4 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



ment. Throughout the greater part of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury Yankee whaling products supplied many vital needs both 

 at home and abroad j and in so doing they carried the industry 

 to such impressive proportions that the combined whaling 

 fleets of all other nations were hopelessly outdistanced. 



Sperm oil constituted the best standard illuminant, and was 

 used extensively in light-house beacons and wherever a bright, 

 clean light was desired. Spermaceti, a spongy, oil-containing 

 substance found in the head of the sperm whale, formed the 

 basis for the better grades of candles. Whale oil was em- 

 ployed in the cheaper types of illumination and for a variety 

 of lubricating purposes. Whalebone, utilized in the manu- 

 facture of stays, corsets, riding and carriage whips, umbrellas, 

 and other objects requiring both strength and flexibility, served 

 a wider range of functions. Ambergris, extremely scarce and 

 correspondingly valuable, was much sought both in the man- 

 ufacture of perfumery and in various Mohammedan countries, 

 where it was regarded as an infallible aphrodisiac. Other 

 minor and incidental products included blackfish oilj sea- 

 elephant oilj and the teeth and jawbone of the sperm whale, 

 patiently transformed during long hours of shipboard monot- 

 ony into countless specimens of the scrimshawer's art. There 

 was little commercial value in the last two commodities: they 

 served rather for the making of curiously-carved gifts for the 

 women at home, or for the casual and licentious companions 

 so readily found in foreign ports. 



This list of products gave whaling an economic and indus- 

 trial position significant to the entire nation, and vital to the 

 New England seaboard. For some time before the Civil War 

 only the manufacturers of shoes and of cottons stood between 

 whaling and the front rank amongst all the industries of 

 Massachusetts. Lieutenant Wilkes, writing the last chapter of 

 his monumental "Narrative of the United States Exploring 

 Expedition" during the early forties, was able to state: "Our 

 whaling fleet may be said at this very date to whiten the Pa- 

 cific Ocean with its canvas. . . . The ramifications of the busi- 

 ness extend to all branches of trade . . ." and ". . . are spread 

 through the whole Union." 



In 1838 the value of the oil and bone brought into New 



