APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 919 



265 MEMORANDUM OF MR. G. GLEADOWE, OF THE BRITISH 

 TREASURY DEPARTMENT, ON THE GENERAL CONDITION 

 AND CHARACTER OF THE CANADIAN SEALING FLEET. 



In April and May 1892, by diVection of tlae Lords Commissioners of 

 Her Majesty's Treasury, I visited British Columbia with the object of 

 inquiring- into the amount of damage sustained by the Canadian 

 schooner owners by reason of the modus vivendi of 1891 having been 

 put in force after the commencement of the sealing season. In the 

 course of my inquiries I i)crsonally inspected a considerable number of 

 the sealing fleet, and came in contact with a large number of schooner 

 owners, captains of vessels, and others engaiged in the industry, and I, 

 as far as possible, made myself acquainted with the sealing industry 

 and the men engaged in it. 



As a body, the schooner owners have impressed me very favourably. 

 SoTue of them are old sailors who have invested their savings in a 

 schooner, and sail with her themselves, but the majority are men 

 engaged in trade, who have fitted out schooners as they would invest 

 their money in any other speculation. The earlier sealers were mainly 

 men of the former class. 



As regards their nationalitj^, I went out under the impression that I 

 should find that many were not British subjects. I found, however, 

 that there is very little foundation in fact for this impression. Even 

 the mortgagees are, in nearly every case which has come under my notice, 

 British subjects. 



As regards the schooners, I was much impressed with the excellence 

 of the way in which, as a general rule, they are built and found in every 

 respect. Compared with craft of a similar tonnage in other industries, 

 they are expensively fitted out, and everything about them appears 

 good, more like a yacht's than a fishing boat's. S"o doubt in many cases 

 boats that would serve the purpose well enough could be got for a 

 smaller sum than these schooners have cost, but the competition for 

 skilled hunters has been so '!,reat, and the trade so profitable, that a 

 sealer thought nothing of spending a few extra hundreds or even thou- 

 sands of dollars to obtain a vessel so built and fitted out as to attract 

 the best and most successful men. The cost of building a vessel in 

 Britisli Colnmbia is very high, and many are built or bought in Nova 

 S otia, and brouglit round the Horn in the winter, so as to be at Vic- 

 toria in time to refit for the spring sealing. This is no trifling voyage 

 for a 50 or 70 ton schooner, and everything must be of the best to secure 

 the success of the venture. Even so, a vessel so obtained comes cheaper 

 than one built locally, but many owners have preferred to pay a higher 

 price and employ local labour, in this way also insuring their vessel 

 being ready for a full season's fishing, which in the case of a schooner 

 coming round the Horn in the winter cannot be reckoned on. I have 

 seen in several cases the bills showing the whole cost of the construc- 

 tion and fitting out of a schooner, and while I cannot but consider the 

 cost of some very high, it is difficult in such cases to appraise the value 

 at any lower figure. 



The best and most lasting vessels come fi'ora the eastern States of 

 Canada or America, or from Yokoliama or some other port in Japan. 

 These are bnilt, as a rule, of hard wood, and may last for thirty or forty 

 years, or even more. At the same time, the cost of buihling a vessel 

 in the East or in Japan is appreciably less than it is at Victoria or 

 Vancouver, where labour is both dear and inefficient. The wood used 

 for shipbuilding at these ports is either Douglas spruce, or, in a few 



