40 A History of the American Whale Fishery. 
before the war. Great Britain vainly tried to evade 
this provision of the treaty, but was finally obliged 
to yield. 
The end of the war found the whaling business in a 
nearly hopeless condition. Except for such of the 
interest as had been kept up at Nantucket, the business 
was almost totally ruined and had to be built up anew. 
And at Nantucket not much had been saved. When the 
war began, the island had a little over 150 vessels. In 
1784 only two or three old hulks remained.® Of the 
rest 134 had been captured or destroyed by the English 
and fifteen more had been lost by shipwreck. As it was 
at Nantucket, so it was in a way with all the whaling 
ports. The industry which eight years before had been 
enjoying the highest tide of its prosperity was now so 
completely destroyed that hardly a vestige remained. 
At the same time an almost total suspension of imports 
of whaling products had led to the widespread use of 
substitutes—one of the hardest factors with which the 
revived industry would have to contend in re-establish- 
ing the former demand and general consumption. 
But whaling was destined to rise again, though its 
existence for over two decades was to be a precarious 
one, filled with the ups and downs of unsettled condi- 
tions. The several years of almost complete immunity 
from capture had resulted in a repopulation of the 
whaling grounds. 
The whales themselves were less shy and hence more 
readily killed. With characteristic American energy 
the whalemen set to work to make up for their losses 
during the war; for the news of peace had hardly arrived 
before vessels were being fitted anew for whaling voy- 
ages. Nantucket was among the first to resume whaling, 
the people who had any capital left resuming the business 
with as many vessels as they could secure. New London 
Sag Harbor, Hudson, N. Y., Boston, Hingham, Wellfleet, 
8§ Macy, p. 124. 
