60 WHALING 



the same in the two countries and chances of success would 

 seem, hkewise, to be equal. The English lengthened the time 

 of their voyages, but whale products did not increase propor- 

 tionately. Meanwhile, wages went down, the Government 

 bounties were withdrawn, duties on foreign vegetable oils and 

 oil seeds were lowered or withdrawn, though duties on materials 

 for the construction and equipment of ships were not, and 

 whale products from the colonies were duty-free. These were 

 the reasons according to the English point of view; perhaps 

 there were other and more fundamental reasons; perhaps not. 

 At any rate, the odds were too much for the English whalers and 

 by the middle of the century the Southern Whale Fishery had 

 virtually ended. 



It is interesting that, estimating costs in great detail, plotting 

 with great care the improvement of every branch of the busi- 

 ness, Enderby's proposal for reviving the moribund industry 

 was to make bases in the islands of the Pacific whither British 

 ships could take their cargoes for transport home. Thus, he 

 said, smaller vessels could be used, and for shorter cruises, with 

 a consequent saving of much expense. This was precisely what 

 happened about fifty years later when the harpoon gun and the 

 little steam whaler had brought about the shore station of 

 modern whaling. But harpoon guns and steam whalers were 

 beyond even an Enderby's foresight; the hand harpoon had 

 reached its limit of effectiveness, sperm and right whales were 

 increasingly difficult to take, and vegetable oils were fast taking 

 the place of whale oils. 



By 1874 all whaling from English ports had ceased, and Dundee 

 and Peterhead were the only whaling ports in Scotland. The 

 principal industry of Dundee was jute manufacture, for which 

 whale and seal oils were essential, consequently Dundee, and 

 Dundee alone, held out through the century. Consequently, 

 too, the thrifty Scotch whalers had long before learned to take 

 seals, walruses, and any other animals yielding oil or skins of 

 commercial value, also quantities of bird down, to eke out the 

 profits of a voyage. Even so, by the end of the century there 

 were only seven vessels left in the little Dundee fleet. 



