Whalers in Winter Quarters -- May 30, 2014

From the 13-November-1898 San Francisco Call. William A Coulter did many maritime drawings for the newspaper. Click on the image for a larger view. 

The whaling fleet is rapidly petting into winter quarters. It will be widely different from the season spent off the Mackenzie River and Point Barrow. This year the vessels will lie snugly at anchor in
Oakland Creek. At the present time there are over there the barks Andrew Hicks, Gayhead and Lydla and the steamers Belvedere, Jeanette, Karluk and William Baylies, while the Balaena, John and Winthrop, Grampus, Narwhal, Thrasher and Wanderer will follow them in a day or two.

The barks Alice Knowles, Horatio. California and Charles W. Morgan will not go into winter quarters, but are fitting out for another cruise in the southern seas and the Sea of Okhotsk. Their cargoes of oil have all been discharged on the Howard street bulkhead and it will be some time before all the barrels have been carted away. The catch of sperm oil this year was not up to the standard and in consequence the price of that article is on the advance. The four vessels named are going sperm whaling and their crews will spend Christmas and New Year's on the ocean.