Evening Star Newspaper, January 10, 1926, Page 74

P2 e THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON. D. C, JANUARY 10 1926 —PART 5 Vessel Is Dragged by Great Whale Despite Force of Its Engines Story Is Told of Hazardous Cl’mase of a Specimen Representing a Type of Greatest Monsters That Ever Lived Upon the Earth or in Its Waters—Sur- passes in Bulk Even the Dinosaur. Huge Dripping Body Under the Bow of the Ship—Harpoon Strikes, Line Tight- ens and We're Off—Pursuit and Haul of 130 Miles—Four Hours' Struggle With a Grey]‘xound of the Sea. Mr Andrews, who I of the leadin orers of the time, viv eritical encounters the North Pacific were British Colum panese waters. exy and the ship lay in the swell and the Frereex there was still, quietly rolling Phe whale had sounded rope hung straight down from v as rigic as a bar of steel * * desc These an. Alaskan and J One of his most exciting adven tures was when a huge whale, en raged at beinz shot by a harpoon ind having failed in his efforts the line, headed ght nparativel steam G maneny the ves- | there only | line. The d rope is her hut this weak. If he doesn’t the come topside to blow so I can get in such a another harpoon. we may hreak the that she wonld | line in heaving him up. He's down m within a | lonz way and the strain will be aw ful \ftey minutes we waited and sisn from below Olsen bezan to get uneasy and (o stamp upon the line, hoping to sth the wreat animal which wax sulking on the bottom k st smal die down Afraid of this all rizht him v 1'm don't w he sald i [ ring <o that strnek declared torn stariy And uld have ) the steamer ) the have gone t Mr . York City Irews recently o returned dinz the minutes ime. the rope hegan 11 went forward with the captain to the zun platform wailing for the whale to syout. We it at last, but so fa: away that 1 ight it was » Jiferent animal The engines bad reen stopped when the whale wax doan. but now the ship w0 move, Faster and faster the nrough the water until ords.ced half speed astern - harpoon had struck the whale i bad place, for with the iron im G between his massive shoulders ould pull with all his strength Fo. half an hour we were dragged though the water and again he seunded This time he was down 10 minutes ind came to the surface with a rush which threw his %0 feet of body the air. Then he started off at a ter rific pace. The captain did not dare to ordered another when the men that the rope stowly to in. a expedition Natural His Af Mon he discoveries indi man orig then spread to 1d. He plans fon into the Amertean Museum of into the Gobi Upon his deser: siw return an need % At his hat prehistoric Asia and f the wi exped o1 her tore 1 her G BY ROY CHAPMAN ANDREWN. APT. FRED OLSEN had invit ed while I w Japa nese waters, to spend a week with him ahoard the Rekkusu faru and for five dave we bheen sea losing coal and hacks with but The fifth eve h no results for Kamaishi miles from Alkawa next morning I was awakened the alternate starting and stoppink of the engines and knew that already had been sichted 7 o'clock and hur an to find the « ing heavy sea and a cold he had pa tience one whale tc 2. after a hard day's the ship was a good harbor check his dash and line to he spliced on called from below gone o was almos o Three-quarters of a mile of line was out before the animal finally siowed enough so that the winch could hold Even then. with the engines at full speed astern. the ship was heing dragged ahead at nearly six knots an by a whale It was riedly. 1 abo ind. dressing in falling. I got into a suit of oil skins and then climhed to the bridge My greeting of “O hayo ‘good morning) v nswered by the man at the wheel, who said the. were huntinz a blue whale, which had been found about 6 o'clock and had almost ziven a shot. Capt. Olsen was at the gun and waveck his hand in greeting just as we heard the metallic whistle of the spout on the starbo: bhow The blue whale is not only the larg hour. Our catch next hegan a series of short dives. followed by frantic rushes from side to side, which lasted two hours. Each time the animal went down the winch ground in a few fathoms of line. sometimes losing it 4 more on the next mad plunge. but surely, recovering it foot by Slowly foot At 11 o'clack the whale hegan tc weaken. Every time he rose the stay at the surface was a little longer, his eat animal that lives today earth in its waters, but known, it is the largest has ever lived upon the so far as animal that Even those giant rep. tiles. the dinosaurs. which splashed ong the horders of the inland seas of Wyoming and Montana 3.000.000 vears ago. conld not approach a blue whale either in length or weight I got my camera ready for use. pro ecting It as much as possible with the flap my oilskin jackat, but was sather dubious as to b w successful e pictures would be The driving the lens with a film of as the coat was lifted that trouble could he ex the shutter when the penetrated tn its cur rushes became less violent. and the winch swallowed more and more of the coveted line. With the powerful glasses T could see that at times the water about his back was tinged with red. and knew that the working of the 100‘pound harpoon hetween his shoulders was making an ugly wound and letting gallons of biood flow from his great veins Finally only one line besides the leader for the harpoon was out, and had alveady begun to work the camera whenever the whale rose to hiow. The wind had nearly died out. but had left tremendous swell. and the little ship was rolling and tossing like a thing possessed. Capt. Olsen ment. was drawing the whale in for a second shot when the line slacked away as the ship dropped into the hol low of a great swell. then tightened suddenly and parted with a crack like a pistol shot when she rose on the crest. With an eath Olsen shouted for full speed. and fired as the great body dis appeared heneath the surface. but he made it. and we gave a wild yell as water as soon and T knew pected dampness tain The whale ca mes and throu had up two or three the field glasses | diminutive dorsal fin and back, which, in the rain, ap. exactly the color of the ay Twice a shot seemed imminent. but each time the animal refused to take the last short dive which wonld have brought it within ranze. At 9 o'clock Capt. Olsen ran to the c: for a cup , [enyy % “WITH LANCE READY. AWAITING. HiIs OPPORTUNITY.” and to chanze his wet | he had neglected to put | before goinz on deck He had been below only 10 minutes vhen the whale appeared not far away and Olsen hurried forward. pull- ing on his coat as he ran. Again the whale rose. about 30 fathoms from the <hip and just out of range Olsen called to me he'll come close next time.” Suddenly a cloud of white sho' into our very faces and a great | cepping body rounded out under the ship's how The click of the camera llowed by the deafening roar of the gun: then there was a moment's stillness as the giant figure quivered, straightened out, righted itself, and with a crashing blow of the flukes swung about and dashed away. tear ing through the water partly on the surface, partly below it of coffea clothes, for on oilsk whale's back again. leaving a great crimson patch staining the surface. The _ship plunged forward through it. and 1 saw bits of torn and mangled flesh which told the story all too plainly—the homb on the tip of the harpoon, as it exploded. had blown the iron out and the whale was free. PR W 1ay to with the engine stopped to see what would happen next. Little was said: almost the only sound was the retching and groaning of a pump when the ship keeled far over to starboard with the swell. minutes the silence continued, then 2 b T | the captain said in a quiet voice: The ery of ~Banzmll which rose ! iThere he s, far away on the beam.” B e o T e | Instantly the “ting, ting” of the bell hriekins of the winch and the pound t ing of the line on the deck as fathom | in the engine room sounded and a which 1 shall long re- after fathom was dragged over the!chase bggan iron wheels. Through the cloud of smoke I could <ee the engineer putting all his strength upon the brake and heard him shout for water o wet the burn. | ting almost close enough to shoot and ing wood. One hundred, two hundred, ; 2gain losing sight of the spout in the three hundred fathoms were dragged frain and fog. out, when suddenly the rush ceased It was disagreeable enough. for me ready: vapor on persistency plays in whaling. into | against his better judg. | | velled “CAM A RU E TO THE SURFACE WITH 'H WHICH THREW HALF OF HIS 80 FEET OF BODY INTO THE AIR.” on the bridge where | could be partiv protected from the cold rain by a can vas sereen, but Capt. Olsen never left the gun. At 3 a cup of tea was brouzht him and he drank it hastily, meanwhile cramming a few crackers into his pocket to he nibbled as_opportunity offere The day wore on, but seemed to he stronger weaker and at 3 o'clock up hope that we would shot I had just bridge 1o o spouted ahout it seemed a'clock the animal instead I had given get another started to helow when 40 fathoms awav and sure’ that he id rise again within range. The man In the barrel shouted: “There he comes™ and pointed to a spot just beside the port bow Capt was standing almost the rope-pan in front the huge form just but it turned down swirling zreen trail “I'd have shot had only come up ed. “hut well get Shortly leave the the whale the edge of We could see under the surface, again, leaving a Lehind it him in the 1 * Capt him afterward the whale hlew near us. dead ahead, and as he turned to down school of porpoises dashed along beside his back. When seconds afterward ieaping all about od 1if he Olsen shout he a few porpoises were head, and. bewild which way to turn We almost reached him. bu undec the water came up For the the his rose t he slid just before the ship next few minutes he was lost in the and gathering darkness ind I shouted to Captain Olsen You'll never get him. I'm going below “Well, I'll stand by dark to shoot,” h mizght get a chance vet [ had hardly reached mv cabin and hegun pulling off my oilskins when the jerk of the engines told me they must again be close. 1 ran on deck just as the great brute rounded up right heside the how and the gun flashed out in the darkness. “‘Shinda’ the sailors. and 'through the smoke cloud T could see the whale give a convulsive twist. roll on its side with the fin straight upward, and siowly sink Almost at once the winch hegan to take in the slack and haul the carcass to the surface. When it came along side, the rope attached to the first until answered too oy is ey the harpoon shot over the water in a | harpoon floated backward in danger- wide semi-circle and dropped upon the | ous proximity to the propeller, and it | required some careful work to get the There was a sudden jerk. a ‘muffled | animal fast to the bow explosion. and the line slacked away | For 10| { member as showing what a great part | flesh All the | elght | rest of the afternoon the little ship |baleen seven tons and the hones eight hung to the whale's track, now get-|tons. l and the line safely out of the way, * ok ok % JE HAD a long tow to the station, for the chase had carried us nearly 130 miles away, and not until the next afternoon did the sturdy little vessel sweep into the bay and de- liver her whale to the station where in a very few hours its flesh would fill thousands of waiting cans and be sent to the markets throughout the em- pire. As to the length and welght of the blue whale. Dr. F. A. Lucas, director of the American Museum of Natural History, once weighed and measured one that was taken at Newfoundland. The animal was 78 feet long and 35 feet around the shoulders; the head was 19 feet in length and the flukes 16 feet from tip to tip. 2 The total welght was 63 tons: the weighed 40 tons, the blubber tons, the blood, viscera and So far as 1 am aware, this iz the only specimen which has ever been actually weighed. Exaggerated accounts of the size of this species are current ejen in Olsen swung the gun until he | he did not know | | reputable hooks on natural histery {but the largest specimen which has vet heen actuaily measured and recorded is 87 feet long. stranded few years ago upon the coast of New Zealand: this animal must have weighed at least 75 tons. | have measured two hlue whales 85 feat long but individuals of this size are rare All the gunners who have hunted |in the South Atlantic or Pacific tell remarkable tales of the enormous hlue ! whales killed off Kerguelen and South Georgia Islands. 1 have no douht that this species reaches 90 or possibly 95 feet. but the stories of 115 and 120 {foot whales are certainly myvths. As Dr. Lucas aptly save. “All wh shrink under the tape measure.” Undoubtedly the principal why whales are able to attain {enormous size is because their are supported hy the water in they live. A bird is limited weight which its wings can bear up in the air. land animal. if it be | “omes too large. cannot held its body | off the ground or move about readily and ix doomed to certain destruction, But a whale has to face none of these problems and can grow withont | restraint. The sperm and right alex float when killed. hut whales usually sink. although specific gravity of their bodies but little more than that of water. Because whales live in a supporting medium their voung are of anormous | slze at birth. in some instances the | calf being almost half the length of its mother. 1 once took from an 80 foot blue whale a 25-foot baby which weighed ahout eight tons. The calf was just ready for hirth and was fully | formed, the whalebone being about | three inches long. | * o ok o |TF = | * by reason such hodie: which to the A | the is whale is struck near the harpon. it is almost power- | rope straightens out its body and the animal can swim only with difficulty. | Practically all of the forward motion ! is developed by means of the flukea | and the side fina are only used as bal- ancing organs and In_turning and rising to the surface. The flukes are not twisted in a rotary movement lke the propeller of a ship, as in com- | monly believed, but wave straight up {and down. While hunting in Alaska I had an ner in which a whale swims. climbed to the barrel in the masthead | while we were following an enormous humpback, and, as the water was like g'a save f the long swell, I could see 15 or 20 feet beneath the surface, Suddenly the dim outlines of the whale took shape in the green depths far below me, but when near the sur- face the animal checked its upward rush, turned downward, and dived directly under the ship, rising a_hun- dred fathoms away on the port beam. 1 could see every movement of the great body as clearly as though the whale had been suspended in midair When the animal turned, the side fins were thrown outward but were pressed close to the body as it swam under the ship. A whale's flippers must not be com- pared with the fins of a fish, for in structure the two are quite unlike The flippers of all cetaceans are mere- lv the fore limbs of ordinary land mammals, which have become over- laid with blubber to form a paddie in adaptation to an aquatic life and have the -bones, blood vessels and nerves of the human arm. The flipper of the humpback whale has four greatly elongated fingers, but in some other species there are five fingers, as in the human hand. The finback whale is the grevhound of the sea. and well dessrves the name, for its beautiful slender bod: is built like a racing vacht and the animal can surpass the speed of the fastest ocean steamship. It is a hard whale to kill and trouble can always be expected if the iron strikes too far back. The first one 1 ever hunted gave us a four hours' fight, with two harpoons In its body, and furnished abundant proof of what a truly magnificent creature the fin- back | It wa Charles while T was with Capt. irahame on the Tyee in | Alaska. We had had an_exciting ex perience with a humpback whale which rose under the ship, and after killing it had steamed toward several finbacks which were spouting far away near the coast The huge brutes Iving on the surface rolling from side to side. thrusting their fins and flukes into the air. 1 could see, with the glass, that always when taking a | mouthful of shrimps they turned on | their sides, letting the great under {Jaw close over the upper. the water spurting out In streams from between the plates of baleen. As the vessel neared the whales the signal was sounded for half speed, and quietly she slid through the water toward two big finbacks which were leisurely swimming along close to- gether. Intent on the feed which floated in patches at the surface and stained the water a light pink, the whales paid not the slightest atten- tion to the steamer which was creep- ing so slowly and quietly near them. They went down in front of the how, Jjust out of range, but without arching their backs, showing that the dive would be a short one; and so it proved, for they reappeared only 10 fathoms away on the port bow, the tafl | less to pull because the strain on the | excellent opportunity to see the man- | T had | ere feeding and | | « | An instant late lea | the fin | hridge with pressed the rose to the surface. came the crash of the harpoon-gun. and the nearest whal I was standing on the the camera focused and button as the: | throwing its flukes and half fits hody out of the water, turned head down in a long dive. “ got him,"® and it was evident | elied the captain that Sorenson. the | Knew { | | | |ana Sorenson | | selves, | almos had 1 sinner was runn Fifty, seventy five oms were taken glmost it The man at the ) check the hissing line brake could not hold. 1alt cable was gone before the rush ended and the cuptain halt astern When the whale felt the heavy drag of the vessel he stopped and sounded sulked on the bottom for an hour, and finally reappeared front of the.boat, about three hund fathoms away, blowing strongly % x i T'HE steamer was sent astern at half speed and line held hy the winch. The steady, relentless pull was much strength and slowly whale. Back and bows, tugging and sometimes gaining a few fathoms from the grinding wheels. At last | he rose directly in ffront of the ship | xent a second harpoon for ta tre hes one hundred fath feed e ang for speed the his urwdm"'fl; wa neared vha‘ forth he dived | at the line toa for even across onr into his side. tung to renewed effort ing steel, the whale dove kles o the vessel's co hoat far over to port ou the wing of the geta plcture when the ‘Quick! Give me hell cut the line on our Loy 1 dropped my camera and ) the wheel which the captain ing frantically to | we held it hard over vessel responded almost lieving the strain on th was sawing back and forth across t how. The whale now begar dashes and deep sounds wt the lines from the winch hoth hrakes and kept the dodging from side to sid Jdind rushes. For an | the magnificent animsa fight although weak from e and the loss of blood motionless on t s idge 11 hand 1in shot imaped t hirl nd 50 fathoms away, b reat patches of foam about his beautifu After waiting 1 captain ordered yrenson, witk finish the whale with the ing lance 1 had c masthead side £ mi to the t and ez watch imbed my ind was pram Alter o boat wus slowl gunner backed toward jt, the Stanc n the stern streny At pulled mass of i he reappear hole hin b der 8 s heast sank ir onds la from the blow- blood wt sending stpeam on the wind his bod hrew h de and s nk et T had hardly eltmbed down the ropa ladder 1n the deck face, flecked with perspirat the ctream Aving ance on the deck, sald “That ever k 1w my e = was the ed. N surprised th at ovel Brake Test. Whales With Labels Thunder-Weather Predictions Made BY STERLING HEILIG. PARIS, the 1 of January AST Citadel Arras (or the war) straight str rocked the town crump holes. Lightning d not struck in Arras previously for seven vears—and this terrific bolt fell in the midst of a snow storm. Thunder and lightning in storm are extremely rare. So. the whole affair of Arras being unusual overdue and racking the imagina tion. it has come before the public just at the right moment to stir in terest in the storm statistics of the Abbe Gabrlel, and similar discussions in the Academy of Sciences started by the electrician Mattias. Donnerwetter is O. K It exists. There is such thunder - weather storm periods: and certain localities three times an many as others. Thun der-and-lightning v can. even, be foretold, according 1o these communi cations to the Academy of Sclences The Paris papers have a lot about the Abbe Gabriel. He is official profes. sor of mathematics at the University of Caen, a celebrated statistician discoverer of a solar-lunar cvcle ognized by astronomers and extremely interesting to meteorologists by ap- parently permitting long-distance weather predictions —that is to say, extreme Winters and Summers Thus the public knows Abbe Gabriel by his charting out of an excessively severa Winter for 1926-1927—hacked up and presented to the French gov- ernment on hix behalf (about ax au- thoritatively as possible) by Prof. Bigourdan, chief official astronomer of France and director of the bureau of longitudes It is generally believed in by those who have heard of it. Now, the Abbe Gabriel bring: tistics to bear on thunderstorms. They have been singularly few in number in_western Europe In 1921, Guilbert. chief gist at the Paris Observatory Gabriel to tabulate th arch 8te. - Honorine - du - Fay (Normandy). which have been netably well kept for half a century. Gabriel lives there. Twenty-six thunderstorm days per year represent the annual average for the west of France by thess records of half a century. Guilbert's tabulatipn of 40 years' records at the Montsouris Observatory shows the same average of 28 thunderstorm days per year for the Parisian region. This number of 26 corresponds ve closely to the normal for all reglons of northwest France.”" save Gabriel. “The number is certainly greater in the center and in the east, notably in Burgundy and Alsace. “In the Valley of the Rhine, certain localities average 60 thunderstorm v8 per year." But here is the great point: No matter where you take the sta- tistics, great oscillations appear in the thunderstorm records. Whereas from 1883 to 1889 the western Europe aver- age does not exceed 20, It attains and keeps 26 thunderstorm davs per from 1889 to 1909, and 36 per from 1910 to 1919, to descend to 21 in the vears since 1919-—when the great public has remarked that thunder- storms have been extremely few “Most remarkable of all Gabriel, “these oscillatlons correspond with those of wet and dry years due to the 1l-year maximums and mini- mums of sun-spots! “The 10-year series carrying the maximum of thunderstorms identify Monday as struck by 1k of lightnin, the days hat of a snow to a thing as vears or have THE ABBE GABRIEL, MATHE- MATICIAN AND STATISTICIAN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAEN, and | rec- | sta- | what is left of it from | af | THE WHERE THE TABULATED AND KEPT. FRENCH GOVERNMENT WEATHER BURE THUNDERSTORM RECORDS U, IN PARIS, ARE COLLECTED, hottest." He declares a cause relation. “Everybody knows that themselves with the wet years. And, | contrary to general opinion, the most | ditions stormy months are by no means the | popular rains are generally due to storm con and. on the other hand, the saying has it that ‘s | oo ik mathort Are we tolaun |the same astronomic cause PARIS, December 31. HE new French Ambassador, Henry Berenger, has been in Washington so lately, repre- senting the Irench Senate with the Caillaux mission, that |hix place in_public life is already known. As I have had oclasion to follow his whole career from the time when he was a college man, more than 30 vears ago, I will write down a few things which ought to interest Americans, particularly young men | who are beginning their dwn careers. When T first knew Henry Berenger he was very much of a college man He was stili a student at the Univers. 1t where he took his degree. He has continued to describe himself profes- sionally as a “man of letters.” As such, he has now to pay a special tax on his_‘profits in a non-commercial profession.” Young Berenger was much more than that, even during his university studies. Tn the early nineties, the student world of France was greatly agitated in an effort to secure inde- pendence and distinction for their studies. To enter any profession that was not commercial or industrial it was necessary to have a university degree. You could not become a diplo- mat or a druggist, a lawyer or a vet- erinarian, a consul or a high school teacher, without the state diploma. The students wished to be recognized in consequence. If the country was to depend on them so completely, then let the state give the university facul- ties proper facilities and leave politics out of them. The students would meanwhile help on their side. All the faculties of France really made up the one state university, with its branches in the different great citles. The state, through the central government, directed all the examina- tions for degrees, since these were necessary for all professions which New French Envoy Is Financial Expert of Paris in the faculty of letters, | | needed the sanction of the state. You could not become a doctor by any back without risking heavy pen- alties for “illegal practice | Now, the one man who had the con- | | fidence of the students of Frauce was | | Prof. Ernest Lavisse, the historian who afterward found & way for Amer |ican students to study and get 1ch | untversity degree: | Accordingly, & General of the University Students | was organized—and Henry Berenger, one of the group, became its head That showed not only the confidence | of university heads in his ability, but | o that he had a brain for practical | ideas concerning the interests and | | organization of a multitude of men. ! All his life he has been thinking out | something or planning or organizing | | great public interests. This is a differ | ent thing from being a political boss The “A,” as it is called, soon be- came a power in evervthing connected with higher education in France, and many university reforras have heen consequences of the association. Most of all, the students of all France have found a bond of union in their uni- versity occupations, and this still con- tinues. Henry Berenger went from the uni- versity, not into a professorship, but into the public life of the country At the assembling of more than 100 learned_societies for the Paris Un versal Exposition of 1200 he had an | important part in the preparation of | programs and meetings. Time went on and he was drawn more and mor into the public life of his country which sooner or later means Parlia ment. In this way he was elected Senator for the West Indian Island of Guadeloupe at a much younger age than is customary for that some- what venerahle body. . Meanwhile, the Great War came to upset everything, and the clear, com- prehensive head of Henry Berenger was needed J1 the detalls that fol- Association of France | the fact torrential | Ing its influence simultaneously in the | | Rradual sphere | wanting By Abbe Gabriel, French Statistician manifesta appears By Hon t explana that sometimes times is scattered by explo the incandescent and ion is extinzuished Assuming the “fulminating matter’* to be homogeneous (tha of like consistency throughout), then cooling will be most rapid at the exterior. A sort of outside crust would thus be formed. If the globe be large, an ex- plosion should result. If it he small, extinction is more probable. attempt to say what becomes of the Iminating matter” when ball lightning disap- pears. The assumption is its absorp- tion into the atmosphere in the form e is M. M as does not explaing the which_son ball lightning. The always have a spherical coming rather from shrinking of the mass be cooler and hotter cooler ones would not lut form such whose cause in the past 1 could imagine! very cur ons T th s es cling may shape, cooling portions, t mer lowed ation leading part to Kiy mastered the =it supy and in obtaining what France the T States. we were theze were paid for in connection with Ens land and do not enter into prese debt accounts. But they prepared his mind to grapple with the debt ques tion, both in the Senate finance com- mi-ttee and now as his government's spokesman Along the way, he had to specialize in petroleum. Without American oil, the allies could not have won the w Verdun alone had not sufficient r road connection for its supply of food and explosives, and transport depend- ed on automobiles and motor oil. For everal y even after he became Senator, Berenger was high commis-. sionary of petroleum for the F h government. When a speclal liquid fuels ws be an He au for war i taok s a Jes nok neutrals sovernment of created and grew to important section by itself, Senator Berenger applied himself with all his lifelong ability for prao- tical details to his country's fnances. More than once he has been spoken of as the coming finance minister, andf it is really such that he goes tn fill the Washington embassy in t} time of great financial straits for France. 8. D,