THE GREENLAND WHALE FISHERY. 413 
extremely depressed. The whales have become exceedingly 
scarce, so that the last vessels have returned home utterly 
destitute, and those who have been depending on these returns 
for support, are thrown into necessitous circumstances. A 
liberal subscription has been opened for these suffering mari- 
ners at Newcastle, and a numerous public meeting was held 
at North Shields, which raised a handsome sum. It was stat- 
ed at the meeting, that above 120 seamen belonging to North 
Shields had returned without success, and at least thirty had 
suffered shipwreck. 
In addition to the total want of success in the fishery, it 
seems the Greenland Whalemen have been subjected also to 
storms and shipwrecks to an unprecedented degree. The 
T3'ne Mercury, of November 2, contains the following extract 
of a letter from a young gentleman Avho acted as surgeon on 
board one of the whalers in Davis's Straits. 
"The remembrance of every other transaction is lost when 
I begin to think of the awful scenes and most disastrous events 
which have lately occurred. On Friday forenoon the sky 
was clear, but about two P. M. it became suddenly overcast, 
and blew a strong gale from the SSW. accompanied by a 
thick sleet and snow. This awakened our apprehensions, 
and, indeed, it was not long before they were realized. At 
nearly four o'clock our dock — sawn with extreme labor, and 
upon which all our hopes centred — gave way. This was 
the general signal for getting our 'traps' on the ice. After 
each had got what belonged to himself in safety on the ice, 
provisions were then hoisted up — for, in the first instance, no- 
thing but self-interest Avas attended to. The pressure of the 
ice seemed to be going regularly along ; it now passed on to 
several vessels to the eastward of us ; about three hundred 
yards in that direction lay the Resolution, of Peterhead ; the 
Laurel, of Hull ; and the Letitia, of Aberdeen, in one dock ; 
the latter vessel, unable to withstand the tremendous pressure 
of the ice, was soon upon her beam-ends, and in a short time 
afterward her masts went by the board, and she became a to- 
tal Avreck. The Princess of Wales, of Aberdeen, was next 
crushed to pieces ; and the ice continuing to press the whole 
of the night, but in a more gradual manner, many of the ves- 
sel^ were on their beam-ends, but again righted ; several were 
crushed many feet above the ice a-stern, and others a-head. 
We were lying in dock, yet often did we hear our vessel 
crack, and at one time having heard a crash, though we were 
ignorant which of the vessels it was, simultaneously rush- 
35* 
