The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-01-03


,1eet of twenty running to port
.c,ean"-without having turned up a
en-and with only 10000 pounds of
ybalebone to show for the entire
cruise of the whole fleet, the old right
,rbale has hit the whalemen of the
United states hard even for these lat
ter days.
The pursuit of this whale is the
on1v branch OF the business now that
means big profits, for the sperm
whale. that once made New Bedford
rich. has dwindled in Importance as
the price of sperm oil has declined.
To-day the pursuit of the sperm
u,bale is carried on as much because
of sentiment and family pride as be-
cause of any business advantage. The
nrofts made are small, except when
an occasional big killing is made by
one of the old sperm whalers; and
although many of the famous old
fms of New Bedford of twenty
FIVE and even fifty years ago still exist
as whaling concerns, they make their
money nowadays as merchants, mill
owners and bankers.
New Bedfords pre-eminence as a
manufacturing city to-day did not
come as a surprise to them. If ever
there was a business in America that
demanded the highest type of business
acument, financial talent and CONNER
cial daring, it was that of whaling in
the famous days of old New Bedford;
and the men who were at it's 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 barks to cruise for
"sparm" even if there is no profit IN
1t. and queer as it may seem to those
who have an idea that the New Eng
land man is all business, it is absolute
ly true that a proportion of the IA
nous old ships are sent out purely be-
cause of loyalty.
The old whaling owners have a love
for their ships that can 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 overhauled year after
year with loving care, fitted with the
best and sent out with much of the
same pride that impels a nation to
cherish it's old warships.
1t is different with the whalers who
go forth into the Arctic and Okhotsk
seas and along the northwest coast
for right whale and bowheads. The
right whale was hardly worth going
for in the days when sperm" 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 prac-
tically worthless in those far-off days.
Now conditions are exactly reversed.
Sperm oil is low in price and whale
bone has gone up. Therefore the pur-
suit Of the right whale is still promls-
ing business proposition, as may be
seen from the fact that whalebone is
expected to rise to Sc a pound as re-
suit OF the bad luck of the Pacific and
Arctic whalers
Even at that price the Arctic fleet
viii show a loss. Most of the twenty
ships in the business are steamships,
and they cost on an average $25, 900 to
mt. Seventy thousand pounds of bone,
expenses.
The crack captain this season was a
New Bedford man, Capt. James Tilton,
whose ship, the Alexander, made the
record by catching-seven bowhead
whale. She will probably declare the
only profit on her cruise. Another
steam whaler, the William Bayliss,
which sailed away on Sept. 90 1886, has
returned with fifty pounds of bone TAX
en- In trade and two polar bear cubs as
lle net returns of her adventuring.
~ Is true joke of fortune that, in
the early days, when whalebone was
prdctlcally worthless, the whalebone
/ T. rrylng whales were plentiful near the
LEeW england shore, while the precious
sperm whale had to be sought for in
sne open ocean and in distant seas; and
EnnTn1 las f,s,, IL
tlIul IN the Atlantic between the Mas
ssaehusetts coasts and the Azores, while
me Wnalebone whales are hidden away
III the Arctic.
First Whale a Witch.
iihey We're right whales that were
oxen py William Hamilton, who APP
pedred on Cape Cod in 1913 and be-
taIne SO overwhelmingly successful
mat MS pious fellowmen soon made
nlii the object of their Jealous regard
% a. pelhg one who dealt in witchcraft.
MI ml' hamilton found it prudent to
ra whaling over night, and to
b eoioVe himself into another neighbor-
NJou as swiftly as possible.
however, Cape Cod swallowed its
s souDts as to witchcraft in the whale
+. i.SlleIles' and its inhabitants soon
N az TO Kill whales full as well as
le suspected Hamilton had done. So.
~ loSO' the folk of Nantucket engaged
a. Paddock of Cape Cod to set
S lie on their island and teach them to
d,Iney killed right whales at short
Va u.SSedhces from the shore until 1860,
mneh the animals found the matter
.IoIlOtonous and moved off. Then
, snail sloops of about fifty tons were
OeTo 70 go out to off shore grounds.
=. ~ the meantime, in 1872, a Nantuck-
81 81 whaler that had been blown off shore
81 d gaze struck the first sperm whale