296 WHALING 



year. From San Francisco the Cape Horn Pigeon had sailed on 

 December 7, 1891. She visited Ascension, one of the Caro- 

 line Islands, and Guam. Thence she sailed to the Yellow Sea, 

 where she cruised until early April. On April 26th she touched 

 at Vladivostok to stop a leak, and Captain Scullun tried unsuc- 

 cessfully to get a permit to whale in the Russian bays off the 

 Okhotsk Sea. Understanding that although he was forbidden 

 to whale in the bays, the Okhotsk Sea itself was open, he sailed 

 from Vladivostok and cruised in the Japan Sea until June 26th 

 when he returned to Vladivostok for fresh provisions, and on 

 July 6th sailed finally for the Okhotsk. 



The voyage from Vladivostok to the whaling grounds in the 

 Okhotsk took such a barque as the Cape Horn Pigeon from eight 

 to twelve days, according to the weather. The season for whales 

 there began usually about the middle of August and continued 

 until the early or middle part of October when northerly and 

 easterly winds, bringing weather too rough for whaling, would 

 set in; but the season varied from year to year, depending on 

 the presence of whale food, and although September was re- 

 garded as the best month, it was the common practice to arrive 

 on the grounds about the end of July. During the season a 

 competent master would take from six to ten right whales — 

 the average catch was seven or eight — and each whale, on an 

 average, would yield 100 barrels of oil and 1,100 pounds of 

 bone. 



On July 14th, the Cape Horn Pigeon worked into the Okhotsk. 

 On August 12th, she lowered four boats and struck and saved 

 a right whale. On August 14th, she killed another and got it 

 alongside, but the fluke rope parted and the whale sank. On 

 August 31st, the waist boat struck and saved another whale. 

 Thus, on September 10th, when a Russian officer in the con- 

 fiscated sealing schooner Marie hailed the Cape Horn Pigeon, 

 she had on board 200 barrels of oil and 2,600 pounds of whale- 

 bone, which Captain Scullun valued at $15,600. 



The barque had luffed on the port tack, with the foreyard back 

 and all sail taken in, when at quarter before three in the morning 

 the officer in charge came below and notified the captain that a 



