CIVIL WAR, PETROLEUM, AND ARCTIC 295 



no less than sixty-eight vessels, of 16,671 tons, passed out of 

 whaling, leaving the industry with only 220 whalers and a 

 tonnage of 52,701. 



In spite of this dwindling strength, however, the pitiless 

 Arctic had not yet secured full revenge for the daring intru- 

 sions into the solemn stillness of northern waters. In 1876 

 twelve more vessels were frozen in for the winter and had to 

 be abandoned, this time with a loss of fifty lives and of $660,- 

 000 worth of property. Again in 1888 the unleashing of a 

 heavy gale sent down a fleet of five craft off Point Barrow.^ 

 And over and above these large-scale calamities was the con- 

 stant warfare of wind, wave, and cold against individual whal- 

 ers, — a state of unrelenting hostilities which yielded a for- 

 midable list of whaling casualties. The Arctic was not to be 

 invaded with impunity! 



But war and weather were not alone in attacking the whale- 

 men. They were strongly abetted by the slow-moving, fun- 

 damental forces of demand and supply. In the growing use 

 of petroleum and its accompanying products, in fact, was to 

 be found the most potent single cause of whaling decay. The 

 superiority of natural gas for illuminating purposes was ob- 

 vious and unquestioned; and every gas jet took the place of 

 several spermaceti candles or of the coarser whale oil illumi- 

 nants. Throughout the sixties, seventies, and eighties the 

 market for whaling illuminants was slowly but surely crum- 

 bling before the inroads of natural gas. 



At the same time a similar struggle was taking place in the 

 field of lubrication. The heavier grades of whale oil, which 

 had constituted the standard lubricants before the Civil War, 

 were rapidly supplanted by various petroleum products j and as 

 a result the market for whale oil went still further into eclipse. 

 Since whale oil was used for both illumination and lubrication, 

 however, its price sank somewhat less rapidly than that of 

 sperm oil, which was restricted more closely to the one field of 

 illumination. 



Whalebone alone remained without a satisfactory substitute, 



5 An account of the catastrophes of 1876 and of 1888 is given in Pease, Z. W., 

 and Hough, G. A., "New Bedford, Massachusetts: Its History, Industry, Insti- 

 tutions, and Attractions," p. 31, 



