Northwest History. Alaska. Feature Articles.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1936
• Subjects: Alaska; Great Land; Yonder; Matanuska; Alaska Peninsula; the North Pacific; Norway; Bering Sea; S. S. Penguin; native village; Acutan; Puget Sound; Unalaska; the Aleutian Islands; Glasgow; London; Juneau; Seattle; Honolulu; Russian Greek church; St. George; St. Paul; Capt. Knutsen; Pribilofs; Captain Knutsen; the octopus; harpoon gun; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Pacific; Blue whale; Sperm whale; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/91230

Alaska, The "Great Land" Way Up Yonder! What's Doing In The Land Of Fish.Gold.Seals.Whales.Yes, And Farming At Matanuska. ALASKA The'Great Land' Way Up Yonder! What's Doing In The Land of Fish . . . Gold . . . Seals . . Whales . . . Yes, And Farming At Matanuska. By RUFCS WOODS ACUTAN, Alaska Peninsula, July 12. -Here we are today at one of the whaling stations of the North Pacific. This one is the successor to that Norway company. They tell me that they take about 200 whales a year at this section. It is located way to the westward of the Alaska peninsula. With four boats which go out into the Bering Sea, the men, when locating a whale, tfire a harpoon into the animal, capture it and bring it into the station. To make it transportable they inject two pipes into the body of the whale and blow air into the carcass to make it float. As the S. S. Penguin steamed into port at 8 o'clock in the evening we were met by the entire population of the station -- about 100 in all. Across the bay lies the native village of Acutan. The weather is just like a cool day such as we have on Puget Sound in winter. The clouds are blowing in from the ocean but the sea is not so wild as it was four or five days last week. The hills are covered with green -150 native flowers are to be found here and many are abloom |just now. There are a few wild animals, the fox being one of them. Trees have not made much of an appearance although I notice that they grow well here when once being planted. Now we ar* at Unalaska,. way down on one of the Aleutian Islands. How far north it is! That's what we all naturally think down on the continent. But do you realize that Unalaska is really 118 miles south of Glasgow, 143 miles north of London, 265 miles south 0f Juneau, only 507 miles north of Seattle and 1955 miles north of Honolulu. The climate is so delightful that there are here 163 kinds of wild flowers. We arrive at Unalaska at 6:30 in the morning, and spend two and a half hours. Here as all along the coast of Alaska we find the Russian Greek church. And all through this region Russian blood is much in evidence. From Unalaska we have a run of only 200 miles to St. George, nearest of the Pribilof and it is 240 miles to St. Paul where are located most of the seal rookeries. Capt. Knutsen of the Penguin for seven years operated in the Bering Sea on a whaling vessel. Here wer are now on Bering Sea. We've headed for the Pribilofs. I have just had a visit with Captain Knutsen about the whales. He says: "Years ago as I have come out on this Bering Sea I have seen able to see as many as 1000 whales here and there as they shoot the spray into the air. Now there is only a fraction of that number." As he pointed over to the left we could see where 12 made their mark in one locality. "In our whale fishing we sometimes got so close that they would come up under the vessel. To capture whales we would endeavor to get within 10 or 15 fathoms and then with a harpoon gun we would fire the harpoon into the whale. Immediately the whale would descend 25, 30 or 40 fathoms to the bottom. But the whale must come up within a short time to breathe again. The blue whale comes up every five or ten minutes. There are other whales of a small variety which come up every 20 to 40 minutes. "We would take 60 to 100 barrels of oil from the head of a sperm whale. From the blue whale we would get 150 barrels of oil. "Whales feed on the octupus. The great decrease in the whale seems to be due to the depletion of the feeding grounds. "When there were a pair of whales and a small one, we would always endeavor to catch the small one first. The cow would stay with her calf. Then we would take the cow and after that we would get the male."