XII 



THE GOLD RUSH 



THE men who made New Bedford, for a time, the greatest 

 whaling port the world had known were uncommonly 

 shrewd business men, as their whaling operations showed be- 

 yond dispute. But if further indication of their sagacity were 

 needed, the sound judgment with which, at the very height of 

 the golden age of American whaling, they invested money in 

 other industries instead of overcapitalizing their fleet, would 

 provide it. 



It was in the early 'forties that they built and equipped a 

 cordage factory, which had two twenty-horsepower steam 

 engines — this magnificent equipment was a matter of wide 

 comment at the time! — employed about seventy-five persons, 

 and produced several hundred tons of cordage a year. Two 

 planing machines, a factory that made looking-glasses and 

 picture frames, and various plants that manufactured linseed 

 oil, Prussian blue, paper hangings, and carriages, not to mention 

 the two grist-mills and various smithies and carpenter shops, 

 were running in 1845. And in 1848 was bom an infant industry 

 — the Wamsutta Cotton Mills, with a capital of $160,000 and 

 with 15,000 spindles — that was to keep for New Bedford a place 

 among the foremost of New England cities when the sons of her 

 whaling captains should have abandoned the sea and have lost 

 the knack of handling iron and lance. 



Those seaport towns which perceived that New England was 

 turning from commerce to manufacturing, and responded to 

 the change as did New Bedford, have kept their old places. 

 Those which either did not perceive it, or did not respond to it, 

 have lost place and prosperity. Dilapidated wharves, tumble- 

 down warehouses, shipyards overgrown with grass and often 



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