The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 29, 1899, Page 25

s the en were steamer es were football. | civ All K played, but the fa S very high and a whale leds at from $10,000 to 315 and he is now living in New Bed- ford on the interest of the money earned in _that memora v On April Hume, after a g, started for the more, She wa ) again win- mouth of the Mackenzie, but time she was not to be alone: t the entire steam whaling compan | vas to keep her company, while um & Co., Lewls, Auderson & ames McKenna hitd represerita- tives among the ic fleet. Captain George B. Leavitt was fn com- mand of the Hume, and before goihg into The HE passengerson the little steam- er th kes daily tr be- tweer Pedro Harbor, near * Lo Ar and nta Cata- lina Island, some thirty miles out in the ific Ocear ere ex- cited the othir day by a terrific battle between two Eea monsters. The spec- tacle from tha deck of the steamer, about a mile 4way from the scene of the combat, was a small mountain of mist tossing in the air, at the base of which a huge black tail churned the water like the Yl s of a screw pro- peller. The monster—a very large sized whale—turned thk v and that, all the time lashing iti black tail with fury and beating the \water so that the gound came like daps of thunder to every one on board the Catalina Isl- and boat. The whak suddenly turned, and, spouting a poverful stream of water and blood sorie twenty feet in the air, lashed the Witer with several Most Rermarkable Battle 10 the Death Between 2 Whale and a Swordfish OFf the Island of Santa Catalina. powerful flaps of its tail, and sank be- neath the surface of the ocean. The little steamer made for the scene of the battle with all speed, and every one of the passengers was terribly ex- cited at the scene, but when the boat reached the spot where the great whale was last seen, nothing but foaming water, reddened with blood, marked the locality. There were several old-time sailors on board the steamer and they all agreed that a battle unto death be- tween a swordfish and a female whale had been fought before their eyes. The swordfish had the advantage of the great sea mammal and was thrusting its only weapon of attack and defense —the long. sharp and pointed sword— into the vulnerable sides of the un- wieldy whale. The great mammal could but thrash its tail about in im- potent rage until at last a vital spot was reached by the attacking sword- fish, and the whale was vanquished. A dozen or more old men who sit about the docks and the Custom-houses at San Pedrq apd fan Diego, after & i whi THE SUNDAY CALL. Many | @FETEIEVIAODOB000GB00Q & hotly con- 6 i tested game was 4 played on the ice. l@ siO)‘y QF é “Tossing In a biarket” | & RS was a n learned | » & from the Esqu and some | 3 ¥ e neri A the 5| o de out of wa g 9| hide pieced togethier and hung in & % ing position. The performer Legan o P ayu u A upper end, and after being. thrown into | & o - K the air had to make his way to the lover | & | end in gradually dccreasing bounds until | & LAl he dropped to ihe ice in safety. If.his a d P =1 | eye failed him the result would be an im- | & o vact with the ice that tould raisc a howl 3 delight among the ecager onlookers, | & = © but would not be appreciated in the same ® ays’ & ratio by the unfortunate performer.’ 3 ) Eed “ompanying pictures are perhaps 3 ¥ ones In San Francisco of gumes | & - o the frozen north taken by the rays o -~ i u 3 the aurora boreans. Many a whaler has | & c;«fl Ynuc s 24 ¢ since the Mary D. Hume | - b“’k"he" i réml'e - 2| reen v to take pictures, and in | X = “onsequence many a trait of Indian life & SQFVYCQ i the pastimes of the iccbound whalers | & & i ve missed the camera. v 2 The winter of 180001 was the first one | & t vy i st in the fleld | % | phenomenal catch of by At that time the price | @6 134 09D OGS0 & oo e Xo G ¥>® | fourteen | the sun Hume taugit the fleet how to hat season there quarters he secured whales. Duting the season wher is hidden the-men of the the crews of tha rest themselves 8t winter for the port watches | for the murbnard‘ s made It possible for | {1 hours, so they lost played or worked, with cl oft for sleep, continu- | PN contests were always go ing on, e of the boatsteerers out- l did the nat in the blanket, and footbali | teams developed some crack players, | The fall of 14 found the Hume again | | of 1 | caught out in the open. in win- ter quarters, this time with six whiales. - In the $pring she went io the and. returned to ters with seven went out in and caught five whales, but did not get back to her winter quart She was caught out in.the open and had to make her bed off Sea: Horse Island. Once more her crew had to winter alone, but by this time they Were |-uded to it and aid not sufter much from lopelifiess in consequence. In September, 180;, Captain Leavitt went from the Hume to the Ne rt and Cap- tain William Hegarty, a ew land man, ‘took charge of the little brigantine. For the first time in her life as a whaler not a-whale was taken during the season. In disgust Captain«Hegarty started for San Francisco, but the Arctic froze very early.that year, and in company with half a dozen other vessels the Hume was The news reach- ¢d Sen‘Francisco on the steam whaler Alexander and was told clusively in | The C: Through the efforts of this pa- per « relief expedition was sent north on e revenue cutter Bear and the men of fleet were saved from starvation. When the ice broke up in the spring ot 1808 the Jessle H. Freem: was carried t t ahore and ground to pleces, but the Hume escaped. That seas she took thirteen whales to make up for the fail- | ute of 1897. This year she Look six whales 80 that In nine v her different cre have: taken eighty-seven whales, valued at over a million dollars net, and vet the | Hume is only 100 tons net burden and | box under steam.. On hef way | very nearly lost, During a | her forefoot was carried vere sto away and she began to leak. A couple of | the boats were smashed into kindling wood, and it looked for a time as though | the Hume had made her last voyage. She | veathered the gale, however, and reflch<‘ ed Ban Francisco in due time, She is still in the ring. and as a cannery \Eudhl‘l has many years of usefulness yet aend of The 1'a.t.e "'\pl}\l n Knowle s, the founder of the Paci- fic Steam - Whaling Com- bany, and _the Mary D. Hume willbe inseparably linked in the his- tor~ of Arctic whal- ing. Captain Knowles concelved the plan that has proved so rich s and the Mary Hume was the little that turned his the- into golden success. One of the most curious finds ever made from the sea was that which came to the Azores in 1 The island of Cor then in possession ot two ombers, runa way Zngl sailors, There btame drifting into a little harbor one morning a craft hich had evi- dently been frozen in the ice for a lifetime, and had lately been releas- ed, It had come down from Dayv strait, and was an ancient and bat- tered hulk without masts, bulwarks or name. The craft had been a brig, and she was a Russlan. Her hatches were cn and -~ cabin doors fast, and h N oMt S AW S o St the hulk W&S puoye ant. Bhe had come out of the belly of an iceberg. She had little cargo, and that consisted of skins | and_furs in prime | condition. No papers were found in her cabin, but it was figured that she was or trader, ing a crew of or twelve, and she had ' been 1ed for a The flour tasted like chalk, but the beef s perhaps better the it was I on board. She had been abandoned hen frozen in, and lor of the rk and the h of moss d that she had for years. she got fast in ice, and be- came part of a berg. The date of a let- ter found In her foreca: showed hat e had beer abandoned nearl haif a century be- fore. The hulk drifted on to a sandy b E e comb- t to work on e got out which em $4000, ed out a_couple Is of beef, et fire to nd little e the the water. ct was be- b: g. into down T C smallest life muse- lo, d hold the famous col- lections made by the Prince during the last fifteen years or more. To hia partic- ular line of research he has brought all his enthustasm and all the resources at | his command. He | has explored ocean | depths’ as great as 9600 feet. If any- | thing can atons for | the existence of his {| gaming _tables, per- | haps_his disinferest- devotion to | science may.—Har- | per's Bazar. = long career in the whaling fields of the Pacific Ocean, say that the battle be- tween the whale and the swordfish last week was not uncommon. ~Several of the old tars say they have witnessed just as good fights between :simllar combatants, and, besides, that In near- ly every case the swordflsh is.the at- tacking party. Many men who have been on whaling voyages have found wounds in the carcasses of whales that were undoubtedly left there by an an- gry swordfish. It is seldom, hotvever, that a swordfish s able to stab the whale to death. The swordfish is utterly without-fear and will, like a buffalo or rhinoceros, charge anything that offends*it, often doing an amount of execution hardly to be believed did not the evidence exist. Combats between swordfish are most interesting, and may be compared to a . duel between two expert.swordsmen. Such a contest was observed off the long pler that extends -out into the ocean at Santa Monica, near Los An- geles, last year. Some fishermen’ no- ticed two big fish leaping out of the water and. dashing .along:the-suzface. Soon it was seen that they were sword- fish. The season was when the fish are unusually ferocious. They had made veral rushes, and when observed were at close quarters, striking each other powerful side blows like cavalry- men. This was unsatisfactory, and finally they separated and darted at each other other like arrows, the water hissing as their sharp dorsal fins cut through It. They evidentl struck head-on, one missing, while the sword of the other struck just below the eye and plowed a deep furrow in the fish, partly disabling it so that it turned and attempted to escape. But its ad- versary also turned, and with a rush drove its sword completely through the body of its foe and held it fast, only wrenching its weapon loose when its enemy stopped swimming. This one lunge finished the battle, and the victor left the field. The van- quished, noating on the surface, was picked up by the fishermen. -The wounds In the dead fish were examined by several hundred people in Los An- geles and Santa Monica. They gave smple evidence of the extraordinary ferocity of a thrust by a swordfish. The force with which a swordfish strikes has been vartously estimated, but that it is equal to that which drives a 24-pound shot from a howitzer will be believed easily after viewing the results. In the waters of California three kinds of swordfish can be seen— Xiphius gladius, Tetrapturus albidus, and Histophorus, The fish engaged in the battle described were of the kind first named. It is the ordinary sword- fish found on both sides of the Atlan- tic, in appearance trim and shipshape— a.veritable privateer. It is a piratical cousin of the mackerel. The striking feature is the sword, which is a con- tinuation of the upper jaw into a sharp, bony sword. The jaws are toothless, the lower one being hard or bony. The eyes are large and prom- inent, the tail sickle-shaped and pow- erful, and the whole appearance of the ~fish .denotes speed and activity. It attains a length of from five to “nine feet, and when working at full speed can plerce a wooden hull sheath- _ed_with copper. One of the most re- markable cases on record is that of the ship Dreadnought. One day at sea the crew felt a sudden shock, and soon after that the ship sprung a leak and was obligéd to put into port. It was found when she was drydocked that a large swordfish had struck her. The sword had penetrated the copper, then the thick oak hull, passing through the thick pine sheathing. and finally enter- ing the head of a barrel. The sword was broken off short, partly plugging the wound. One of the finest specimens of the Tetrapturus albidus ever seen in Cali- fornia waters was found recently on the shore off San Diego. It was a mag- nificent specimen, about six feet in length, the body massive and power- ful and remarkable for its shape. It amination of the carcass showed it had doubtless succumbed to a flerce thrust from an enemy, possibly a Xiphius, or long swordfish, as it had a single cut two and a half inches wide that pene- trated the entire’ body like a knife thrust. The defeated swordfish had ap- parently been carrying on an unequal fight. Armed with a short sword or dagger it had been struck by a caval- ryman of the sea, whose keen rapier had killed it. The body amazed the fishermen. A singular thing in connection with the swordfish is that little or nothing is known regarding its breeding habits, and a young swordfish, so far as known, has never been seen on the Cal- ifornia coast. The young are curious creatures, with enormous eyes, and the did not taper te the tail, as many of Jaws. upper and lower, of equal length. its tribe do, but continued large all the way to the tail, which was powerful. It had a long dorsal fin almost the en- tire length of the back, and its sword was short. - Evidently the sword had been partly broken off in a fierce com- bat with another of its kind. The head was_ large, as were the eyes. An ex- I The swordfish of California are rare- 1y brought in, being found principally at sea or on the windward coast of the Los Angeles County islands, where they follow the school .of mackerel and other fish, upon which they feed. They are not seen in sufficient number to Jjustify fishermen following them