CHAPTER XIV 

 DISINTEGRATION AND DECAY 



THROUGHOUT the last quarter of the nineteenth 

 century it was apparent that American whaling was 

 doomed. The forces of destruction were doing 

 their work so well as to permit no doubt of that. 

 Or if doubt there were, it must have wilted under the prime 

 solvent of disheartening facts. Even false and lingering 

 hopes, strongly fortified by tradition and desire, could hardly 

 withstand the broadsides of statistical evidence which were pub- 

 lished by the Whalemen's Shifting List. The annual sum- 

 maries of this authoritative organ of the industry were more 

 eloquent of whaling decadence than many reams of discussion. 

 Year after year the post-war decades witnessed the same proc- 

 ess of disappearing vessels, of shrinking tonnage, and of fading 

 production. The figures for the period 1846 to 1886, taken at 

 five-year intervals, presented a striking contrast between pre- 

 war activity and post-war decline. 1846 marked the apex of 

 the fishery: 1886 saw but the ghost of the earlier fleet. 



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