WHALE-FISHERIES.* THE whale-fishery must take rank among the most important branches of American industry. It is not only important in itself as affording means of livelihood to a very great number of persons, but, from its enterprising and missionary character, is and has been productive of great results in those distant regions which had else not been visited by the white race, nor become the object of the pious care of Gospel preachers. The Polynesian Islands have become familiar to the civilized world only through the intercourse of whalers. Christian missionaries in New-Zealand, New-Guinea and NewHolland, as well as in hundreds of islands in the South Pacific, have in every instance been preceded by the adventurous whaler-preparing the way for their exertions, by making manifest the advantages of intercourse with the white race. The lucrative trade now carried on by Europe and the United States with South America owes its origin to the "whale-hunters." The very existence of the now important English colonies of Australia must be ascribed to the opportune visits of these adventurers, who have repeatedly stood between the colonists and starvation.With the growing commerce that has universally sprung up in the track of the whalemen, civilization and independence have generally taken root as consequences. The dark shadows of Spanish rule might long have stunted colonial growth, had not the intercourse of whalemen pointed the way to greater advantages than a state of vassalage would permit. Although the catching of whales for their spoil appears to have been of very ancient origin, the fishery as a branch of commerce dates its importance from about the middle of the 18th century, when the hardy New-Englanders embarked in it with their wonted energy and success. The earliest whale-fishery was prosecuted by the most north ern nations of Europe, who penetrated into arctic seas in search of those monsters of the deep. The efforts of the English and Dutch to find a northern Indian passage were rewarded with the discovery of the favorite haunts of the whale. The rivalry that a new and lucrative trade naturally inspired, resulted in the superiority of the Dutch, who, at the close of the 17th century, carried the northern fishery to its zenith. At that time they employed 260 ships and 14,000 sailors. Those phlegmatic Dutch living among dykes and morasses, had drawn to themselves, by their industry, the greatest wealth possessed by any nation of the world; and from their cities, standing upon ground which their persevering energy had wrenched from the sea, sent out fleets and sailors not only to rule the ocean, but to master and draw from its bosom the hugest monsters it contained. Taking the business from their hands, there was then just springing into life a mighty people in the new world, destined on other oceans to carry the pursuit to a far greater magnitude. As early as 1660 the settlers of New-England commenced the catching of whales; and it continued to increase as a business, chiefly at Nantucket, through the 18th century. In 1720 that island was already in a flourishing condition from the success of its whaling ventures; and nearly 50 years after, when the oppressions of the mother-country were exciting the resistance of the sturdy colonists, a large fleet, and numerous sailors trained to hardy enterprise, were at hand to lend their aid in the coming struggle. In 1771 Massachusetts alone possessed 183 vessels, of 13,820 tons.The war nearly destroyed the fishery, but the fishers had higher duties to perform during its continuance, and our early naval triumphs conferred laurels upon whalemen. While American enterprise was kept in abeyance by the war, the English Etchings of a Whaling Cruise; with Notes of a Sojourn on the Island of Zanzibar. To which is appended a Brief History of the Whale-Fishery, &c. &c. By J. Ross Browne. Illus trated. Harper & Brothers. sought to obtain the mastery by granting bounties to successful fishers. Five prizes, rising from 100 to £500, rewarded as many degrees of success, and the stimulus thus imparted caused a number of new enterprises to be projected. France also strove for the prize; and the private purse of Louis XVI. furnished forth six ships from Dunkirk in 1784, manned by Nantucket seamen. The example was followed; and in 1790 France sent out 40 whalemen.This branch of French industry was destroyed by the war; but the return of peace brought to the United States a renewal of enterprise, and American whalers again swarmed upon the ocean. The scene of their labors was, however, confined to the Atlantic. The English government, in a spirit of rivalry, raised the bounties to 300 and £700. At length, in 1788, a London merchant fitted out an expedition to the Pacific Ocean, and it proved eminently successful-bringing home 139 tons of sperm oil. His ship was speedily followed by those of all nations, and the vast Pacific was thenceforth to be the chief resort for sperm whale-fishers. Thirty years later the same gentleman sent a ship to the Japan coast with equal success. She returned to London in two years and eight months with 346 tons of sperm oil, and two great fisheries were opened to the world.In the progress of events, however, as it ever must be the case where American enterprise meets on equal terms with that of other nations, the whalers of the United States have nearly monopolised the business. As we have stated, the English government pursued the system of bounties, and used every art to encourage the whaling trade; but where natural advantages do not favor that nation, no government regulations can sustain them against the undoubted superiority of the Americans. The progress of the British fishery, showing the number of vessels and their tonnage employed, with the amount of bounties paid in each year, was as follows: 1787. BRITISH WHALE-SHIPS. In the twelve years, from 1814 to 1825, when the bounties ceased, Great Britain paid £541,571, or near £2,700,000 in bounties to vessels employed in the trade, mostly to the Greenland fisheries. The whole amount spent in bounties was £2,500,000, or $12,000.000. She also levied prohibitory duties on the product of foreign fisheries; and in 1820, under the impulse given to the business by the discovery of the new grounds, it reached its maximum. It has now declined, until the whole proceeds are scarcely £300,000 per annum, a miserable though usual result to the bounty system. In 1830, of 87 ships sent to Davis' Straits, 24 returned clean, 20 were totally lost, and of the remainder, none had full cargoes. In 1834, but 70 ships went thither. For the 20 years, ending with 1834, an average of 115 ships, of 37,013 tons, per annum, sailed; of these, 5 were lost, and the remainder took 1,024 whales, yielding 11,313 tons of oil. The whale-fishery of both England and continental Europe is on the decline, while that of the United States presents very different results. M'Culloch has ascribed the decline of the English whale-trade to the competition of Americans, who, he states, erroneously we think, enjoy "peculiar advantages" for carrying it on. What these advantages are he does not point out. A vessel fitted out from Nantucket, spends her two or three years in the Pacific Ocean without intercourse of any kind with her native soil, encountering not only the hostility of savages, but the sinister friendship of English colonists-struggles through all hardships, and returns successful, while the Englishman, under the same circumstances, fails. The advantages of the American are superior sagacity, energy and daring. It was early the policy of the American government to encourage the fisheries, partly, perhaps, out of gratitude for the eminent services of the seamen in the war of independence, and partly from the erroneous notion that a losing business could be made profitable by a government interference. The United States fisheries are of two .36,537.....£41,240 kinds-the cod and mackerel, and the 36,506......35,300 whale-fishery. The former, up to this day, has received annually the direct 43,721.... 10,945 bounty of the government, while the latter has been burdened with many Tons. Bounty. ..47,477.... Ships. 178. .116......38,240..... .63,254. .52,460 ..210......64,847.. .53,850 indirect taxes. The result has been, that the bounty-fed fishery has declined, while whaling has risen to vast importance. As an index of the progress of the trade, the following table of the quantity of tonnage employed in each of a series of years, may be taken from the treasury reports: lbs. .61,554.. .35,973 -53,990 .80,551......46,816 .66,551.. ..11,321 1845......190,695......69,825......21,413 upon the salt they used, a drawback was allowed upon that portion used in salting provisions, and the fisheries were, in like manner, encouraged by the drawback on fish. In 1790, the cod-fishery interest petitioned Congress to the eflect that the salt duties were not the only burden imposed upon them that duties on iron, hemp, and MACKR'L. other materials bore heavily upon their interest, and amounted, on a vessel of 65 tons and 11 hands, to $5 25 each hand. They therefore petitioned to have the drawback of the salt allowed to the owners of vessels instead of the shippers of fish. Accordingly, a law was passed, Feb., 1792, making an allowance upon fishing vessels, instead of a drawback upon fish exported. These allowances were increased from time to time, until 1807, when, according to a report of Mr. Jefferson, showing the injustice of an onerous tax upon a necessary of life, the salt tax, and all bounties and allowances growing out of it, were abolished. From 1807 to 1813 there was no salt tax, although an attempt, made in 1811, to impose one as 66 a 'protection," was rejected without comment. In 1813, as a war tax, 20 cts. per bush. of 56 lbs. was laid upon salt, and the allowances renewed. The following has been the progress of the tax : The increase in the whale-trade is apparent and large; but as we have stated, the cod and mackerel fishery has declined, notwithstanding the bounties paid by the government. The history of these bounties is singular. By the act of 1789, Congress, while imposing taxes to meet necessary expenditures and provide for the debt created by the war, exercised its privilege of laying taxes upon imported goods, and on salt, among others. With a view not to oppress the foreign trade, a drawback or bounty was allowed upon the export of cured fish and salted provisions equal to the duty paid on the salt used in their preparation. Although the farmers were taxed The allowances to fishing vessels were meant but as an equivalent to the drawback on salt, until 1830, when the duty was diminished, and the allowance remained the same, acting as a direct bounty to fishers at the expense of farmers. This continued down to the law of 1846, which provides that a drawback, equal to the imported salt used in curing fish, actually exported, shall be paid instead of the former bounties. The amount of allowances to fishing vessels, from 1821 to 1845 inclusive, was $6,049,056, and Or the whole amount, from 1790 to 1845, cles used in the construction of a ship of 317 tons, paid $1,752 duties, or $5 25 per ton, which, on the above fleet of 190,695 tons, amounts to a tax of $1,000,000, and large sum annually in duties upon outfits. Notwithstanding this unjust proceeding towards the most important branch of fisheries, whaling has risen to a great magnitude. The fleet is now estimated at 650 ships of 200,000 tons, and manned by some 17 to 18,000 American seamen. The value of the vessels and outfit is estimated at $25,000,000, and they produce annually $5,000,000 of oil and bone. The whaling business seems to be divided into two branches-the sperm whalers and right whalers, so called from the animal, which it is the chief object of each to take. These animals are very distinct in their habits and formation. The first has teeth, and feeds upon a species of fish called squid. It is found mostly in the low latitudes, and never on soundings. It affords the most profitable fishery. It is pursued the year round by following the known haunts of the whales-from the coast of Peru to the Marquesas islands, to the coast of Japan, thence north-westerly to California, and return to the Sandwich Islands to recruit. The right whale, instead of teeth, is furnish -1834. ed with the laminæ, known as whalebone, and feeds on small fish. It is found in high latitudes, on coasts and in bays. The whales in high latitudes are larger and more numerous, but on account of the weather, the difficulty of catching them is greater. The annual destruction of whales is estimated at about 5000, necessary to supply the quantity of oil imported, as it requires 50 whales to fill a ship. So great and long continued a mortality would be likely to cause a diminution in the numbers of the whales, and this has generally been supposed to be the case; but Lieut. Wilkes, in his account of the Exploring Expedition, gives a most valuable chapter upon whaling, dissenting from this position. It is, however, the case, that whales have become more vigilant, or "more scary," and are, in consequence, less easy of capture than formerly; and in this fact the cause of the superior success of the Americans may perhaps be found. The number of ships actually employed in the trade cannot be ascertained with certainty. The following, however, is a comparison of the last estimate, in 1834, as given in Pitkin's Statistics, with those of the Hon. Jas. Grinnell, of New-Bedford, in 1844. Value. .$30,000....$7,830,000. No. of Ships. at Sperm fishery. 261..... Right whale......120. .15,000.. .1,800,000. Atlantic sperm.... 50......10,000..... 500,000. This represents the value of the vessels and their outfits. If the estimates approach correctness, it would seem that the sperm whale-fishery has declined, while that of the right whales has greatly increased. This, however, does not agree with the arrivals of sperm whale oil, as reported in the New-Bedford whalemen's shipping list, which gives the sperm oil, in 1838, at 132,356 bbls., and at 157,917 bbls. in 1845, while the import of whale was 226,552 bbls. in 1838, and 272,730 bbls. in 1845, with 3,167,142 lbs. of bone, being estimates of cargoes made up from Guager's reports. The consumption of oil throughout the world is greatly on the increase, and Great Britain has so far acknowledged American superiority as to aban don all duties on the foreign article after 1846. Having thus far given a general sketch of the condition of the whale trade, we may recur to the manner of its prosecution, and the individual condition of the individuals through whose enterprise such great things have been accomplished. The details of the fishery are laid before us in a very interesting and instructive, as well as amusing form, in the book named at the head of this article. Mr. Browne informs us, that in 1841, then in his 19th year, he left his home, in Kentucky, to become a Congressional reporter at Washington, where experience produced its usual influence upon youthful anticipations. An acquaintance formed with a young man of similar enterprising 1846.] Whale-Fisheries. views, resulted in a contract at a shipping office, in New-York, to make a whaling voyage from New-Bedford, and they set out for their place of embarkation with high hopes and brilliant anticipations. The stern realities of life are, however, when actually encountered, ever far less romantic than when distance lends enchantment to the view." The hardships of the forecastle, the brutalities of the captain, added to the monotony of the sea, soon dispelled the poetry of the adventure, and resulted in the madness of Mr. Browne's companion, who was sunstruck in the performance of his duty aloft. The business of whale-hunting is, however, not without its attractions, as may be gathered from the following description of a chase: "October 13th.-There she blows!' was sung out from the mast-head. "Where away?' demanded the cap tain. "Three points off the lee-bow, sir.' "Raise up your wheel. Steady!' "Steady, sir.' 664 Mast-head ahoy! Do you see that whale now?' A school of sperm "Ay, ay, sir! whales! There she blows! There she breaches!' 466 666 'Sing out! Sing out every time!' Ay, ay, sir! There she blows! There-there-thar' she blows-bowes bo-0-0-8!' "How far off?' "Two miles and a half!" "Thunder and lightning! So near! Call all hands! Clew up the fore-t'gallant-sail-there! Belay! Hard down your wheel! Haul aback the main yard! Get your tubs in your boats! Bear a hand! Clear falls! Stand by all to lower! All ready?' your "All ready, sir!' "Lower away!' "Down went the boats with a splash. Each boat's crew sprang over the rail, and in an instant the larboard, starboard, and waist-boats were manned. There was The great rivalry in getting the start. waist-boat got off in pretty good time; and away went all three, dashing the water high over their bows. Nothing could be more exciting than the chase. The larboard boat, commanded by the mate, and the waist-boat, by the second mate, were head and head. 64 "Give way, my lads, give way!' we our headsman; shouted P gain on them; give way! A long, steady stroke! That's the way to tell it!' er. "Ay, ay!' cried Tabor, our boat-steer- lick 'em?' Pull! pull like vengeance!' echoed the crew; and we danced over the waves, scarcely seeming to touch them. "The chase was now truly soul-stirring. Sometimes the larboard, then the starboard, then the waist-boat took the lead, It was a severe trial of skill and muscle. After we had run two miles at this rate, the whales turned fiukes, going dead to windward. "Now for it, my lads!' cried P 'We'll have them the next rising. Now pile it on! a long, steady pull! That's it! that's the way! Those whales belong to us. Don't give out! Half an hour more, and they're our whales!' "The other boats had veered off at with renewed ardor. In about half an either side of us, and continued the chase hour we lay on our oars to look round for the whales. "There she blows! right ahead!' shouted Tabor, fairly dancing with delight. 66 'There she blows! blows!' P 666 There she Oh, Lord, boys, spring!' cried "Spring it is! What d'ye say, now. chummies? Shall we take those whales ?' "To this general appeal every man replied by putting his weight on his oar, and exerting his utmost strength. The boat flew through the water with incredible swiftness, scarcely rising to the waves. A large bull whale lay about a quarter of a mile ahead of us, lazily rolling in the The larboard and startrough of the sea. board boats were far to leeward of us, tugging hard to get a chance at the other whales, which were now blowing in every direction. "Give way! give way, my hearties!' putting his weight against bottle 'Do you love gin? cried P the aft oar. of gin to the best man! Oh, pile it on while you have breath! pile it on!' "On with the beef, chummies! Smash Every devil's imp of you, pull! No every oar! double 'em up, or break'em!' "On dashed the boat, cleaving its way talking; lay back to it; now or never!' through the rough sea, as if the briny eleever, turned flukes before we could reach ment were blue smoke. The whale, howhim. When he appeared again above the surface of the water, it was evident that he had milled while down, by which manoeuvre he gained on us nearly a mile. The chase was now almost hopeless, as he was making to windward rapidly. A heavy, black cloud was on the horizon, barque was fast fading from sight. Still we portending an approaching squall, and the |