The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1904-04-24

h a pound. and yet the whal-
ing industry is dying! 1t is
a curious, almost an incredible situa-
sion, and yet 1t Is the fact. Whaling.
tae most picturesque and at one time
the most extensive of American mari
time industries, which built up and sup
ported half dozen of the most -four
ishing New England towns of forty or
fifty years ago, will soon be extinct as
an industry. and is never likely to be-
come popular as a sport; and yet it
was cabled from London a week or two
ago that two and a quarter tons OF
whalebone had sold there at $4,000 4
ton, and that there only remained Gu
the market in all the world about four
tons of whalebone. So that IL Is likely
to be going higher yet
At present the entire whaling business
Of this country, and that means practi-
cally OF the world, IS in the hands of
the Pacific Steam Whaling Company
with headquarters at San Francisco and
agencies in the East. Said e. K. Aus
tin. Of New York. who recently visited
the Capital, speaking of the present
scarcity OF whalebone
This years crop does not exceed So
600 pounds all told. 1t is almost fam
ine. During the last ten years the hay
vest has run from 10000 10 COCOON
pounds: and even that was a tremen-
dous falling off from the old days. Why.
we used to expect as a matter Of course
from 100000 to 100000 pounds as the re
suit Of the years catch. In those days
whalebone was perhaps 70 cents a
pound Now 1t is $3.50 a pound here.
and about 81 on the other side.
NO. that doesn't mean the revival OF
the whaling industry. ! wish it did. But
the whaling industry is dead-not In a
trance. but dead-Or. at any rate. dying
fast, and beyond the possibility of re-
vival. You see. in the old days the
whale was chiefly valuable for his oil.
Practically he supplied the worlds light.
But the world has found so many other
ways of getting light, cheaper light, and
better light. that the days of sperm
whaling are well past. Gas and cleo
tricity killed that business. And now
whalebone-which caters purely to fem
mime vanity-ls the only prop left to a
once great industry.
Whale ola different thing from
sperm Oils still used to some extent
in the trades, tanning, for instance; but
it is rapidly being supplanted by men
haGen oil. which is much cheaper and
can be obtained close at home. Whale
oil within the last decade has sold at
81 a gallon; it now sells. when it sells at
all. at 30 cents; and there is little de-
mand for it even at that price. as men
haden oil is a few cents cheaper yet,
We used to run big distiIleries out in
San Francisco, but we've given up that
branch of the business completely ana
% -.
bone The demand for the oil was not
sufficient to pay for its refining and
freight
why doesn't whalebone, wholesaling
at Sc 80 q pound. mean a revival OF the
whaling industry? Because it costs too
close to $3.50 a pound to get 1t to market.
Whaling nowadays IS not what II was.
Whalers are not sailing vessels of as
sorted sizes and rig and mOnsrel crews.
They are big, strongly built steamers,
built particularly with a view TO with
standing the pressure of ice Such yes
sci costs about 100000 to build, and
about $4,000 10 equip for a cruise. 1t
may be out for a year or two and come
back without having more than seen a
whale
Whales are scarce these days. Then,
again. it may be out only a month or
two and get caught in the ice. Last
season We lost two of our vessels that
way
The whaling grounds are ever so
much farther north nowadays than they
we're thirty or forty years ago. More
over, IL is the right" whale that yields
bone, not the sperm whale, which was
formerly hunted for its oil. The bone,
as you know, is not bone. but approxi-
mately il is teeth-it forms n sort or
fringe In the mouth of the right whale
that acts as Il sieye-prevents anything
too big from going down.