WHALE-HUNTING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 153, 30 June 1934, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHALE-HUNTING.

OLD AND NEW. THE AXTARCT2CS HARVEST. {By J.C.} From the days -when European enterprise "began in fbt.se Southern seas, the wh-alechip and the whaleman played an important part in the story of Australia and Xftr Zealand, and there is a large body of literature -which preserves in one -way and another the history and the advcnture# of the English, American and colonial craft, -which cruised Souti Pacific -waters in search of the -world's bisrest game. These -whale-chase -books, of which •\Moby Dick" is the classic, give us an infinite variety of pictures of the past, of heroic labour, often terrible privations, of cruises lasting for years., of fortunes built up by sea stress and toil unexampled in sny other form of nautical life. But there has been wanting a good, comprehensive account of whaling, ancient and modern, in these seas carrying the story through tbe century which has elapsed since English adventurers first hurled a harpoon into a sperm whale in the Pacific up to the era of guns and bombs and mass slaughter of

to-day. Such a book has now been supplied by an eminent Australian authority. Professor W. J. Dakin, who has the Chair of Zoology in the Sydney University*. The author is not a mere library student of whaleship lorei he has teen a good deal of whaling for himself, particularly the methods of the Xorweirians

in recent times, and he has obtained a great deal of information from old whalers of the Xew South Wales coast and XorfoJk Island. He has produced j a book which will stand as the priccij pal authority on tie whaling carried on by Australian and Tasmanian vessels in the la.st century, and as a reliable general book of reference on South Pa cine and Antarctic enterprise in the oil industry. Record of Adventure. But more than this, it is a quite enthralling record of adventure, in the days -when whaleships in hundreds cruised the South Seas in search of the huge sperm for oil, and the "Tight" for its valuable bone as well as its oil. The old type and the new are contrasted; old ways are described in detail, old logs are given, with their human touches, their glimpses of tragedy and humour. Messrs. Angus and Robertson, tie pnblishers, have well seconded the author's srreat work, and have produced a beautiful book, making good and unusual illustrations, showing old ships and gear and methods. There is a quite fascinating end-paper, a decorative chart of the South Pacific and Australia to Kew Zealand, -with a spouting whale and all the romantic a map after the heart of a Eot>ert Louis' Stevenson,

Thc intimate connection between whaling ami wirly history in Australia and Xew Zealand is well set forth by

I Professor Dakin. He describes, too. tie j Totaling grounds, the slips and their {■ tjuipment, tbe financial troubles and j successes by the wna.les.hip owners; the ! magnitude of the operations at the i height of the prices for oil and bone; J the big figures in the colonial enterprise and their dealings with captains and ' oxews. English and American ships J come largely into the narrative, but the j grcat-er part of the book is concerned. j naturally, with Australian effort. There is much about tbs enterprise of the j Tasmanian owners and builders. In IS4S there were at least thirty-eight -whaling vessels registered at Hobart Town. The shipbuilders of the port had already attained a wide reputation for good work. At that period the Americans. however, had by far the greatest share of the Pacific's -whaling. They had oveT TOO vessels in the business. Great Britain's fleet of 322 whaleships in IS2I had fallen to 41. Professor Dakin gives the curious history of the last survivor of the Sydney whaling fleet, the barque Costa" Pdea Packet, and he mentions the barque Helen (-which -vre used to see in Auckland -waters in the 'nineties) as one of the last two Hobart loira whalers. The other Tasmanian veteran was the Waterwitch. a barque -which -was built as a British Xavy vessel in 1820, and was sent out on her hist cruise in 1594; a •wonderful old galleon of the oil-seekers.

In Ne-w Zealand Waters. A perusal of the book brings up by force of association memories of certain vessels the author does not mention, some old-time -whalers seen in our Xew Zealand waters, ships of antique build, the Rip Van Winkles of the sea they seemed to be. One remembers particularly that hardy veteran of the Xew Bedford fleet, the barque Charles W. Morgan, -which "was in Auckland about IS9O. She -was then half a century old; she had an indescribably ancient air. she had been part of the ocean life so long. Her round bows and -wall sides, her standing rigging, all of hemp instead of •wire, her old-fashioned detail everywhere, set her apart from all other sea craft. The little barque Gayhead -was another visitor to these coasts: we saw her la.?t at the Bay of Islands in the year the Morgan was in Auc.kla.nd.

Both these vessels are now preserved as museum ships in New Zealatid ports: the Gayhead is a prized historical relic in a Xe«v Bedford dock. Another that eomes to mind was the Alaska., a somewhat larger barque, hailins: from San Francisco. There

are some Xew Zealanders who will remember the American -whaler Petrel. a barqne which became notorious because her captain was tried at the Bar of Islands on a charge arising out of the death of a member of the crew through ill-treatment. Some of those whalers ■were Veritable hell-ships, and atrocious punishments were inflicted on unfortunate green hands. Prank Bnllen's account of the happenings aboard the "Cachalot" of his. famous whaling story is borne out by the narratives of many a seaman. Mention of Bnllen's ship is a reminder that she became a Xew Zealand-owned whaler, after the craiee described in his story. The real name cf the "Cachalot" was the Splen-

did. She was bought from her Massachusetts owners by a Dunedin syndicate in the 'seventies, and for some years she sailed the Pacific whale-hunting, with many New Zealanders in her crew. One of her old hands lives in Wellington. The fall story of New Zealand whaling, •deep-sea and bay. still awaits a. writer. Professor Bakin's excellent account of the shore-whaliag in East and West Australia contains some carious lore and none more interesting than the descriptions of the kiilsr whales at Twofold. Bay, where vhale hunting ceased only two years ago. These killers exhibited an extraordinary cunning, a diabolical kind of intelligence, in their attacks on the humpback whales. There is much, too, about the station established at Twofold Bay by the celebrated Ben Boyd, who met his death in ISSI iji the Solomon Islands wheii cruising in his schooner yacht, the Wanderer. Another good chapter is the narrative of the escape of the Irish Fenian prisoners in West Australia in 1576 in the American whaleship Catalpa, a feat planned most skilfully by the Clan-na-Gael, and headed by the* noted John Boyle O'Keilly. who had himself escaped in ISB9. It is recorded that the people of Fremantle. where the six convicts got away, rejoiced at the success of the get-away, and made a gala day of it.

The Norwegians in the Antarctic. Modern whaling, the greatest whaling epoch in history, is described fully in several excellent chapters, opening with the story of how that splendid old Norseman, Captain C. A. Larsen. initiated the enterprise in Antarctic waters, which attained such huge dimensions. New Zealand comes into the story often, for the principal Norwegian expeditions were based on our port*, and Wellington as well as Dunedin and Stewart Island has see-s the enormous factory-steamers which, with flotillas of gun-armed killing ships, have penetrated into the ice-guarded Eoss Sea.

Professor Dakir. discusses the difficult > question of the protection of the whales, which ha* become urgent a* the result of ; tie wholesale slaughter methods of the Norwegians. There c-ert-ainly is an amazing contrast between old-time catches and modern yields from that industry. In IS6O Dr. Crowtber, who had a Tasmanian whaling fleet, regarded fifty tons of sperm oil valued at £4000 as "a profitable vield for a thirteen months' vovasre of one of his ships. In 1930 that Luge Xorse_ factory-ship, the Kosmos. returned to New Zealand from the Antarctic, with a cargo of 1P.530 tons of oil, valued at £500,000, for four months' whaling. A good average catch; for a. single ship in the old whaling days -was ten right whales. The catch of" the five chasers of the Kosmos for four months was 1522 whales. Little ■wonder the big "fish"' are decreasing and that a long close season for all whaling has often "been urged. But over-produc-tion of of! and tie consequent fall in prices operate for the •whales' protection; the huge scale of the work of slaughtfr defeats itself in the eud.

•"Whalemen Adventurers, the stor.r of WbaliTiir in Australasian Waters and other Smithcra Seas rriaied thorfto. from the r*ars cf Sail to 5Mm Tiir.cs." Bjr Professor W." J. Pakin. D-Sc. Univrrsitr of Sydney. 2nd Kobertson, Ltd., tvdr;cy.