Seward daily gateway., 1925-07-10
CAPT L. LANE IN PORT WITH
 SMALL INHALER
Three Owners of New Industry Arrive In Seward to Begin Seasons
 Operations.
KODIAK WILL BE BASE PORT
Small Craft Makes Fine Trip From Golden Gate Killed TWO
 Whales Last Week.

The smallest independent unit Wha- Ter, the Gunnar with Capt. Louis L. Lane at the helm, arrived in port this morning from San Francisco, 33 days out The little craft is 40 feet in length, powered with 16 h. ?. Hicks marine engine F. H. Hansen is en- gineer and Richard Holbrook every thing else from mate down. The three men are the owners of the boat and are entering into a new business ven ture in Alaska, that of supplying whale meat for fox farmers, The Gunnar will be beachcd on today's tide, have it's bottom scraped, and leave tomor- row for Kodiak, the base port for the seasons activities.
 Kill Two Whales
 Two whales were killed a few days ago in Prince William Sound and dis posed of to Frank Cunningham and Green Island Fox Farm one Of the whales was ! fnbacE, measuring II feet long and inc other . humDback, 39 feet long The humpback whale, though smaller in size. is g much larg- CT bodied cetacean, conseq equently pro- duces more flesh and blubber for feed than many of the longer whales. Whale meat is considered the natu- ral food for foxes and the owners of the new enterprise propose Ut a later date to cure whale meat, pack it in barrels without salting, in order that the small fox farmer, who cannot use an entire whale in the raw state, may purchase whatever quantity he may need. The packing of whale meat will ill all probability, be started next sea- son, it is stated. The price per bar rel has not been figured out yet but it will be lower than any fox feed on the market. Entire whales will be sold this season for about $500. This of course, depends upon the size of the whale and the distance it must De 1 lowed.
 If only short distance from the l island where a whale has been sold, the owners will tow the carcass to the island, but if it is necessary for sev- eral hours of towing to deliver the whale, a towing charge will be added. It is the purpose of the whalers to have as many as possible of the own CTS to come to the killing grounds and do their own towing, particularly ill order to keep the price down for the | fox farmer.
 Meets With Accident.
 Capt. Lane met with what might have been a serious accident during the shooting of one of the whales the other day. A heavier primer than is ordinarily used proved to be too much for the breechblock, the discharge flaring back into his face. First aid treatment was rendered his wound, which bled considerably, but is now healing rapidly.
 The harpoOn gun on the bow of the boat is the most modern procurable, as well as is the other gear necessary for the industry. The gun is primed with 32 blank primers. A winch on the forward deck carries 300 fathoms or 1900 feet of 3-inch line. This is 9 special soft laid Manila rope, said to
 be twice as strong as ordinary cable
 The winch is used to play" the whale,
 like flsherman's reel hauling in a
 trout. The whale is hauled alongside of the boat where it is inflated thru
 an air hose under 50 to 60 pounds
 pressure until it resembles a balloon This is done as soon as possible to prevent the carcass from sinking Followed Inside Passage. The trip from Frisco to Alaska was via the inside passage to southeastern Alaska, head winds prevailing until they arrived at Ketchikan where fail
 wind was encountered. The whale, left the Golden Gate on the morning of June 7, and coming up the coast made equally as fast time as some ot the larger coastwise steamers. From southeastern Alaska up t. Seward, numerous calls were made or the trade, taking orders for delivery this fall. Whaling will continue unti about the first of November iron