OFF SHORE 81 



So up and down our Eastern coast, whaling was a flourishing 

 industry in the early 'seventies. The Long Island fleets had 

 held their own; and if the Cape Cod fleets had lost ground in 

 the race for whaling supremacy, if whaling from Martha's 

 Vineyard had never flourished as did whaling elsewhere, yet the 

 Nantucket fleet had grown, and in the old township of Dart- 

 mouth was beginning the fleet that later was to outstrip all the 

 others. 



On both sides of the Atlantic the white flames of whale-oil 

 lamps were lighting thousands upon thousands of homes, 

 churches, factories, and shops. Manufacturers, who used oil in 

 making soft soap, varnishes, and paints, in lubricating machin- 

 ery, and in finishing leather and coarse woollen clothes, bought 

 large quantities of it. The processes of refining spermaceti and 

 making sperm candles, which for a long time were closely 

 guarded secrets, had been made public property by the diligent 

 experimenting of would-be competitors. They filtered the 

 head matter and treated it with potash-lye, which gave them 

 the white, soft, brittle substance that they mixed with beeswax 

 to keep it from granulating, and used in ointments as well as in 

 candles. The market for whalebone was steady and profitable. 

 In short, from most points of view, the future promised well for 

 the whalemen. 



