Norwich bulletin., 1920-02-11

church with about 7i5 members and in yited guests in attendance. The men o'clock where they were served a delightful supper by the women of the church.
 Following the serving of the supper, | Harry Clark, president Of the. Brother hood, acting in the capacity of toast ] master, sprung a delightful surprise when he announced that a quartette from the Bass Clef was present and would render several selections. An orchestra selected by Alfred G. B1iven and John H. Perkins also attended the meeting and played several selections during the supper hour
 Rev. Alexander H. Abbott was called upon to speak to the men and he gave several notices pertaining to the Lem ten services that are to be held at the church on Sundays and Thursdays during the Lenten period. He made an earnest plea that members of the Brotherhood make a special effort to attend the services to be held at the church. Rev. Mir. Abbott stated that this was the time for getting ready for the future and the Lenten period might well be named the lacking upn period in which members of the church might give thought to the future and be better fitted to take up their tasks when they are called upon at some later date.
 Following the talk of Rev. MT. Ab- bolt, Postmaster Clark informed the men that they were indeed lucky to have with them at this meeting a New London man who was to tell them fish stories;" yes, and man who had a whale" of a story to tell them. He then introduced Judge Alfred Colt of New London, who responded to the introduction given by MT. Clark with the remark that in days gone by Nor wicI and New London used to vie with each other in seeing which of the towns could hand the neatest lickings to any citizens of either city who dared enter the others territory with out having a bodyguard in attendance. These days, however, he stated, have passed, never to return, and now New London and Norwich have much in common and a great friendship has sprung up between the two cities.
 The subject of Judge Colts address was The History of the Whaling h. dustry in New London, and a few of the facts drought to the attention of his listeners were as follows; History of New London and of the world shows that New London by means of the whalers who sailed from her har- bor was at one time known throughout the world as one of the biggest whal- ing ports of New England. and in making this statement Judge Colt read a brief extract from the address of Edmund Burke to the English parlia- ment in 1775. when Burke told of the history of the fishing industry and how much the colonies, especially New l England, had entered into the fishing | industry, of which whaling had become an important part.
 Judge Colt took up the history of 1 the whaling industry in New London ! from it's birth in 1794 to it's end late in | the 'S0s. The first whaling vessel to | set sail from New London was the | Commerce, and in the wear 1895 Dr. S. | Fl. P. Lee, of that city, man who 1 had stuck to his post during the vel 1 low fever epidemic of 179S. purchased 1 and fitted out three vessels which he i sent out. The golden age of the whaling industry in New London, however, did not begin until 1-iS. when Major Thomas Williams, son of 1 General Williams of Stonington. fitted 1 out the brig Mary and established his 1 Wharves where the electric light plant 1 now stands on Water street. Soon 1 after that 2 Norwich lad, Henry P. i Haven, who had moved to that city with his mother, entered the whaling i business When the United States i government purchased Alaska. Haven was sent to Honolulu, from whence he 1 sent ships to the Alaskan waters l which carried the flag of this country | for the first time into those seas. Dur ing that year some 45.000 seal skins
 were obtained and sent to this coun- try and Haven and other Americans 1 purchased the riehts of whaling in
 those waters. The public librarv of New London was presented to that city by Mrs. Anna Perkins, daughter | of MT. Haven.
 Soon after this John P. Rice of New London was sent into these waters and 13 other whaling ships from New London operated in Alaskan waters
 In 1887 Ephriam Frink took up the 1 trade with the West Indies. Other
 companies followed and nearly all were successful. The captains of the l companies vessels were given sole au-
 thority of their cruise and their word l became law on board their vessels | Many men who had heard tales of
 how they could become rich by join
 ing whaling expeditions came to New
 London and shipped for a cruise. but
 upon their return found that they had
 simply been building castles in the air
 The profits derived from the whaling
 expedition were shared as follows he
 tween the company and the men: The
 captain received 1-6 of a lay (share)
 and the men received 1-200 of lay |
 months meant that the ca ptain S share if a good catch had been made would
 be about $2,580. or about s64 per
 month, while the men received ahout S22O, or about S5.50 per month while
 they were gone. Indeed, in many cases when the men returned to theil
 homes after a three years cruise il
 was found that their share was about
 one big round iron dollar. This was
 because their clothes had to be hough'
 from the companies chest and after
 three years in the ope nthey had pur-
 chased so much clothing that theil
 share of the money had been spen l before tey returned to their homes Shortly after the end of the Civi war and just after the Confederat, ship Shenandoah had destroyed 3 l whaling ships by fire the industry il New London began to fail. The mair
 reason given for this failure, however
 was that the price of fitting out ship
 had increased so much and the need O
 making long trips had become neces
 sary that even though a good catcl 7 had been made there was little prof ] for the companies. From 1846. whicl 3 marked the high tide of the whalins industry in New London, until tn close of the sos the industry in tha } city steadily died away until at tn
 present date we find no whalers in tn, harbor When the industry was at ful height there were some 2,500 vessel
 engaged in the whaling industry ant
 over 70,000 persons dependent upon
 for their living. Ideas of the increase' Z cost of ships can readily be seen b. the following figures: In 1790 boa 7 that wouId carry 900 barrels eos