EXHIBIT M.
Capt. George O. Baker.
Q. Your name is George O. Baker?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Of Dartmouth?—A. Yes.
Q. Master mariner?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. How old?—A. 58.
Q. When did you first go to sea?—A. 1848.
Q. As what?—A. Cabin boy.
Q. And from there all through up to master?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. How many voyages master?—A. I have been master since 1863.
Q. How many voyages in round numbers?—A. About 15 voyages.
Q. And where?—A. All my first going to sea was New Zealand and coast of Chile. The last six years in the Ochotsk Sea and Japan Sea.
Q. Had a large experience in the Ochotsk and Japan seas?—A. As much as any one would have going there six years running.
Q. Now, Captain, when does the season in the Ochotsk open—when do you look for the opening?—A. We look for it about the middle of August.
Q. How late do you stay there?—A. Until the 10th or 12th of October.
Q. What makes you go away?—A. The weather getting a little rough.
Q. Are they northerly or southerly winds that set in?—A. Mostly northerly and easterly.
Q. And they commence about the 12th of October?—A. About the middle of October it commences to be very rugged.
Q. Then the season there lasts from about the middle of August until the middle of October?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. I suppose it varies with seasons—sometimes commences later and sometimes earlier?—A. Yes, sir; Captain Whiteside cruised up there until the 15th of November. I have read his abstracts.
Q. How often does that happen?—A. I have read in his abstracts that he cruised there until the 15th of November, and Captain B—— caught a whale there as late as the 9th of October. That is as late as I know of a whale being caught there.
Q. What is the weather that you call rugged?—A. Well, when we have continuous gales. Have it perhaps moderate one day, and have bad weather for a week so that we couldn’t lower for whales.
Q. So that it would be practically useless to continue whaling after this rugged weather sets in?—A. Yes, sir; it would be unpleasant.
Q. In regard to the season from the middle of August to the middle of October, when is the best part of that season for whales?—A. From the 1st of September up to the 20th I have seen my best whaling. One season, the 18th of September, I lost all my boats. That was when the rugged weather began earlier.
Q. What should you say as to the August whaling compared with that of the September?—A. The September whaling is the best. It is just like this—one season the whales might strike by the middle of August and leave the 25th of September, and another time they might strike earlier or later, according to the feed there. September we call the best time for whaling in the southern part of the Ochotsk Sea.
Q. You know the Cape Horn Pigeon ?—A. Yes, sir; was in her eight years.
Q. Who was the agent then?—A. William Potter, 2d.
Q. And you sailed for him eight years?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Well now, Captain, what should you say would be a fair average catch of whales in the Ochotsk Sea for a season; what should you expect, getting up there the 10th or 15th of August and staying until the 10th of October?—A. Seven or eight or ten whales. I should go there with that expectation.
Q. That, you think from your experience, would be fair?—A. Yes, sir; anywhere from six to ten.
Q. Suppose you were in the Cape Horn Pigeon and were at Vladivostok on the 1st of October, and the northerly winds and rugged weather had commenced, would you consider it expedient to return to the whaling grounds in the Ochotsk Sea?—A. No, sir.
Q. Why not?—A. Because I should think that by the time I got to the Ochotsk Sea the season would be about up. I should leave for San Francisco.
Q. It would be useless to go back there?—A. Yes it would take eight or ten days to get there, and then it would be the middle of October, and I think it would be useless. Of course a man might accidentally take a whale.
Q. You wouldn’t think of making a return?—A. No, sir; I should come down direct for San Francisco.
[Page 42]Q. What would 9 whales make in oil and bone? What would be the average?—A. Ten thousand pounds of bone and 900 barrels of oil. It might make more, but it would be pretty sure to make that. About 1,100 pounds of bone to a whale, and 100 barrels of oil.
Q. What is the species?—A. Right whales; the same as they catch here in the South Atlantic. Not a bow head.