FROM DOLDRUMS TO STU'N'S'LS 41 



purchasing power and once more absorbed American oil and 

 bone in profitable quantities. Sperm oil and whale oil were 

 employed more and more for both lighting and lubricating 

 purposes. And the growing use of whalebone in the making 

 of stays, corsets, whips, and umbrellas acted as a further spur 

 to the right whale branch of the industry. With a heavy 

 demand assured by these developments, a long period of peace 

 and the marked Yankee aptitude for the business completed 

 the requirements for the full fruition of New England whal- 

 ing. 



And fruition came in the form of the golden era of 1830 

 to i860. Statistical evidence of the growth and prosperity 

 of this period exists in abundance. Thus in 1833 the Amer- 

 ican fleet consisted of 392 vessels, aggregating 130,000 tons 

 and carrying 10,000 seamen.^ By January i, 1844, the number 

 of vessels had risen to 644, the tonnage to 200,484, and the 

 number of men to 17,594. Two hundred and forty-two ves- 

 sels, with an average crew of 28 men each and an average 

 value of $55,000, including their catches, were in sperm whal- 

 ing; 329 vessels, with a similar average of 28 men each but 

 an average value of only $40,000, with their catches, were 

 in right whaling; and the remaining 73 craft, with average 

 crews of 22 men each and with vessels and catches valued at 

 $18,000 each, were in Atlantic sperm whaling.* Two years la- 

 ter, with 233,189 tons distributed over 735 vessels, American 

 whaling reached its apex. But this high mark of 1846 was 

 almost repeated in 1847, when 722 whalers, displacing 230,- 

 218 tons, were claimed by 34 different ports. New Bedford, 

 with 254 vessels, was so far in the lead that her only serious 

 rivals were Nantucket, with 75 whalers; New London, with 

 70 ; and Sag Harbor, with 62.^ 



This scale of operations continued, without any essential 

 change, until the outbreak of the Civil War. The record 

 activity of 1846 and 1847 was never again reached, it is true; 



3 These figures were given by Williams, J. R., in an article published in the 

 North American Revieiu for January, 1834. See Vol. xxxviii, pp. 103-108. 



* Figures compiled by Grinnell, Joseph, and published in 1844 in a i6-page 

 pamphlet entitled, "Speech on the Tariff, With Statistical Tables of the Whale 

 Fishery." 



^ Whalemen's Shipping List for January, 1847, and January, 1848. 



