The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1922-09-09

- ~ inv NAt1A ekVt III A0ah
feet above the fin or "fuke."
The boat raised perilously as II we
were on a bucking horse. perched
for Just a second on the whales body
and then turned over.
Ice-cold water swallowed me up.
l could feel some force sucking me
down into the deep. My lungs were
bursting. my limbs numb. BY SWIM
ming ~valiantly I struggled back out
of the black depth. A hand gripped
my hair and l was dragged bodily
into the other ~whaleboat.
The phlegmatic whalers had right
ed our boat and the wet crew was
loaded into 1t.
A pail was thrust into my hands
and I bailed vigorously.
No n seemed to pay any attten-
tion to the ducking although l for
one was frozen through. At least I
thought l was frozen.
The whale had settled to the bot
tom Of the ocean,, apparently, and was
lying still. The customary 20 min
utes passed.
"Bye'n bye come up" growled the
Eskimo. through chattering teeth.
Thirty, forty minutes went by and
members of the crew voiced the opin-
ion that the whale was dead. They
talked Of sinking dynamite alongside
and raising the body by conclusion.
Fifty-ive minutes after the har-
poon had been launched the first
mates boat received a shock that
knocked the rudder In the air and
the whale spurted to the surface.
Before the creature became aware
Of the presence of the boat, the bomb
er and harpooner launched their mis-
siles. The bomb gun kicked the gun
ner into the bottom of the boat with
its recoil.
Like a laundering ship the giant
bowhead went down by the bow, the
big 18-foot f1ukes narrowly missing
the boat. The harpoon lines went
out of the buckets as IL they were
attached to a speeding locomotive.
Then the w~haleboat began to race
through the water, dragged with her
bow so far down that she began to
ship brine. All at once the whale
boat stopped. A few seconds later a
glistening yellow object fioated in
ertly to the surface. 1t was the whale,
belly upward. dead.
Chains were passed around the
body and 1t was hauled alongside the
Herman where the cutting stage had
been lowered and the work of butch
ering began.
The head, which contains the
whalebone, was cut of and the big
strips Of blubber chopped away with
axes and hoisted on deck to be melt
ed into oil in the 'try works or big
boilers. The whale yielded 1000
pounds of blubber and $500 pounds
of bone.
Time was when the bone of a big
whale was worth $4,000. Now
there is little sale for it.
Some years ago Captain Petersen
was only one of the many daring
Americans who followed the strange
currents through the Boring Straits
to the foot of the Aurora Borealis.
To-day he is the lone wolf OF the
whaling pack. The low price of oil and
bone has driven the others out but
Petersen combines his whale hunt
ing with fur trading and thus makes
a good income.
Early explorers who went through
the Northwest passage tell of the big
whaling fleets anchored of Point
Barrow and Herschel Island. Then
the Winter stiffness of Alaskan, ST.
berian and Canadian Eskimo villages
was transformed into the bedlam of
an American frontier with lawless-
ness running rampant, with killings
occurring daily and with carousals
and whisky trading ~demoralizing the
otherwise well-to-do natives.
But the bottom dropped out of the
whalebone market and the historic
old whalers became derelicts and
their shippers and crews took to
coastwise shipping.
To-day Captain Petersen alone
yearly carries the American flag into
the frigid seas, through the straits to
the Arctic Ocean and between ice
bergs and pressure ridges" to Point
Barrow, Baltic Island, Coronation
Gulf. the mouth of the Mackenzie and
to Uncle Sans mystery isle, Wrangel
Down on the Oakland estuary in
San Francisco Bay. where the tall
masts Of the Alaskan packers feet
and the bulls of derelict craft give
n the impression of being in a mar
thine graveyard. l found the Her
1t was on a pleasant April morning
that the motor of the schooner be-
gan to hum. An u~neventful voyage 1
of 400 miles brought us to Dutch
Harbor and Unalaska where the
whaler rugged up her cutting stage, |
tackle, special masts and whaling
tackle.
Here we donned our arctic garb.
Masinka boots of sealskin, water
proofed. the soles sewed and crimped
by the teeth Of native women, slipped
over several pairs of socks, and the
regular parka or reindeer skin jack
ct with wolverine hood yer put on.
AS we rode around the Alaskan
peninsula the cold struck us like an
icy blast. In June when New York
and Chicago were sweltering, the
rigging of the Herman in the Boring
Sea was covered with ice that had to
be knocked of.
Steering by the clouds. Captain