The Washington herald., 1917-03-25

SAuko SNSWSPapCE oyuulCIe.
red than the printing on his own ships
hull
As day after day we wallowed along
IN the northeast trades. over a deep
blue sea, with flying fish skipping all
around us. stretched out on steamer
chairs under the weather awning that
kept on the dazzling tropical sun, the
captain told US of whaling as II Is car
ried on today.
To begin with. there are exactly twelve
whaling vessels In the whole world al
the time. Eleven Of them are in the
Atlantic and one is in the Pacific. They
are all American vessels. for no other
country sends out any whaling ships
that go out after any kind of sea
creature they can get-white whale, sight
whale. bonehead. grampus, porpoise, or
anything else whose fat will yield gly-
cerine and whose carcess can be turned
into fertilizer; but they are no more
whalers than q garbage cart is a milk
wagon
The captain explained that It is i'm
possible to hunt whales with steamer.
The vibration IL sure to frighten them
away. The only way to creep upon q
school or lone bull ranging down from
the north In search of q mate 10 with
the silent sail.
The whale is a very timid animal and
also very cowardly. The slightest dis
turbance or noise will send him flying.
Even a hsh-a littls one at that-can
strike him with impunity. He will not
show fight At the first blow he will
turn tail and run as fast as he can, and
his powerful engine Of locomotion will
send him through the water at a speed
that would outdistance the Twentieth
Century Limited.
And in whatever direction he starts. In
that direction he keeps going until he
has to come up to breathe. which Is
every four or hve miles He never
changes his course, no matter how long
the chase. never tries to double to avoid
his pursuers, but keeps right on in
his persistent and stupid and plghead-
ed way. 1t takes no Sherlock Holmes
to track O whale. Even q New York de-
tective could do It.
Whales have to come to the surface
to blow once about every half-hour and
stay up from fifteen to twenty minutes.
The big bulls will stay under nearly
an hour sometimes and then stay on
of the bulls to the cows is about one
to five and schools will run in size
from half a dozen to two or three hun
dred.
OF the eleven whaling vessels now roam
ing the Atlantic all are small boats.
nothing more than schooners. except
three which are square riggers. The
biggest OF them. the bark Greyhound"
is sixty years old. They all hail from
New Bedford. but two are nominally
registered from Portland. Me-, to over
come some maritime technicality.
The hunting-grounds for sperm whales
are all In southern waters. Through
the Caribbean and to the eastward OF
the smaller West Indian islands whales
are quite abundant. The best whaling
grounds in the world lie between Ber-
muda and the Azores.
This refers to the sperm whale, for no
other whale Is hunted nowadays, The
whales that abound In the frozen waters
Of the North are not sperm whales, but
right whales and boneheads. Their
blubber Is no good for oil. Its only
value IL for the glycerine Il contains.
These whales. however, are tho ones
from which whalebone II procured. and
as there Is no demand at all for whale
bone. the northern whales are left un-
molested and are multiplying rapidly.
There is a steady demand today for all
the sperm oil that can be supplied. 1t is
used mainly for lubricating purposes. A
byproduct Of 1t Is utilized by the gov
ernment for coating torpedoes.
Now as to how we'll whaling pays to-
day. Here Is an average case: A whal-
ing schooner Just in from an eighteen
months cruise unloaded $4,000 worth of
oil. At least $4,000 Of this was clean
profit. A whaling schooner Is not q very
heavy investment. I should call that a
pretty profitable business for anybody to
be in.
And there are only twelve whaling ves-
sells in the world