224 WHALING 



from petroleum attacked whale oil on one flank, and on the 

 other flank paraffine began its winning fight against sper- 

 maceti. 



How seldom we think of the changes a mere sixty years have 

 wrought in our manner of living! Kerosene, which a genera- 

 tion ago virtually put out of commission a great fleet, has now 

 lost in its fight against a still greater power. Within a few 

 years I found in a junk shop an aged lantern, bought it for a few 

 cents, brought it home to Cambridge, and discovered, when I 

 had cut away the encrusted dirt and verdigris of heaven knows 

 how many years, that there still remained in it, sealed thus from 

 the air, a few spoonfuls of thick and rancid whale oil. I tinkered 

 with the old wick and cleared out the tubes as best I could, then 

 I touched the wick with a lighted match. A white flame, smell- 

 ing somewhat of the rancid oil, but none the less uncoloured 

 and smokeless, sprang from the wick and shone through the 

 dingy globe. 



Sixty years earlier, probably a great majority of the homes 

 in Cambridge were lighted by whale oil ; but I suppose that on 

 the night I experimented with my old lantern it was the only 

 whale-oil light in greater Boston, or in New England, perhaps 

 even in all the United States of America. 



The years 1859 and 1860 brought petroleum and petroleum 

 products on the market. The year 1861 brought the third 

 war to affect seriously the fortunes of the American whaling 

 fleet. 



Of all classes of shipping, none in history had been so pecu- 

 liarly liable to suffer from hostile raiders as the whalemen. 

 The old-time whaler was years from home, and for months or 

 even years her captain might be out of all communication with 

 the civilized world; except for such chance news as he got from 

 vessels met at sea; although he was likely to receive in a few 

 months news of real moment, it is conceivable that his country 

 could have been at war for years without his knowing it. And 

 as if this were not handicap enough, the very nature of his 

 vocation rendered him easy prey for any hostile raider. He 

 spent months cruising the seas in restricted areas whose where- 



