The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-02-17
WHALE FISHER HAS
LIFE OF ACTIVITY
Captain Britain Tells Experience
in Arctic Circle
HOW THE HARP00N Is USED
Big Money Is Often Realized, But
Amount Is Small When Com
pared With the Danger
Involved.
HOW THE HARPOON is USED
BY CHARLES FELL


cntage, both his mother and father being
born and raised in the old country but
his father being In the service of the
English government in Arabia, Henry
Britain was born there. From his early
childhood he lived close by the sea, and
after having known It fourteen years, fell
more in love with it than home and ran
away to become a sailor. From that day
until a few years ago Mother Ocean
nestled him to her bosom in time of trou-
BILE or peace.
Captain Britain has circumnavigated
the globe five times and IN the course Of
his travel has touched on every civilized
country ON earth, and on quite a number
of Islands which are no more civilized
Than the widest portions of Africa. He
is today man of 10 ripe and conserVa-
tive years, but looks much more like a
man of tWo-score years. His work as a
sailor has given him a fine physique and
he is as active now as ever.
He is now travelling over tire United
States and says that when he completes
this trip lie viii have seen practically all
of the world lie speaks intelligently on
all of the countries lie has set his eye on
and speaks fluenty, I suppose in the
language of the natives of the Pacific
Guiding French and Spanish
This Far travellers" relation OF his
experience during the seven years spent
as Il Whaler back in the seventies, in dif-
ferent parts of the "briney deep is
most interesting. especially his adyen-
lures in the Arctic circle.
A man who intends to go out on a
whaling expedition. he says. goes out
counting on his own luck. In his day,
he states there We're large companies
which fitted up the ship, furnished the
provisions and secured the crew. One
man could hardly do this, since for a
lve-year expedition the expense, building
of the ship included, was about 100000.
The captain of these ships, of course. was
a very responsible and a very reliable
man Each man on board took pot
luck" his portion being a certain per cent
Of the spoils, usually about one-sixtieth
or a SEVENTEEN.
In the employ of a New Bedford, Conn.
company Captain Britain set out early in
1871 for the polar regions. During the
first year it fell the lot of the crew to
catch but one whale. The ship lay to-
until August of the next year and set out
again, and between August and Novem-
Der filled the ship full of oil and whale
bone. Where there was not room for a
barrel of oil the crew stuck in big pieces
of blubber.
The blubber is always dried or boiled
out, and in this way the oil is secured
from It,
There are many people who wonder
where we get our barrels in such large
numbers, said Captain Britain. BE
fore leaving port slaves are put on
board for as many barrels as the
ship is capable of holding. These
slaves are all numbered by the coop
ers, and they are needed by the
whalers they are set up and the heads
u, ;e -
an art in itself. since every stave has a
place.
After our run of good luck in II we
| were preparing TO turn back for the
| south, and one night we We're estimating
| what we would realize from the exped-
| ton. We had on board 5000 barrels of
| oil and $4,000 pounds of whalebone. Every
sixtieth barrel was mine. and if whale oil
had been worth sl.S5 and whalebone $2.6l,
| which was the price then, my share
would have been about $5001 But hard
! luck followed our success.
Two nights after this we were caught
in the ice. and after working for about
three weeks We're obliged to leave the
! ship on account of the danger of its
being crushed and all of us with it, The
| ongboats We're lowered and we got out
on the ice Our ship was lost.
My experience during this time was
enough TO settle whaling. as far as | was
days and if it had not been for our long
boats which we turned upside down aud
slept under, we would have probably
been in the land of the hereafter today
The only one of the crew who was lost
was the cabin boy, who, in an attempt
to jump from one piece of ice 10 another,
slipped and fell between them and was
crushed to death.
mo one but ourselves knows the agony
we went through. Though we had the
usual amount of clothing on we were con-
tinually exposed to the weather and haG
practically given up the ghost when
whaling ship three days behind us sight
ed us and took us up
My last trip to the Arctic leads me to
believe that Nansen the great Norwegian
explorer was not absolutely truthful in
his relation of his trip in search for the
pole. lie stated that for two years he
and his men We're pushing toward the
pole, living on nothing but polar bear
meat and blubber. If there is any man
on earth who can stand two meals of
polar bear meat he is a wonder. We had
to come down TO 1t on one occasion dur
ing our trip. The meat was as fine
grained and pretty as any corn-fed hog
and while we We're eating we enjoyed it
highly.
"The next morning when VIC got up We
were all swollen up as big as hogsheads
and were blue all over. We were all
nearly utdu LOT ii WteN lie reason Tor
this is that the polar bear lives prac-
tically on nothing but the carrlon of the
different Arctic animals. walrus espe-
cially. The bull walruses are continually
fighting one another and the polar bear
lives principally on tho bodies OF these
dead animals. This. l believe makes
them positively poison to those who eat
the meat. 1t fixed MS, at any rate.
Another thing, Nansen says he was
continually pushing for the pole and
covered 600 miles during the time. two
wears There are 122 days during the wear
when 1t Is as dark in the Arctic circle as
II YOU We're ten miles under the ground
Travelling during this time Is practically
impossible
II also have reason to believe that our
crew got as far north as anybody has
ever been. I never heard of amy of the
famous explorers mention the green ana
purple snow beds of the far north
have had people laugh at me time and
again on this proposition. but II is a fact
nevertheless. Several times | have seen
huge iceherss covered with snow beau
tfully stratihed with streaks of green
and white. or purple aud white, as the !
seen together. or in the same locality. |
one scientist personally expressed his !
opinion to me that the cause of this was |
probably in some small vegetable which |
takes growth in the snow. II this was so /
it would be in patches and not in the |
even strata. 1t must be the effect of |
the northern lights,
ITO man who had never heard of the