The Calumet news., 1912-08-27
THE MODERN WHALER.
She Is Not Like the Deep Sea Whsler
of Ole

In these days of progress even the
sea Loses much OF it's romance. rhe
Geep sea whaler redolen, of oil and
brine and clustered round about with
the ships boats IL which are the har-
poon throwers. is a picture gone from
sight. The old hand harpoon which
made whaling so fascinating and SO
dangerous has been succeeded by the
gun harpoon, which also carries a
bomb to explode In the leviathan' $
body. This operation can be accom-
plished from the ships deck itself, and
by this means the greatest number
of whales Is harvested in shortest
possible time The modern catch" is.
therefore. much larger than the one
Of a dozen years ago.
Some of the larger species, such as
the rorqual, were avoided in the time
Of small boats on account of their
fierceness. Rut these can now be safe
ly tackled with the bomb harpoon, and
thus wider fleld of profit Is opened
up. Blckfish, finhval. blaahval or
NOrd Kaper are also hunted now.
Sharks are not molested much. but 1t
is believed that even they will be
found To have q commercial value be-
fore long. In former days, also. the
whale was merely stripped of it's blub-
Der and whalcbone, or spermaceti, as
the case might be. the carcass being
abandoned To the sharks. AS only the
Greenland right" whale and the sperm
whale or cacnalot have srfIiCien whale
bone, spermaceti and blubber to be
worth killing for these items there
was an additional reason why the old
time whaler ignored all the otner
species. But the modern factory con-
yerts every portion of the whale into
some commercial article; consequently.
instead of merely being killed for it's oil
and whalebone, it is now utilized TO
make fertilizer. phosrhates. ard many
other valuable commodities. BY using
all parts of the fish in this way
any kind of whale will pay for the
catching, and pay we'll.
What the actual profits of mod
ern whaling station really amount To Is
hard to ascertain. but one frequently
hears of such profits as 30 per cent,
and more. This will naturally depend
to a large extent on the number OF
whales in the district, and especially
on their species. as. while some of the
smaller kinds. such as the black fish,
are only worth $1O or $15 apiece. the
more valuable kinds may easily be
worth $4,000 or more. Large as this
sum is, IL does not seem excessive when
II is considered that the price of
(Which is now very cheap
ranges from 5000 a ton for the short
finer bone, Ia sixteen or eighteen
times that price for the real baena
uf twelve feet or so i'm length. Not
long ago the latter was worth $11, ,250
4 ton but more extensive operations OF
the steam whalers are naturally bring
ing down the price. Ordinary quality |
whale oil is worth about 500 ton.
and the finest kinds may run to double |
that figure, so IL is easy to realize |
how valuable 'large whale is when, |
In addition to oil and spermaceti, or |
as the case may be every |
Dit of flesh and bone is also turned in |
20 readily marketable article. There |
s, too, the possibility OF finding some |
Imbergris occasionally-that strange |
growth so valuable for its perfume. |
The lucky ship that gets lump of
his rarity can reckon on selling IT at
'erhaps $50 an ounce, and the humps
nay weigh many pounds.