The Golden Era of Whaling. 55 
on from any region in the world. Just previous to the 
Revolution Nantucket had stood forth resplendent in the 
prosperity of her daring whalemen. But in all her glory 
Nantucket had not risen even to a semblance of the 
industry as prosecuted from the New Bedford district. 
Within a radius of ten miles of New Bedford were 
Fairhaven, Dartmouth, Westport, Mattapoisett and 
Seppican, making up a whaling fleet from Buzzard’s Bay 
that totaled 426 sail in 1857, ten years after the fleets of 
other ports had begun to decrease. Rochester in the 
same circle had been a flourishing whaling town—in fact 
there was hardly a town in this area which had not taken 
an active part in whaling enterprises. 
It seems safe to assert that no other industry so wide 
spread in its operation has been so closely restricted in the 
places from which it was carried on. Even in its greatest 
development the charmed circle of important whaling 
ports was not’ widely extended. Outside of the ports 
along the southern New England coast from Cape Cod to 
New York, and on the islands to the south, there was 
hardly a single important port, until the rise of San 
Francisco, after 1880. And the center of all from 1820 
onward was at New Bedford. 
The continued growth of the New Bedford interests, 
after the other fleets had begun to decrease, kept up the 
industry to a high rank of commercial importance, and 
through a whole decade had warded off the rapidly 
approaching decline. But on all sides whaling vessels 
were being sold or withdrawn. Partners were dropping 
out of the whaling companies. Old companies ceased 
to exist at ports where they had conducted the business 
for years. And finally, at port after port, the industry 
was entirely abandoned. The changed economic condi- 
tions were steadily and surely undermining whaling 
prosperity. New Bedford, the queen of whaling ports, 
could no longer turn the tide. 
It is not at all easy to explain why the New Bedford 
