FISHERIES OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 
87 
The tenders generally reach the fleet early in July and bring home the 
first fruits of the fishery late in August. They also bring the first news 
from the fleet, which is awaited with much anxiety, as indicating what 
the season’s catch may be. 
The tenders are usually large vessels. In 1888 the steamer Jeanie 
(862.95 tons) and the sailing bark Thomas Pope (226.86 tons) were ten- 
ders to the Arctic fleet. 
In the tables which follow, giving the names, tonnage, catch, etc., of 
the San Francisco whaling fleet, and also the New Bedford vessels that 
rendezvous at that port, it will perhaps be noticed that some of the 
ships brought in oil and no bone, while others reported only bone. This 
is in part due to the fact that a portiou of the catch had been shipped 
home in the tenders, though some of the vessels, particularly the schoon- 
ers, do not save anything except the bone. Sometimes sperm oil taken 
on the winter’s cruise in the Pacific, before entering the Arctic, consti- 
tutes a part of their cargoes. 
In good seasons the tenders often bring home very valuable cargoes, 
but at other times they have little return freight. In 1888 the steam 
tender Jeanie brought home 2,800 pounds of bone and 75 barrels of 
sperm oil from the Hunter. The Thomas Pope returned with the follow- 
ing quantities of bone from the vessels named : Abram Barker , 2,300 
pounds; Helen Mar , 300 pounds; J. A. Howland , 4,400 pounds; Mary 
and Susan , 700 pounds ; Ocean , 4,100 pounds ; Reindeer , 3,600 pounds; 
Rosario , 5,600 pounds; Young Phoenix , 2,300 pounds. 
Trade. — It occasionally happens that the whalers obtain furs by bar- 
tering with the natives. The Eskimo are said to be very fond of trading. 
They often visit the whalers in their kaiaks, and bring anything they may 
have for sale. Fox skins are the principal furs obtained in this manner 
by whalemen, and the quantity is seldom large. About 50 to 60 pelts 
are occasionally secured. In 1888 the bark Wanderer brought home 40 
fox skins and the pelages of 48 lynxes, 2 bears, and 10 otters. 
Dangers. — No class of men are exposed to greater or more diversified 
peril than the Arctic whalemen. Comparatively recent years have wit- 
nessed most appalling disasters to the Arctic fleet. Many vessels have 
been nipped; some have been deserted by their crews that succeeded 
in reaching safety on other ships, but in far too many instances the 
men had no escape and finally succumbed to starvation or the rigors of 
an Arctic winter. Shipwrecks, u stove boats,” etc., with all their at- 
tendant horrors, are commonplace events in the whaleman’s life, and 
pages might be filled with the most startling recitals of disaster aud 
suffering. 
Financial results , catch, etc. — The . catch, upon which depends the 
financial results of the whale fishery, varies exceedingly from year to 
year, the fluctuations being due to many causes, but chiefly dependent 
upon the movements of ice and whales in the Arctic. A successful 
season may be followed by one that is specially unfavorable, and vice 
