CHAPTER V. 
THE Rise oF Paciric WHALING. 
Deep-sea whaling had been carried on in the Atlantic 
for nearly three-quarters of a century, before the whalers, 
led by their desire for more rapid returns and greater 
profits, rounded Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean. In 
1791 six ships from Nantucket and one from New Bedford 
sailed for the Pacific on sperm whaling voyages. It was 
an epoch-making step in the history of whaling, since out 
of the abundance of these distant grounds was to grow 
a fishery of far-reaching commercial importance. 
These first Pacific whalers found plenty of sperm whales 
along the coast of Chili and returned home with full 
cargoes after successful voyages. The news soon spread 
through the fleet, and each year saw an increasing number 
of vessels clearing for the Pacific grounds. Later voyages 
were extended farther and farther north along the coast 
until the equator was reached. The cruising grounds at 
first were confined mainly to the waters up to a distance 
of too leagues from land,’ and in this region whaling 
continued until the fishery was temporarily stopped 
during the war of 1812. 
Whaling was resumed again in 1815 and the years 
following, and the fleet resorted to the old Pacific grounds. 
But with the increasing activity of the whalemen, whales 
began to be scarce, and the voyages were extended in the 
search for new grounds. In 1818 the so-called “offshore 
grounds’’ were discovered with sperm whales in large 
numbers, and by 1820 upwards of fifty ships were cruis- 
ing in that region. But in a short time those grounds 
‘Macy, p. 217. 
