The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-07-08

| The French sloop-of-war Bonit,
visited Honolulu in 1886. In his yer,
| elaborate description of the islands ant
people of that day, AdoIph Barrett OF
that vessel, wrote also of the whaling
industry, the story being printed il
| The Friend of October /. 1850:
l ''The most important commercial re-
source to the islands at this time is the
] whale ships, which touch at Honolulu
| twice a year to repair damage and pro
| cure supplies which are cheap and are
very good. Fifty or sixty American
whaleships enter the port of Honolulu
annually, and between twenty and
twenty-five English whaleships. 1t is
| calculated that the expense of each
whaleship for supplies is not less than
$500 each time, thus making sum
| total of $4,000 or $4O,00O.''
The customs report for the year 1849
gives total of 154 ships arriving at
Lahaina and 100 at Honolulu Those
were days when the talk was of
- chasing, 'harpooning, 'lancing,
towing" cutting-in,' Crying
out, slowing of right and
polar and sperm whales.
Even Whalers arrived at Lahaina on
September 6, 1850, all homeward bound,
averaging 10000 pounds of whale bone
each, making a total of about 10000
pounds of bone for the feet. A month
later fourteen whalers touched at La
haina, bound for home after long
cruises to the north and northwest and
their combined bone resources amounted
to 364,0 600 pounds. The catches of
whales varied from 500 to 1000.
In those days there was a great con-
troversy in the papers religiously in
clined and especially in those publica-
tions which had the interest of the sail
ors at heart. Arguments ran pro and
con on Sabbath whaling. Some cap
tains proclaimed against the pursuit of
50 blowers on the Sabbath, arguing
that the blessings of the Almighty fell
upon those captains who refrained from
pursuing whales on the Lords Day,
and giving what were purpOrted TO be
facts to indicate the Almighty's inter
est in the matter. One captain who ar
rayed himself against Sabbath ursll-
ing, said that when his crew was mus
tered on deck just after sailing from
New England for the Pacific, they We're
informed that his determination was
not to pursue whales on Sundays. This
whaling master, Captain Brown, says:
eve took seven whales in six days, |
against another boat s one whale for
seven days. He draws a moral from
this to show that the Lord was on his |
side of the argument. Whatever the |
fact was oil was worth good deal in |
those days, selling ut auction at times
for $3.50 per barrel and when vessel |
had 2200 barrels or more it was valu-
able. When captain would deliber-
ately permit a whale to get away from
him because it happened to elbow on
a Sunday, he certainly had the courage
of his convictions.
One captain wrote in The Friend his
argument on the Sabbath whaling ques
ton, opposing Captain Brown, and he
asked that worthy master as to what
was E'the difference between Sunday
sailing and Sunday whaling. 1t amounts
TO one and the same thing
THE SHENANDOAH RAID.
The great romance of whaling in the
Pacific ocean which was almost it's
leath -knen came when the Confederate
government prlvateer Shenandoah !,
roamed the whole Pacific, destroying,
burning and scuttling every whaler
which flew the American flag. Then it
was that Honolulu felt the mailed hand
IF war.
The Shenandoah in her prime was
not called q privateer, but a pirate
When the whaler Milo arrived at San
Francisco in September, 1865, her mas
ho1 |,
IF the wholesale destruction of Ameri-
IAN shipping by the Shenandoah. The +:
pirate boarded a Hawaiian schooner on :.