XV 



THE CIVIL WAR 



IN 1847, as I have already indicated, the number of vessels 

 actually whaling began to decrease; but during the next 

 nine years the prices of bone and oil rose in such proportion 

 as more than to offset the losses in the fleet. In ten years the 

 price of sperm oil and of whalebone nearly doubled, and the 

 price of whale oil a trifle more than doubled. In 1856, sperm 

 oil brought $1.62 a gallon, whale oil 79 cents a gallon, and whale- 

 bone 58 cents a pound. In spite of adversities, New Bedford 

 had continued to sweep forward on the flood tide of fortune. 

 And who, in the New Bedford of the early 'fifties, in the midst 

 of such whaling operations as all history has never equalled, 

 could have foreseen that the tide was about to turn? Her 

 merchants had the sagacity to refrain from overcapitalizing 

 their industry, but they had not the power of prophecy. And 

 fortune rewarded their wisdom better than they knew, as the 

 great mills of to-day, with their thousands of employees, bear 

 living witness. 



New Bedford's whalemen thus flourished and continued to 

 grow rich, years after whaling from many a smaller port had 

 ceased; but the country- wide demand for whale products 

 broke down when the financial crash of 1857 followed the 

 period of general commercial success. Hard times reduced the 

 prices of oil and bone; and two years later petroleum was 

 discovered in Pennsylvania. 



In 1860 the United States produced 500,000 barrels of petro- 

 leum, and in 1861, more than two million barrels. Kerosene 

 came into the market and strongly competed against whale 

 oil as a means of illumination; it was abundant and not ex- 

 pensive, and steadily gained ground. Lubricating oils derived 



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