n 4 A BOOK OF WHALES 



The whales were watched for from a "tall spar," 

 and when the animal was seen to spout the boats 

 immediately set out in pursuit. The whale when 

 captured was towed in shore, and the flensing carried 

 out on the beach. Shore-whaling, however, was after 

 no great a period abandoned, for the reason that the 

 whales had begun to get scarce. Ships were then 

 fitted out for long voyages, and in 1 790 a ship fitted 

 out at New Bedford doubled Cape Horn, and really 

 inaugurated the South Pacific whale fishery. The 

 names of the ships are characteristic of the date. 

 Captain Scammon tells us that one of the first vessels 

 to cross the Atlantic in search of whales (in the year 

 1770) was named the No Duty on Tea. The whale 

 trade went on increasing for many years in leaps and 

 bounds; in 1775 there were as many as 300 vessels 

 engaged in the industry, and by 1846 the total number 

 of ships had increased to about 730, representing an 

 aggregate tonnage of 233,189 tons. At this period 

 the "investments connected with the business are 

 said to have been at least $70,000,000, and 70,000 

 persons derived their chief support from the whaling- 

 interests." That year, according to the statistics 

 given by Captain Scammon, was apparently the 

 culmination of the whale trade in America, for we 

 observe a gradual diminution in the number of vessels 

 until the year in which the statistics end, viz., 1872 ; 

 in this year the number of ships was altogether only 

 218, representing a tonnage of 52,701. That there 

 should be this decrease is not surprising, when we 

 learn from the same table of statistics that during the 



