Year: 1871

The Great Disaster . ths Whaasng Fleet
In the Arctic Oceas.


The details which we published yesterday
OF the loss Of thirsy-three vessels OF tho Ameri-
can whaling Aeet in the Arctic Ocean are very
important and interesting beyond the mere
fact Of the loss Of the ships and their valuable
cargoes In . financial view the disaster 10
without anything like precedent In the Ameri-
can whaling business, and will, no doubt,
seriously cripple our whalers for some years
to come. But there are other questions in
connection with this unexpected misfortune
which challenge our attention.


This whaling feet was pushing forward into
the icy regions Of the north, and on ''the 1st
Of June the ice opened and let the feet up
within sight Of Cape Navarino," and thence,
crossing the Sea Of Anadyer, towards Behring
Straits, they found some whales and in Behr-
ing Sea they bsgan to be more plentiful;
'but when the feet arrived at Cape Behring
the whales had passed through the Straits into
the Arctic Ocean, whittier the feet followed. :"
Here the facts are established that in June the
Ice on the south side of Behring Straits is
opened and that sailing ships can pass through
that Strait into the Arctic Ocean in pursuit OF
the whales which move up into that ocean with
the opening of the Ice. Have we not here,
then, some very valuable hints in reference to
any future expedition in search Of the North
Pole and the open sea, into which
these whales migrate as their sum-
mer cruising ground? Tho German Polar
expedition, by way Of the Spitzbergen Islands,
reports its discovery of an open Polar Sea
abounding in whales, and this report Is con-
frmed from Behring Straits on the opposite
side Of the globe. II is probable that some Of
those whales seen by tho German explorers
had come into that open Polar Sea by way Of
Behring Straits, and were passing out by way
of Spitzbergen Islands.


This report from our unfortunate whaling
feet says further that the feet In the Arctic
Ocean 'met with fair success till about the LIST Of
September, when the ice foes and bergs to q
great extent commenced drifting down, and by
the 10th q number of the vessels had been
sunk and the bulk of the remainder were
hemmed in by the drifting ice or driven
ashore;" and that finally, after consulta-
ton, the vessels enclosed were abandoned
and their twelve hundred sailors took refuge
on board the remainder of the feet, which
meantime had been fortunate enough to escape
outsids"-that is, to the south side Of the ice
pack which was drifting down into Berhing
Straits.


These whalers, we fear, had not informed
themselves as they might have done concern
ing the ocean currents in those northern seas.
The great Japan Equatorial current of warm
water crosses the Pacific Ocean with north
ern sweep by the line Of the Aleutian Islands
to Alaska, whence the main current sweeps
southwark by the coast of Alaska, British
Columbia, Oregon, while branch current
passes up into the Arctic Ocean through
Behring Straits. This Is the current upon
which this whaling feet followed the whales
into the Arctic seas. But at the same time
there is q side current along the American
coast flowing down through Behring Straits
from the Arctic into the Pacific Ocean. This
is the current which brought down those Ice
bergs from the inside rim of the icy barrier
Of the open Polar Sea. Those drifting bergs
and foes were detached from the inside Of
that icy barrier by the heat and the three
months continuous sunshine Of June, July
and August in those high latitudes; aud they
came down towards the main ocean in such
quantities as to block up our whaling feet.


The moral is that the feet should have come
out of the Arctic a week earlier than it did,
and waited on the south side of Behring
Straits for the returning whales; for they
can come out under bergs and foes through
which ship cannot pass. Unquestionably
the observations and the unfortunate expert
ence Of this whaling feet will be exceedingly
valuable, not only to whalers hereafter, but
to men of science in their efforts to settle the
mysteries still connected with the currents
and icy barriers of those unknown seas around
the North Pole.