72 



HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



may remain from home for three years. Voyages to the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean occupy 

 from two to four years, depending largely upon the abundance of whales. These vessels are 

 principally ships and barks, the schooners and brigs finding employment in the North Atlantic 

 fishery. 



The Pacific Ocean whalers remain from home -three or four years, or even a greater length of 

 time, transshipping their oil from San Francisco, Honolulu, and South American ports, and taking 

 supplies from time to time at convenient places. 



STATISTICS FOR 1880. The receipts of sperm oil from the American fleet in the year 1880 

 were 1,184,841 gallons, the smallest quantity, with the exception of the years 1865 and 1874, received 

 since the year 1826. The entire yield of the fleet from 1804 to 1880 was 166,604,496 gallons, and the 

 number of sperm whales taken, allowing 25 barrels to each whale and 10 per cent, of those taken 

 as lost, was 232,790. The receipts of sperm oil by decades since the year 1810 were as follows : 



The products of the sperm-whale fishery, in addition to the oil from the blubber and head, 

 and ivory from the teeth, includes that very valuable substance ambergris, which when pure is 

 worth its weight in gold. A full discussion of the manner of obtaining ambergris and the value 

 of the production is given in the section of this report treating of Preparation of Products. 



CAPT. H. W. SEABURY ON SPERM WHALES. " The largest sperm whale that I have seen 

 taken," says Oapt. H. W. Seabury, of New Bedford, " was 120 barrels ; though I have heard of one 

 that made 148 barrels. The male or bull, when full grown, varies from 70 to 110 barrels, very 

 seldom going beyond the latter amount, and is from 50 to 70 feet long. Female or cow sperm 

 whales have been caught that made 50 barrels, though they do not often yield more than 35 barrels. 

 They vary much in size in different places. In the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and along the 

 Gulf Stream through the Atlantic, they run small, and full-grown cows will not average over 15 

 barrels. Those caught in the Pacific Ocean near the equator as far as longitude 135 west, average 

 about 25 barrels while those caught farther west and in most parts of the Indian Ocean run 

 smaller. The cows with their young give from nothing up to 35 barrels, and seem to go in schools 

 together, and we frequently see from twenty-five to fifty and sometimes one hundred or more in a 

 school, with occasionally a large bull among them, and at times, though seldom, we find all 

 sizes together. The male or bull whales seem to separate from the cows and calves when 

 about the size of 35 barrels, as we seldom get them in the schools of the mother and its young to 

 make more oil than that, and we find the young bulls in pods or schools beyond that si/e ; we find 

 them in what we call 40-barrel bulls, where they generally go in larger numbers than they do as 

 they increase in size ; we find them again in smaller schools of about the size of 50 barrels, and 

 again about 60 barrels, where we sometimes see eight or ten together, and 70 barrels four or five, and 

 beyond that one, two, and three, except on New Zealand Ground, where the large whales go in larger 

 bodies ; many times we raise a large sperm whale alone, or sometimes two within a short distance of 

 each other, going their regular course from 3 to 6 miles per hour ; they will make their course as 



