Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/607

 WHALE FISHERY on reaching the deck are cut up in square pieces and placed in the blubber room between deck to await the process of trying. Before the righ u whale is thus stripped, others of the crew are lowered into its mouth and remove the baleen or whalebone, which, if the animal is of aver- age size, weighs nearly a ton. "When strippec of its blubber and whalebone, the carcass is casl off, and the flesh is stripped off by the sharks, bears, and vultures. The reservoir of sperm oil and spermaceti in the head of the sperm whale must be secured by cutting off the head, which constitutes one third the length. The men lay bare the vast cistern and fill the buckets, eventually descending into the cavern, where there is often room for two full-grown men in a single compartment, and for eight or ten in all, and scoop up the half liquid mass till the cavity is completely emptied. This is some- times done before and sometimes after the blubber is stripped off from the remainder of the carcass, which is done as in the case of the right whale. In all Avhale ships the pro- cess of "trying out" the oil is performed on board. After the first try pot is strained, the scraps or cracknels (the cellular tissue from which the oil has been expressed) serve for fuel, and the process is continued with abun- dant smoke, soot, and grease, till the whole blubber has been tried, and the casks not filled with oil are ready for the results of another catch. The whale fishery in the Uni- ted States has been falling off for the last 20 years. Its decline had commenced earlier in Europe, but the deficiency of the receipts from European whaling ships was made up by im- ports of oil, bone, and spermaceti from the United States. Among the causes of the de- cline are the scarcity of whales from their being so constantly hunted ; the increasing use of gas and mineral oils, and the production of stearine and paraffine ; and the substitution of steel for whalebone in many articles of cloth- ing, umbrellas, parasols, and the like, and of hard rubber or vulcanite in other cases. In 1830 there were 102,000 tons of shipping en- gaged in the whale fishery from United States ports, of which 62,000 were in the sperm and 40,000 in the right whale fishery. About 8,000 seamen were engaged in it. The prod- ucts of the fishery for that year were 106,800 bbls. of sperm oil, 115,000 bbls. of whale oil, and 120,000 Ibs. of whalebone; and 2,500,000 Ibs. of sperm candles were made. In 1840 the tonnage employed had increased to 137,000. In 1850 it was 171,484. The number and ton- nage of vessels were greatest in 1854, viz. : 602 ships and barks, 28 brigs, and 38 schooners, with a total tonnage of 208,399. On Jan. 1, 1860, there were 569 vessels, tonnage 176,- 842 ; on Jan. 1, 1865, 276 vessels, tonnage 79,- 690 ; on Jan. 1, 1870, 321 vessels, tonnage 73,137; on Jan. 1, 1876, 163 vessels, tonnage 37,733. The number and tonnage of vessels engaged in whaling on Jan. 1, 1876, with the ports to which they belonged, we're as follows : 583

PORTS. SM| i and barki. Brig.. Schoottn. . TOOMC*. New Bedford, Mass. . . Fairhaven, " Dartmouth, " Westport, " no "2 8 2 4 2 KM 166 448 771 Marion, " tEdgartown, " Provincetown, " 2 'i 2 18 178 838 Boston, " New London, Conn. New York, N. Y.. 1 8 1 8 1 8 10 792 2,820 San Francisco, CaJ.. 1 246 Total 123 7 80 88,888 YEARS. Sperm oil, barrel*. Wl:.!e oil, birreli. WUUboM, lb>. 1851 . ., 99691 1853 108 077 26< 1 1 1 4 1860 73 70S 1870 55183 72 691 1875 .... 42617 Of these 169 vessels, 137 were at sea. The products of the fishery imported at different periods have been as follows : The imports of whale oil attained their maxi- mum in 1851, and those of sperm oil and whale- bone in 1853. The value of the products of the national whale fishery imported during the year ending June 30, 1875, was $2,841,002. The distribution of the whaling fleet for 1876 is estimated as follows : N. and S. Atlantic, 77 vessels; Indian ocean and New Holland, 15; New Zealand, 13; Pacific coast and off-shore ground, 23; N. Pacific, 18; Cumberland inlet, 4. The whale fishery in Great Britain, once of considerable magnitude, has of late years been almost entirely abandoned. In 1833 there were 129 ships engaged in it, and the value of the products received was 437,288. In 1842 the number of ships was 75, and the value of products 364,680. There are now 10 or 15 steamers from Dundee and a few from two or three other ports employed in the Greenland seas in the prosecution of the seal and whale fisheries, chiefly the former. France in 1837 had 44 ships engaged in the whaling business, measuring 19,128 tons, and with crews numbering 1,615 men. In 1868 she had only three ships. Holland, which was once largely interested in this fishery, has entirely abandoned it. Whales have recently been pur- sued in steamers from a small island in the Varangar fiord on the coast of Norway. They are struck with harpoons discharged from a annon, and when secured are towed back to the island. According to the latest returns, 9 vessels of 2,220 tons were employed in whaling from New South Wales, and 16 of 4,088 tons Tom Tasmania. The whale fishery has been )rosecuted for more than 600 years. The bay of Biscay in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries swarmed with one of the smaller species of whale, probably either the leluga or globi- uphaliis, and the Biscayans became adepts in
 * heir capture. After the discovery of Ameri-