The Cruise of the Cachalot

The Cruise of the Cachalot
Round the World after Sperm Whales

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The Cruise of the Cachalot by Frank T. Bullen

Published:

1897

Pages:

566

Downloads:

1,390

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The Cruise of the Cachalot
Round the World after Sperm Whales

By

0
(0 Reviews)
A book which, being based upon personal observation, buttressed by scientific facts and decorated by imagination, is a storehouse of information--an ideal romance of deep sea folk and, as The Saturday Times-Review has said, worth a dozen novels.

Book Excerpt

ose peaceable cruisers the devastating ALABAMA, whose course was marked in some parts of the world by the fires of blazing whale-ships. A great part, of the Geneva award was on this account, although it must be acknowledged that many pseudo-owners were enriched who never owned aught but brazen impudence and influential friends to push their fictitious claims. The real sufferers, seamen especially, in most cases never received any redress whatever.

From this crushing blow the American sperm whale fishery has never fully recovered. When the writer was in the trade, some twenty-two years ago, it was credited with a fleet of between three and four hundred sail; now it may be doubted whether the numbers reach an eighth of that amount. A rigid conservatism of method hinders any revival of the industry, which is practically conducted to-day as it was fifty, or even a hundred years ago; and it is probable that another decade will witness the final extinction of what was once one of the most important maritime