CIVIL WAR, PETROLEUM, AND ARCTIC 301 



tion of the labor force by an ever-mounting percentage of 

 ignorance, incompetence, and general inefficiency proceeded at 

 a still swifter pace. By 1880 the dregs of American-born men 

 comprised only one-third of the 3,896 hands who manned the 

 New Bedford whaling fleet. Another third was made up of 

 Portuguese J and the remainder included negroes. Kanakas, 

 and scattered individuals from most of the great ports of Eu- 

 rope and of Asia.® 



This progressive deterioration in the character, skill, and 

 efficiency of the crews lay like a rock in the path of whaling 

 success. It would be too much to say that it was the main 

 cause, or even a major cause, of the decline of the fishery. For 

 in the pre-war decades the industry had prospered mightily 

 with crews not markedly superior to these later ones. But 

 certainly such hands added nothing to the effectiveness of an 

 occupation which was already struggling in its death-throes j 

 and this remained true despite the ridiculously high lays, trans- 

 latable into low earnings, which were paid. Sweated labor, 

 combining low efficiency with low wages, has never led to in- 

 dustrial dominance. Any revival of whaling prosperity would 

 have had to come about in spite of, rather than with the assis- 

 tance of, the men in the forecastles. 



*An account of these later whaling crews is given by Brown, J. T., in "Fish- 

 eries and Fishery Industries of the United States," VII, pp. ai8 S. 



