BRITISH SOUTHERN WHALE FISHERY.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 208, 28 July 1847, Page 4

BRITISH SOUTHERN WHALE FISHERY.

[From the Sydney Morning Herald, Jnne 25.] We have received a very interesting pamphlet entitled "Proposals for re-establishing the British Southern Whale Fishery, through the medium of a chartered Company, and in

combination with the Colonization of the Auckland Islands as the site of the Company's Whaling Station; by Charles Enderby, Esq., F. R. 5.," and judging from our own feelings consequent on a careful perusal of this little work, we are sure we shall be excused if we draw the attention of our readers to some extracts from it. The pamphlet consists of 67 pages, and is full of statistical matters furnished by a skilful practical man of business who has had unusually good (almost exclusive) sources of information ; and, therefore, for any observations of ours (further than merely to connect the extracts) there will be no occasion. " The decay of the Southern Fishery being an admitted fact, the practicability of restoring the trade as an element of the national prosperity becomes the only question ; for of the desirability of the restoration there can exist no doubt. When, indeed, it is considered how extensively this trade might be carried on by England, seeing that it is carried on by the Americans to the unprecedented extent of 730 vessels, which give employment to upwards of 20,000 seamen, who are thus reared for their country's service ; that it is one which is pursuable in every sea, even to the remotest quarters of the vt orld, thereby opening new commercial channels, and extending geographical knowledge ; that it is independent of diplomacy, dispenses with the necessity of ambassadors, consuls, and special commissioners, and needs neither stipulations nor negociations nor treaties with foreign powers ; that, in short, the whole export it requires is nothing but the produce of labour, the cost of stores anil provisions, and the wages of seamen ; — when these, [ say, and other circumstances which will suggest themselves in connexion with them, are passed in review, it becomes a matter both of the greatest regret and humiliation, that the British Southern Whale Fishery should be in the depressed condition it is. The qupstion as to the practicability of re-establishing it, I answer, without hesitation, in the affirmative. My knowledge of the trade would make me cautious of suggesting any ] roject for its revival that might compromise my judgment; but I am so satisfied that success must attend the project which — as those you represent rightly conjecture — I have formed, that I readily avail myself of the opportunity now offered me of unfolding it for the purpose of publicity. As preliminary, however^ to doing so, I consider it expedient to submit some general observations, with reference to the origin and progress of the fishery, the causes of its decay, and its present state. " The Southern Whale Fishery,* as conducted direct from England, dates from the year 1775, when it was established by my late father, who had previously carried it on extensively through agents in the United "States of America, then British dependencies. At a later period he opened to the world the most considerable of these fisheries, viz., the Pacific Ocean Fishery (by Captain Shields of the Emilia), in 1788; the Japan Fishery (by Captain F. Coffin of the Siren), in 1819; the Seychelle Island Fishery, extending fiom Madagascar to the Persian Gulf, (by Captain M'Lean of the Suan), in 1823. Besides these, he opened, many years since, the Common Whale Fishery in the bays on the Eastern coast of Africa. " The foregoing are some only of the great divisions of the Southern Fishery ; for, in its widest extent, it may be said to embrace, with the exception of the seas constituting what is properly the Northern or Greenland Fishery, the whole expanse of oc^an. Hence, if whales disappear for a time from one part where they had previously abounded, they are to be found in another ; nor is there any greater popular error than that which inculcates a contrary belief; or in other words, that the effect of the fishery is to exterminate the tribe of cetacea. All experience proves that whales do not entirely disappear, but merely migrate in consequence of their favourite haunts be<ng too continuously invaded ; while every one familiar with their habits is equally aware that they do not permanently abandon those haunts, but resort to them again in the course of time. The apparent failure of the Spermaceti Whale Fishery is attributed to the natural shyness and wildness of the fish being increased, in consequence of the -unremitting pursuit to which they are subjected wherever encountered, rather than to any actual decrease of numbers. Reasoning by analogy, the erroneousness of the impression, that the diminution of jthis fishery is occasioned by a scarcity of whales, appears to find confirmation in the fact that, as shown by the returns, the produce of the Northern or Greenland Fishery varied

* For the information of those not familiar with the subject it may be as well to state, that the Southern Whale Fis.hery is so designated, not because it is uniformly prosecuted in a southerly direction, — since it is extensively carried on in the North Pacific, cren to Behring's Straits, and in the Indian Ocean, — but because whaling ships despatched from England to America must proceed in the first instance South.

more in former than in later years. The liability of the whale to change, pro tempore, his location may, in fact, be considered one of the reasons why the fishery has become so precarious in the hands of private individuals, few of whom are able to employ continuously a sufficient number of ships, for a sufficient period, in dtffeient localities, so that the success of one year may counterbalance the failure of another ; for, like insurance, the stability of the trade is based upon a system of averages extending over a lengthened period. " The Spermaceti Whale Fishery is carried on in the Pacific Ocean from latitude 50' south to 20' north, between the longitudes of 75* west and the Indian Ocean, as also on the coasts of Japan, as far north as 45*. Its principal seats in the Pacific include the coasts of Chili and Peru, tbe Polynesian Islands, Japan, New Zealand, and the coasts of New Holland. The fishery prosecuted in the Indian Ocean extends on the one hand, from the Cape of Good Hope to the western coast of New Holland, embracing also the Molucca Islands and those of Java and Sumatra ; and, on the other, from Madagascar to the entrance of the Persian Gulf. A Spermaceti Whale Fishery is likewise carried on, on a small scale, in the Atlantic Ocean in the neighbourhood of the Azores or Western Islands. " The Common Whale fishery is mostly prosecuted in the bays on the coasts of Chili, and on the north-west coast of America from California to the Aleuitian Islands, and in the sea of Kamschatka ; as also in the bays on the coast of New Holland ; off New Zealand and the adjacent Auckland Islands ; on the banks of Brazil, and in the bays on the eastern and western coasts of Africa. Common whales are likewise to be found in considerable numbers, in high southern latitudes, off the islands of Desolation, Falkland, and South Shetland. " The total number of ships fitted out from this country for the Southern Whale Fishery from the year 1775 to 1844, has been 861 ; and of voyages, 2153. More than one-fourth of these voyages were by ships fitted out by Messrs. Bennett and Co. and my own house. Estimating the average cost of each ship (including insurance), in the first instance, at £8000, and that of their successive re-equip-ments at £5000, (the re-equipment of our own ships, has, however, exceeded this average by £900, in the case of the last 100 voyages), the aggregate capital invested will have been £13,348,000. The number of ships lost has been 130 ; of those captured in war, 87 ; and of those condemned, 37 ; making a total of 254 ships to be deducted from the 861 equipped. But, in addition to the former number, so many ships have been successively withdrawn from the trade, that is, ships which have returned Irom the fishery without being refitted for a further voyage, as to have reduced the number actually employed in it to 36 ; so that from first to last, there has been a positive decrease of no less than 825 ships, representing, at the former rate of £8000 per ship, a withdrawn capital of £6,600,000.

" Adding to these 282,641 tuns the further quantity of 5040 tuns of sperm oil, as the estimated produce (at the rate of 140 tuns per ship) of the thirty-six ships now out, (since they form part of the 861 ships,) the total returns will be 287,681 tuns, the value of which may be computed at £15,390,252; viz., £14,987,052 for the realized quantity, and £403,200 for the additional one. " Of fur seal skins, the number imported within the same period has been 2,094,393. (To be continued.)

* The reason why I have taken at two different periods the quantity of oil imported, is because Colonial whale oils first began to be introduced in 1823.

'revious to 1823* .... Rom 1823 to Jan 1846.. Sperm Oil Tuns. 78,170 89,386 l. < Common Ol Tuns. 106,870 8,215 il. Total tuns, 185,04 C 97,601 Total 167,556 115,085 282,641

" The quantity of sperm and common whale oil imported has amounted to 282,641 tuns, viz. : —