Arizona state miner., 1925-11-21

VI S&JtTCGsF IN ANCW DSOiOIu. INISHlS -LOuI
j GR years old, she's in her
II ISeM n home port to stay. But
EeDY 81 she's no dismantled hulk,
EEenzE49ssa3skazE8 with which the elements
will have their way. She's
spick and span with fresh paint and
new suit of canvas and she lies in
concrete cradle on the waterfront of
the estate Of Col E. H. r. Green at
Round Hills. Henceforth her mission
is that of object lesson of one of the
country's greatest Industries, of which
she saw the rise, decline and fall. New
Bedford sent out her first whaler in
1855. For many years she was the
great whaling port of the world. Now
the Morgan is as much a curiosity
to most of her people as to the lands
man visitor from the Middle West
who thinks of whale as "the big
fish that swallowed Jonah"
Here's how Col. Edward Howland
Robinson Green comes to be inter-
ested in the old whaler She was
named for Charles w. Morgan, her
first owner. Her second owner was
Edward Mott Robinson, father of
Colonel Green's mother. the famous
Hetty Green.
Capt. George Fred Tilton is the
crowning touch. He's a veteran New
Bedford whaling skipper who looks
the part. And when he spins whaling
yarns-why, the old days seem to live
again.
Visitors? Well, rather. The old
whaler has been alive with visitors
all summer from all parts Of the
country. Most Of them frankly admit
complete ignorance on the subjects Of
whales and whaling and listen round
eyed. But lots of them have read
"Moby Dick" or the Cruise Of the
Cachalot" or "Stray Leaves from
Whaler's Log"-or all three. So they
take on airs.
The Morgan's the real thing, all
right. Old as she is, she was built
to last. Jethro and Zachariah Hill
man of New Bedford built her Of live
oak, with copper fastenings and
sheathing. She has cruised over every
whaling ground from the Arctic to
the Antarctic. For twenty years or so
she sailed out of San Francisco, until
the steam whalers put her out of busi-
ness. These steam Whalers use modern
methods and there's no adventure or
romance in the business any more-lt's
just slaughter.
Here's about the way whale was
captured and handled on the Morgan
in the old days: When the lookout at
the masthead halls the deck with
'"There she blows !'' the whaleboats
are lowered. There are five or six
boats, each requiring at least six
men. The boats race for the whale,
The first boat runs almost up against
the huge bulk. The harpooner in the
bow hurls the barbed weapon. The
rowers back the boat frantically. The
whale plunges down, sometimes to
depth of 200 fathoms. The line
smokes out of the tubs Finally the
whale comes up to breathe, usually
in twenty minutes Or So Other boats
fix harpoons- Again the whale goes
OOWu anu SU vi. ludIIy the whale
is killed by lances The boats then
tow the carcass to the ship, where it
Is made fast to the chains SO that it
will not sink. Unless there are other
whales in sight, the men then cut up
the outer layer with "blubber-spades.
Great cubical chunks are hoisted to
the deck to be "tried OUT in huge
kettles strained and stored in casks.
But sometimes it doesn't happen
just exactly this way. Suppose the
line gets around a man-that's the
end of him. Suppose the whale takes
out all the line. The axman cuts
and that's the last of thousand
feet of line. Suppose in the dying
f1urries the great tail-25 feet by Z
hits a boat-that's the end of that
boat and maybe several of her crew.
Suppose toothed whale bites the
boat into splinters-that's one boat
less. Suppose a big sperm whale gets
m0d and rams the whaler itself-that