290 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



ticular, had several times suffered and quickly repaired dis- 

 asters as crushing even as these. This time, however, the 

 forces opposed to recovery were too fundamental. The in- 

 creasing use of petroleum after the Civil War provided both 

 illuminants and lubricants of such a nature that they rapidly 

 undermined the markets for whale oil and sperm oil. Due in 

 part to this progressively victorious competition of petroleum, 

 and in part to the more profitable employment of labor and 

 capital on shore, the whaling industry was drained of much of 

 its capital at the very time when funds were sorely needed for 

 replacements. An old and waning fishery could attract but 

 little of the flood of new capital which was pouring into the 

 feverish exploitation of the natural resources of the nation. 

 New Bedford herself, queen of whaling ports, devoted more 

 and more of her savings to the construction of cotton mills 

 rather than to the equipment of whaling vessels. 



At the same time the diminution and shyness of the game 

 required longer and more uncertain voyages, thus increasing 

 financial risk and necessitating the employment of capital 

 throughout a greater period of time in order to reach the same 

 goal — a "full ship." The character and efficiency of the 

 crews, too, had so deteriorated as to add heavily to the bur- 

 dens of the whaling merchants. And those burdens were not 

 reduced, assuredly, by such factors as the general business 

 depression of 1873 and the increased costs which were trace- 

 able to post-war high prices. Heightened costs constituted a 

 peculiarly trying problem to the whaleman, because a falling 

 demand prevented his prices from rising in the same proportion 

 as his expenses. 



It was the Civil War, however, which delivered the first 

 and most obvious attack upon the industry's long period of 

 prosperity. During the space of five years the fleet was cut 

 in half. Between January i, 1861, and January i, 1866, the 

 whaling tonnage fell from 158,746 to 68,536 — a loss of 

 57% y and the same half -decade witnessed a 49% shrinkage in 

 the number of vessels — from 514 to 263.^ 



Much of this destruction was due to the Confederate cruis- 

 ers Alabama and Shenandoah. The former, operating in the 



1 Figures taken from the annual statistics of the Whalemen's Shipping List. 



