CIVIL WAR, PETROLEUM, AND ARCTIC 293 



Whalemen's Shi-ppng List showed that the whaling fleet had 

 increased from 263 vessels, of 68,536 tons, on January i, 1866, 

 to 336 vessels, of 74,519 tons, on the same day three years 

 later. 



The hopes accompanying this brief revival, however, were 

 rudely shattered by the abandonment, in 1 871, of virtually the 

 entire Arctic fleet of that season. This catastrophe was clearly 

 traceable to the hazardous strategy to which the growing scar- 

 city of whales had forced the industry. In the never-ending 

 search for new and more fertile whaling grounds it had become 

 customary for the right whalers operating in the North Pacific 

 to penetrate farther and farther into the recesses of the Arctic 

 Ocean. Entrance was made through Behring Straits during 

 mid-summer and the hunt continued until late September or 

 early October, just before the ice began to form for the long 

 winter. As the catches of succeeding seasons grew smaller and 

 smaller, the temptation to prolong operations beyond the pe- 

 riod of safety became irresistible. Each year the fleet escaped 

 the ice by a narrowing margin; and in 1871, when the sea 

 froze over at an unusually early date, the margin was wiped 

 out. Thirty-three vessels, with their cargoes and crews, sud- 

 denly found themselves fast within the grip of solid field-ice 

 — a grip more tenacious than steel, which would not be re- 

 laxed until the following summer. Long before then even 

 these heavily-built whalers would have been crushed like egg- 

 shells in the furious winter storms; and it would have been 

 madness to attempt to spend the winter on the nearby coast, 

 barren of both food and fuel. 



The only alternative was to transfer the combined crews of 

 some 1200 men to the five barks which, several miles to the 

 south and around a long point, were still in clear water. By 

 a rare combination of skill and good fortune this was com- 

 pleted without the loss of a single life ; and when the tragically 

 over-manned little flotilla reached Honolulu, several weeks 

 later, death was still without a victim. 



The property loss, however, was enormous. Twenty-two 

 of the abandoned vessels were sailing from New Bedford; and 



place of origin. Long bone was more valuable than short; and Arctic or 

 Northwest bone brought a higher price than that from the South Seas. 



