Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-02

profits, for the sperm whale, that once
made New Bedford rich, has dwindled in
Importance as the price of sperm Oil has
declined.
Today the pursuit of the sperm whale is
carried on as much because of sentiment
and family pride as because of any business
advantage. The profits made are small, ex-
cept when an occasional big killing is made
by one of the old ''sparm whalers; and al
though many of the famous old firms of
New Bedford of twenty-five and even fifty
years ago still exist as whaling concerns,
they make their money nowadays as mer
chants, mill owners and bankers.
New Bedfords pre-eminence as a manu-
featuring city today did not come as a sur
prise to them. If ever there was business
in America that demanded the highest
type of business acumen, financial talent
and commercial daring, it was that of
whaling in the famous days of old New
Bedford; and the men who were at its head
We're quick to see their chance in new New
Bedford.
Sentimental Whaling.
Hence they can afford now to send out
their old whaling. banks to cruise for
''sparm' even If there is no profit in it; and
queer as it may seem to those who have an
idea that the New England man is all bust
ness, 1t is absolutely true that proportion
of the famous old ships are sent out purely
because Of loyalty.
The old whaling owners have a love for
their ships that be understood only
when it is remembered that often an old
whaling bark has a record of having been
commanded successfully by grandfather,
father and son. These old vessels are over
hauled year after year with loving care
fitted with the best and sent out with much
OF the same pride that impels nation to
cherish It's old warships.
1t is different with the whalers who go
forth into the Arctic and O<hOtSk nd
along the northwest coast for right whale
and bowheads. The right whale was hardly
worth going for in the days when ''Sparm'
was king, for the oil of right whale and
bowhead. known as whale oil' as against
sperm OIL" was not nearly so valuable,
and the whalebone was practically worth
less in those far-off days.
Now conditions exactly reversed.
Sperm oil is low in price and whalebone has
gone up. Therefore the pursuit of the right
whale is still promising business PROPOSE
ton, as may be seen from the fact that
whalebone is expected to rise to Sc a pound
as a result of the bad luck of the Pacific
and arctic whalers
Even at that price the arctic fleet will
show loss. Most of the twenty ships in
the business are steamships, and they cost
on an average $50. 900 TO fit. Seventy thous-
and pounds of bone, even at SO a pound,
Will not cover the expenses.
The crack captain this season was New.
Bedford man, Captain James Tilton, whose
ship, the Alexander. made the record by
catching seven bowhead whale. She will
probably declare the only profit on the
cruise. Another steam whaler, the Will
lam Bayliss, which sailed away on Septem-
Der 20, 1885, has returned with fifty pounds
of bone taken in trade and two polar bear
cubs as the net returns of her adventuring.
1t is a true joke of fortune that, in the
early days, when whalebone was practically
worthless, the whalebone carrying whales
were plentiful near the New England shore,
while the precious sperm whale had to be
sought for in the open ocean and in dis
tant seas; and now the sperm whales are
fairly plentiful in the Atlantic between the
Massachusetts, coast and the Azores, while
the whalebone whales are hidden away in
the arctic.
First Whaler Witch.
They were right whales that were taken
by William Hamilton, who appeared on
Cape Cod in 1643 and became so over
whelmngly successful that his pious fell
lowmen soon made him the object of their
jealous regard as being one who dealt in
witchcraft. Mr.. Hamilton found it prudent
to abandon whaling over night, and to re-
move himself into another neighborhood
as swiftly possible.
However, Cape Cod swallowed its doubts
as to witchcraft in the whale fisheries. and
its inhabitants soon learned to kill whales
full as well the suspected Hamilton had
done. So, in 1880, the folk of Nantucket
engaged Ichabod Paddock of Cape Cod 10
settle on their island and teach them to
kill whales.
They killed right whales at short dis