The crew of an unidentified ship in the 1890s / Robert Neff Collection

In early 1890, the Eastern Whaling Company was established in Yokohama, Japan. It was a foreign venture and began operations with a single small steamer named the Nautilus which was soon joined by a brand new steamer named the Narwhal. The company began with grand goals and a promising future but its reality was bad luck, financial ruin and death.

Almost immediately the Narwhal experienced problems — even before it was launched. On April 23, 1891, Miss Wheeler christened the whaler and “the launch was then attempted. Owing to the shallowness of the water, however, the vessel remained fast until the next day, when she was successfully launched into the bay.”

Troubles continued that night when the whaler was involved in an “amazing” incident involving the “ancient” American warship U.S.S. Monocacy. According to the Japan Weekly Mail, the wind had shifted direction from the previous day and dislodged the shackle mooring the Narwhal to a buoy:

“[The Narwhal] left the friendly protection of the buoy, and began in the middle of the night a voyage of exploration and discovery about the harbour. The watch on board the Monocacy were somewhat surprised to find bearing down on them, and at length ranging up quite socially alongside their paddle box, a mast-less vessel, so two ‘jacks’ got on board, passed the stranger carefully aft, and made a rope fast to her.”

Busan’s harbor in the early 1900s / Robert Neff Collection

While the Monocacy’s log book entry is not as entertaining as the newspaper account, it does provide some additional information:

“About 4:30 A.M. the schooner Narwhal drifted down carrying away the port lower beam. Put men aboard and secured her stern … The gooseneck had only pulled out, so got lower beam back in place.”

Later that morning, Captain E. H. Bolles, who was responsible for fitting the Narwhal, went out to examine his ship only to discover her moored to the American warship.

“He at once set out to find an........

© The Korea Times