraved for the use of navigators, and
1t is substantially correct today.
1t was a New Bedford whaler, the Bed
ford, which was the first ship that ever
flew "rebellious thirteen stripes" of Amer
lea in any English port. She was dis
patched from Massachusetts the moment
peace was declared and she arrived in
the Thames with her cargo of oil before
all the acts of parliament against the
''rebels'' had been rescinded.
Hundred Whalers in Sight.
In 1888 the logbook Of the Nantucket
ship Penelope recorded her arrival in the
Arctic seas in rs north latitude, with 100
American whale ships in sight" And
this point, so far north that it is still
polar adventure for expeditions to reach
it, was reached in those early days by
little craft which did not even have cop
pered bottoms.
Long before that, solitary American
whalers had penetrated into the frozen
seas. Indeed, in 1853 a Boston schooner
had tried to find the northwest passage,
and had spent seven or eight months In
the ice.
It was the sperm whale that first in
duced American whalers to round the
Horn and enter the Pacific. In 1791 seven
ships sailed around the Horn from Nam
tucket and New Bedford.
Then began the era OF enterprise dur
ing which the whale ships carried the
American flag into every spot on the
globe, one Nantucket man entering even
the Red sea.
In those days the meeting ground OF
the whalers was off the islands OF Oahu
and Maui in the Hawaiian group, and
that land was then, in practice, as Amer1-
can as it is now in reality. The mail sta
ton was a deserted coral reef far to the
west, known as Bakers island, where
cask on a pole was used for the deposit
of letters by every passing ship
Small WhaIers In Unknown Seas.
Even before the capture of right and
bowhead whales had brought the Ameri-
can ships to the Arctic ocean and the
Behring sea in force, small whalers from
New England had yentured into unknown
seas.
Before 1843 two Russian warships on
voyage of exploration sighted group OF
islands in the Antarctic ocean and had
begun to send men ashore to take pos
session in the name of the car, when the
fog lifted and they were amazed to see
little sealing sloop from Long Island rid
ing quietly in the harbor. The Russians
| tod nd dicOuSfQ6 h1lf hon.
est enough to name the islands Palmer's
Land, after the captain of the little sail
boat.
Many Old Ships AfIoat.
The British ship Caribou had a similar
experience at almost the same time, for
she thought she had discovered the land
now known as Hurd's island, but on ap-
preaching she found the schooner Ok
ford of Fairhaven, Mass, there, engaged
In whaling.
Many of the ships that opened this Pa
cific and Arctic fishery are af1oat today
and catching whales as bravely as If they
were brand new. There is the famous old
bark Morning Star, which, when last re-
ported had sailed out of Fayal in the
Azores with 125 barrels of sperm oil which
she had obtained since last July, when
she left New Bedford on her cruise.
The Morning Star entered the Pacific
fishery in 1858, and made rich hauls of
oil and bone even through the Civil war,
evading privateers successfully, and land
ing her cargo at time when the market
had scared to dizzy heighs.
Killed 202 Whales.
In one cruise of 270 days she killed 2O2
whales. She penetrated Hudson bay in
1854 and 1866, and brought back oil and
bone that made her two voyages net
more than $4,000. This was at the time
of top prices when oil was worth 1.65
gallon and whalebone was selling at
$40 pound.
Great as this record was, 1t was ex-
celfed in that same period by Capt Eb-
eneZer Morgan, who entered port in 1866
with $4,000 worth Of bone and oil.
Even before the Civil war, and without
the aid of war prices, the whalers Of
those days made fortunes in single voy-
ages.
In 1866 the schooner Alabama, under
Capt. Consider Fisher, Of Sippican, made
$13, 600 worth of whales. She was worth
only 1920 originally with her full out
fit. Another schooner. the James, took
$4,000 worth in three months
Other Great Voyages.
Other great voyages were those of the
Captain Richmond, of New Bedford, which
took $65 900 worth of whales in two and
one-half years in the Pacific ocean In
1928 The Falmouth ship Uncas got
$50, 900 worth in two years and eight
months. The Lopez. of Nantucket, got
$50, 900 worth In fourteen months.
The Sarah, of Nantucket returned after
a three years cruise with $4,000 worth
oil