Funds

Fight Crime

COURT HOUSE - A $23,000 Crime Prevention Grant has been awarded to Cape May County, and according to County Prosecutor Donald Charles Jr., the funds are coming none too soon. The major portion of the one-year grant will be to fund the coat of sending municipal police department representatives to the National Crime Prevention Institute in Louisville, Ky. The balance of the grant will primarily be to fund the Crime Prevention activities of municipal police departments. “CRIME prevention is an extremely vital part of effective law enforcement,” Charles noted, in announcing receipt of the event, adding that he is particularly pleased in view of recent drastic cutbacks in federal funds (Page 3 Please) —DEADLINES— Due to the Labor Day holiday, newspaper deadlines for the Sept. 3 issue have been moved up: Noon today "for News; Thursday at noon for Display Advertising, Friday at 3 for Classifieds.

Dorta Ward STEPPING OUT of another era, Constance Kosten, director of the Historical Community Center in Cape May, strikes a turn of the century pose before the former church building on Lafayette St. Since the historic landmark was opened in June as a Welcome Center, almost 2.0M persons have come thru Its old doors for information about New Jersey's only National Historic Landmark City. Ms. Kosten regularly dresses in authentic Victorian attire for her job.

Fall Fishing: ‘A Banner

Season’ Boyd Tyler predicts fall fishing In 'unheard of proportions'-see his Ocean h Bay Soundings column inside.

by Lou Rodia

Summer is winding down to a close, and in a few weeks, fall wjll be upon ua. Fishermen are reminded, however, that even If Labor Day signals the end of the tourist season in the minds of many, it actually heralds a new start to the late summer-fall fishing season in Cape May County

waters.

Fishing at present is extremely good, particularly on fluke, weakfteh and bluefish; and indicators point to a banner fall fishing season on the Jersey Cape. TOO OFTEN, visitor anglers to the ocean tend to put away their fishing tackle well too early. But for the group of anglers who migrated permanently to a place near th* ocean, it’s a different approach entirely. Fishing tends 16 be great inthe tail: All of the fish which moved past here in the spring and summer move back again to their wintering grounds. Bait pours

out of the inlets as the

inland waters cool.

FISH TEND to move inshore in large schools.

(Page 3 Please) Cape Leads

COURT HOUSE - A total of 252 taxpayers are scheduled to appeal their 1980 municipal assessments during the annual tax appeal hearings which begin next Tuesday morning in the first floor courtroom of th? Main Courthouse Building here. Cape May, with 92. and Ocean City, with 91. lead the list in the number of appeals by their taxpayers Five of the county's 16

(Page 3 Please)

Early Jersey Cape’rs—A Whale of a Time

By William Haffert Jr. Centuries beforebikini-clad sun bathers gazed seaward from the beaches of New JeFsey and Delaware, schooners plied coastal waters in search of whales unwatched by anyone but Indians. On-shore attractions were mighty lean In the Indian-inhabited reaches of the Delaware Bay, and sometimes the status quo was shattered with deadly results. In the spring of 1631 when the Dutch West India Company put its first whaling colony ashore at what is now Lewes, Del., the whaling ship Walvis deposited 26 colonists, bricks, cattle, and provisions. The settlers built a fortification, cleared and seeded the land, and started a whale fishery. BUT WHEN THE DUTCH West India Company sent a second expedition to the site in 1632, they found only the bones of the settlers and their livestock, and the burned out ruins of their property. Everything had been destroyed by the Indians. Cpt. David de Vries, in charge of the second excursion noted many whales in Delaware Bay and his harpooners killed seven. But the blubber produced only 32 barrels of oil. However, he had succeeded at least in making an uneasy peace with the Indians. This off-shore whaling effort along the

Delaware Coast was a very early one, according to Whaling in New Jersey, written by the late Dr. Harry B. Weiss and published by the NJ. Agricultural Society. BUT IT POSSIBLY GAVE courage to the whalers who first settled eight years later, across the Delaware Bay from Lewes, at Town Bank — now part of the bay bottom several thousand fee off the Lower Township bay shore The Town Park (also called Portsmouth and Cape May Town) whalers migrated south from Long Island andTJew England . and included direct Mayflower descen dants. Apparently they established a thriving industry because, within 50 years, New Jersey and Pennsylvania provincial governments were giving resident whalers local protection On Oct. 3, 1603, for example, assembly of Cape May County e law that required anyone killing a whales in Delaware Bay or on its shore* to pay the value of l/10th of the * 4 oyr’ to the governor of the province. « THE EDICT RECOGNIZED that whaling in the bay had been “in so great a measure invaded by strangers and foreigners, that the greatest part of oyl and bone received and got by that employ, hath been exported out of the Province." (Paga 36 Please)

Jonn Anars*

THIS REPLICA of a 17th century bam Is part of the Colonial Farm reproduction built by the Jack April family as part of Learning's Run Botanical Garden In Swainton. The • ft ■ ft ■ lift i u—. « ft.— _I_w a■till

the Jack April family as part of Learning s nun nouinicai uarorn m swamum. actual barn and house built by Christopher Learning, an early Cape whaler, are still

standing and in use nearby.