| Show I Last of M j. j Whalers a Charles w. w WM Mo U 1 a Preserve s u u fly y JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN AST of the whalers of whalers of tho the time old square rigged L tulips ships that sailed the thie Sl Seven n Seas Bells for whale oil whalebone spermaceti ambergris ls I. 1 the Charles Charls W V. V Mor Morgan an of New Bedford four Eighty yours years eurll old sheH hos In 10 her tier homo homa port ort to stay But she's no no dismantled hulk built with which the elements will have their way She's spick and spun span with fresh paint and ond anda n a new suit of canvas and she lies In Ina Inn ina a n concrete cradle on tho the waterfront of the estate of at Cot Col 10 19 II H. It Green at Hound Round Hills Henceforth tier her mission is that of object lesson of one ona of ot the country's greatest Industries of ot which she saw the rise decline and tall fall New Hertford Bedford sent Bent out her first whaler In Ia 17 1755 5 For ninny years she was the great grent whaling port of at the Ito world Now No the Morgan Is na ns much a n curiosity to most of ot her people n as a. to the landsman lands hinds man Ban visitor from the Middle West Vest who thinks of ot a 0 whale as ns the big fish that swallowed Jonah Tonah Heres Here's how bow Col 1 l Rdward Green comes to be Interested Inter Inter- ested In the old whaler She Site was for tor Charles W W. Morgan her bel first t owner Her lIer second owner was Edward Matt llott Robinson father tather of ot Colonel Greens Green's mother the tho famous Orn I n no Capt George Fred Til Tilton ton Is II the tue crowning touch Des He's a veteran New Ne Bedford whaling skipper who looks look the part And when ho spins whaling yarns why yams why the old old days seem to live Di again Io Visitors Well rather The old whaler has been alive with visitors visitor all summer from all pu parts of ot the countr country Most of them frankly admit complete Ignorance on the subjects of at whales wholes and whaling and listen round round- eyed But nut lots of 01 them have r read Moby Dick or the Cruise of at the Cachalot or Stray Leaves front from a Whalers Whaler's Log Log or or r all aU three So they thel take on airs The Morgans Morgan's thereal real thing all light Old as she is she was Will built to to la last t T Jethro and and Zachariah Hillman Hill Hill- m man n of New Bedford built her of live liveoak liveoak liveoak oak with copper peE tast fastenings and sheathing She has cruised cruised over every everl whaling ground from the Arctic to the Antarctic For twenty yea years or so soshe soshe she sailed out of at San Francisco until the steam whalers put her out of ot business busi busl ness ness These steam wh whalers lers use modern methods and theres there's no adventure or r romance In the business any ouy more more Its Its It's Just slaughter Heres Here's about the way a whale whole was captured and handled on tile tl Morgan Moran In the old old days n the lookout at atthe the masthead l the deck reck with There she bl t the tho are lowered are five lve or six boats each ench requiring nt at least six men men The boats raco for t the lie whale The first boat bont runs almost up against the huge bulk Th The harpooner In the bow hurls the barbed weapon The rowers back bock the boat frantically The rhe whale plunges down sometimes to a depth of or fathoms The line smokes out of at the tub tubs tuba Finally the whale comes cornes up to breathe usually In twenty t minutes or so Other boats fix Ox harpoons Again the whale goes down and so on Finally tho the tho whale Is killed by lances The Tue boats bouts then tow the carcass to the ship where It ItIs Is Is made fast tast to the chains so that It will wili not sink Unless there are Bre other whales In sight eight the men then cut up the outer layer with spades blubber Great Great- cubical chunks are Bre hoisted to the deck to be tried out In 10 huge kettles strained and stored In casks nut Hut sometimes It doesn't happen happeD Just exactly this tills way Suppose e the lie theline theline line gets around n a man man that's that's the lie end of ot him Su Suppose pose the whale whole takes out all the line The axman cuts cute end and that's the last of ot a n thousand feet teet of ot line Suppose In the dying flurries the great tall 25 tall 25 feet fett by 7 7 hits hits a n boat boat flints that's the he end of at that boat and maybe mabe several of at her crew Suppose a n toothed whale bites the bout boat Into Info splinters splinters that's one bout boat less lesti Suppose a big sperm whale gets get l mud Iliad and roms rams the lie whaler Itself that Itself that I A AI I I fI fIt t II A II II I I I ill p I as may be tho the end of ot the whaler r Now nil itil of ot these thelle things us used d to happen In th the old days Once Oace a whole whale smashed a n boat and the crew flouted floated nil alt night on the carcass that'd that'll a D whaling classic In J J. J I T. T Browns Brown's book Stray Leaves Loaves from a II Whalers Whaler's Log Is told In detail how V Vera rl lie tho Portuguese boat boot uttered n tI cry and ond the he Immense fills glistening toning lower jaw armed with two rows rowe of polish polished ell teeth flashed from the ho water when the gigantic leaped Into the tile thea a air nr r carrying with It the tile head hend of the boat boot which had land snapped asunder and the tile unto unfortunate tuno Vern Vera whose head end and long lone arms arma were suspended from the corners of 91 the mons monsters monster's ers er's t Two other men the tho bow and oarsmen were never seen again The I of Nantucket In 1810 1819 met this fate The Tue captain nn and first mate being fast tast to a 0 big sperm whale Owen Chase second mate headed the toward them The rhe whale came camo to the lie surface and fiercely rammed the ship bow on stopping her as n. If It she hud struck a 0 rock It passed under the tho ship scraping her lIer keel coming corning up op astern After Atter snapping Us Iti jaws and thrashing the water with Its tall tail the monster rammed the second time with vIt Its head bead half bait out of ot water It struck the ship directly under the th and ond completely stove In her bows how It then went under the ship and disappeared t to leeward The 1 x s1 sank After Atter ninety days of boy bar n III experiences In two 1 boats bonts the ere were picked up the lie mates mate's boat bout by bf tie tre brig Indict India of at London and the tile captains captain's by the whinIer whaler Dauphin Theres There's no chance for tor anything i ilke like this In modern steam whaling The Tue speed high boat can run rings around the fastest whale A big gun In la the bow shoots a barbed harpoon carrying a bomb timed for tor three seconds The Tile explosion inside the whale kills in The carcass Is la then pumped full tull of ot air Ultimately the steamer tows ItS Its captures to Its shore st station where the oil Is extracted u anti and d the meat canned by modern machinery And thero's theros l Ice e. e In 1871 a 11 Sleet fleet of ot two forty whalers was caught In the Arctic and only one escaped More than Ulan were shipwrecked but escaped In boats And New Bedford's loss was vat more th than n a million dollars St. St Ieter Peter so Ito goes goes goes' tha tho old stOl story peeked out through the Pearly Gates Oates and asked Who Vho knocks so loudly John Smith the tho famous famous' fisherman was the lie answer Well eil I cant can't keep you out for tor that hat but go easy on your OUr fish stories But John Smith told em morning noon lIoon and night to admiring throngs But always re was a It mon on on the tile edge of the circle who sneered and walked It Rot got ot on John Smiths Smith nerves asked St St. Peter Pter that uppity chap who tries to que queer l' l In my lily best Lest fi fish h stories Oh flit 1 mild St. St Peter Ieter 11 h thu It question Has lias Jonah right to talc take ton on tiles In III other othier words did the whale swallow j J Not wishing to bo hl cal caught hi between the Upper upper unit and nether millstones of the fundamentalists nail modernists tills thIs 11 th lint not But nut Butas' Butas us as' to toV V hule could have s bless you that nil all depends upon the kind of ot whale It If It Jonah's whale was wae like tike than theone the tho one n shown In the old print t reproduced why why one gulp co could ld have done dona It U. For this is a toothed wlate cachalot cache cacha- lot sperm wb whale ie spermaceti whale Its length often runs s to tt sixty t et Its head forms torms about ono ono huU bulls bulle and extends more than one thin of ot Its length Its mouth Is very verl largo large an wIde and ond Its throat Is largo enough t to paS a 0 nulls man with ease Incidentally theros thero's a II new book out Our Our Naval Heritage by Lieutenant Lieu tenant Commander Green Oreen U. U S. S N N.- N. F. F A. A G. G R S It M. M Sc Be The Tha jacket tass Its It's officially approved read and ch checked ked by by the tho historical section Navy tle department nt And AndIn AndIn Andin In the very first chol chapter er wo find thlu J Moreover It ii is really surprising how howman man many of ot the eart early sea ea tales were founded on facts that defied tion Take fake the whale and Jonah yarn arn Our own Literary Digest has hall printed a a. true etory of ot a whaler launching two whale boata boate of ot a full tull equipment of ot men In an nn attempt to capture a II sperm whale In the battle buttle with the monster tho he whale l. capsized one of ot the boata bote All of the themen themen themen men were saved caved except two who were war supposed to have been drowned The Th whale whala was subsequently killed Two days day later It tt Will wai out up and to their Vast vait astonishment the men nen found one ODe of ot their shipmates whom they thel had thought dead lying f unconscious In the th belly of the whale The man loans name nam was wa John Hartley and he ha finally re re- re covered coverd On the he other hand It If Jonah met up tip with a n toothless whale why whale why there was nothing doing except by way of ot miracle The Tho toothless whale may bo be Just as ns big as ai a n toothed whale and lYe have just us liS large a n mouth but that mouth Is chock dIode full tull of ot whalebone through which Is strained the food tood Besides tho the gullet Is absurdly small for tor so huge buge a creature Those W who IO think of ot a whale as a abig abig abig big fish should think lignin again It lEa Its lEabIg big enough the enough the only bigger lIving thing is Is the HI Big Treo Tree of at Call California torn IlL But Dut the whale Is Iii as ns much nn an as os a 0 horse or a sheep It has hos lungs breathes thu air birth to Its young and suckles s it It l f Moreover the tile mother whale displays great groat affection for tor or her ter 12 toot offspring C |
