DISINTEGRATION AND DECAY 307 



gions in which whales were still being captured in any num- 

 bers. Its advantages expanded tremendously, however, with 

 the coming of steam whaling. The original cost of a steam 

 whaler was about three times that of a sailing vessel of equal 

 capacity, and the expenses of operation were greatly increased 

 by a heavy coal bill and a crew which necessarily included 

 several skilled mechanics. Such vessels, in order to be prof- 

 itable, had to spend a larger proportion of the year actually on 

 the whaling grounds, and a smaller percentage in going to and 

 from port. Carrying a cargo to the Atlantic coast, via Cape 

 Horn, was out of the question j and consequently many vessels 

 which were still owned in New Bedford transferred their regis- 

 try and base of operations to San Francisco. Catches of oil 

 and bone were shipped to the Eastern market over the new 

 transcontinental railway} and these railway connections, plus 

 her facilities for mechanical repairs and for general refitting, 

 soon enabled the Golden Gate to supplant Honolulu as the 

 chief whaling base of the Pacific.^ 



But even San Francisco whaling was but a shadow of the 

 past. During the nineties the whaling merchants were forced 

 to derive their income more and more from bone, rather than 

 oil}, and whalebone alone, in its growing scarcity, was too nar- 

 row a base for a great industry. In spite of the high price of 

 bone and the meticulous care taken to save it, the Arctic fleet 

 sailing from San Francisco grew smaller and smaller. Bone 

 might be wanted badly j but oil, the mainstay of the fishery, 

 was no longer desired. In 1897 ^^^ average price of whale- 

 bone at San Francisco was $4.00 per pound, but the average 

 price of whale oil was only thirty cents per gallon. And even 

 $4.00 bone could not make amends for thirty cent oil, especially 

 when both were being obtained in quantities which diminished 

 alarmingly. 



The Atlantic, however, fared even worse than the Pacific. 

 In 1892 there were only thirty-two vessels still pursuing whales 

 on both sides of the equator j and when the turn of the cen- 



^ The comparative advantages and disadvantages of steam and sail for 

 whaling vessels are discussed In Jenkins, J. T., "History of the Whale Fish- 

 eries," p. 248. For a description of the extent and causes of the rise of San 

 Francisco as a whaling port see Goode, G. B., in "Fisheries and Fishery Indus- 

 tries of the United States," Section IV, p. 42. 



