Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1914 — OIL FROM PORPOISE [ARTICLE]

OIL FROM PORPOISE

Why Fishermen Brave Winters on the Atlantic Coast Product of Fish’s Fat Is Used as Lubricant for Watches, Clocks and Chronomoters Pursuit Is i. Very Profitable. New York. —Now is the season when the playful porpoise puts on its winter underwear, in the form of a thick protective layer of fat, and until spring these gamboling creatures of the sea will be sought by a special class of Atlantic fishermen. Heedless of time as the porpoise seemingly is, yet upon it depends the busy man’s apportioning of his daily tasks. Because of this fact a curious industry has developed in this country of which the public generally knows nothing; an industry that intimately affects the running of watches and clocks. From the lower jaw of theyporpoise is extracted an Oil which is peculiarly fitted to serve as a lubricant for watches, clocks and chronometers, and strange to say, from no other source can an oil of the requisite qualities be obtained. Therefore the porpoise is bunted as systematically as the whale used to be. A few years ago nearly 250,000 clocks just out of their maker's hands went wrong. It waß not merely .that they lost time, but they actually came to a full stop and would not work at 'all. There was no question about theif skillful fabrication and assembling. The whole trouble was due to an imperfect lubricant, and a goodly Btam of money and much time were spent before these clocks were in running order and fit for distribution. From this may be appreciated the value of the contribution which the porpoise makes to the daily life of mankind. For years the porpoise was taken principally as a side issue in other fishing. The creation in the demand for the oil led to the creation of a business of having for its sole end the capture of porpoises in large numbers and under circumstances that could be controlled to meet commercial demands. Harpooning had previously been the method of taking them, but this had many drawbacks. An oil refiner in New Bedford learned that the Turks on the Biack sea used dragnets to land the native porpoise when swimming near shore in quest of certain small fish upon which they feed. This was a practice unknown here and conditions were not identical, but that clever Yankee believed that the facilities

could be adapted to suit the. requirements. From New Jersey to Florida are now scattered fishing stations organized by that refiner of thq old whaling city, and from November to April they are busy seining porpoißes as they pass up; and down the Atlantic shore line. Porpoises can be caught at other seasons, but in winter they are fattest and furnish the best and most profitable yield. . < To the uninitiated the fat of the body and the fat of the lower jaw appear mnch of a kind, but the oils produced from them are radically different in their characteristics. The oil from the body fat is worth in the raw state about 40 cents a gallon, while a like quantity of the yield of the jaw pans and the marrow of the jawbone brings $lO. The blubber or body fat of a large porpoise furnishes from five to six gallons of oil and the lower jaws of a fish of the same size give probably about two quarts on an average, and this quantity is greatly reduced before the various stages of refining have made the oil fit for the market. When ready for sale to watch and dock makers the oil is worth nearly double its value in the raw or unrefined condition. The equipment at each fishing station consists principally of the boats and the special nets designed for the work. A working unit is composed of four boats and a mile of seine. The seines are heavy and exceptionally stout, and it is something of a task to handle them properly. The boats axe

a cross between a skiff and the fishing dory of Newfoundland and our own down east coast. It is not possible to put out after the porpoises from sheltered points; the boats have to be launched light Into the surf and carried safely beyond the danger line of the tumbling breakers. Loaded with its quarter of a mile of net it is a hard task to shove one of those boats through the broken water near the beach. The most fruitful porpoise hunting station is close to Cape Hatteras, and it is well known what hazards lurk in the waters of that part of the Carolinas.