78 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



our anchor and by eighteen hours' hard work succeeded in kedging about 4 miles seaward ; a 

 breeze then springing up from off shore, we spread sail and passed into clear water. We spent a 



short time in the straits, but saw nothing of the bowhead kind. Passed into the Arctic July , 



and found most of the fleet catching walrus; about a dozen ships (this one among the number) 

 went cruising along the northern ice for bowheads. After prospecting from Icy Cape to near 

 Herald Island, and seeing not a whale, I returned to the walrus fleet. The first ship I saw was 

 the Vineyard, with one hundred and seventy -five walrus; since then I have not seen or heard 

 from her. This walrusing is quite a new business, and ships which had engaged in it the previous 

 season and came up prepared were very successful. While at it, we drove business as hard as the 

 best of them, but soon became convinced that the ship's company (taken collectively) were much 

 inferior to many others ; they could not endure the cold and exposure expected of them. I have 

 seen boats' crews that were properly rigged, kill and strip a boat load of walrus in the same length 

 of time another (not rigged) would be in killing one and hauling him on the ice. We took some 

 four hundred, making about 230 barrels. About August 5 all the ships went in pursuit of bow- 

 heads (most of them to Point Barrow). When off the Sea Horse Islands we saw a few whales 

 working to the westward, just enough to detain us ; we took two making 200 barrels ; the weather 

 cold, and a gale all the time. In September I worked up about 70 miles from Point Barrow; saw 

 quite a show of small whiiles in the sea ; took four which made about 100 barrels. As that was a 

 fair sample, and not having the right boys to whale in that ice, where the thermometer stood only 

 8 above zero, I went back to the westward. Ships that had from forty to fifty men (clad in skins) 

 and officers accustomed to that particular kind of whaling, did well. In going back the fourth 

 mate struck a whale which made about 70 barrels. From the 28th of September to the 4th of 

 October we saw a good chance to get oil, had the weather been good, and a well, hardy crew. 

 We could not cut and whale at the same time. We took four whales which would have made 500 

 barrels had we had good weather to boil them. On the 4th of October we put away for the straits, 

 in company with the Seneca, John Howland, and John Wells a gale from the northeast, and 

 snowing. On the evening of the 7th it blew almost a hurricane ; hove the ship to south of Point 

 Hope, with main topsail furled; lost starboard bow boat, with davits ship covered with ice and 

 oil. On the 10th entered the straits in a heavy gale; when about 8 miles south of the Diomede.s, 

 had to heave to under bare poles, blowing furiously, and the heaviest sea I ever saw ; ship making 

 bad weather of it ; we had about 125 barrels of oil on deck, and all our fresh water ; our blubber 

 between decks in horse pieces, and going from the forecastle to the mainmast every time she 

 pitched, and impossible to stop it ; ship covered with ice and oil ; could only muster four men in 

 a watch ; decks flooded with water all the time ; no fire to cook with or to warm by, made it the 

 most anxious and miserable time I ever experienced in all my sea service. During the night 

 shipped a heavy sea, which took off bow and waist boats, davits, slide-boards, and everything 

 attacked, staving about 20 barrels of oil. At daylight on the second day we found ourselves in 17 

 fathoms of water, and about 6 miles from the center cape of Saint Lawrence Island. Fortunately 

 the gale moderated a little, so that we got two close-reefed topsails and reefed courses on her, 

 and by sundown were clear of the west end of the island. Had it not moderated as soon as it did, 

 we should, by 10 a. m., have been shaking hands with our departed friends." 



Another difficulty of North Pacific navigation is mentioned in a letter from Capt. William H. 

 Kelley, of the bark James Allen, of New Bedford, to the Hawaiian Gazette, in 1S74.* He says : 

 " One of the perplexities of the navigator cruising in the Arctic Ocean is the singular effect northerly 

 and southerly winds seem to have upon the mariner's compass. Captains have noticed this singu- 



See New Bedford " Shipping List," January 6, 1875; 



