The Rise of Pacific Whaling. 59 
were also practically exhausted, and the pursuit of whales 
led the adventurous whalemen farther and farther into 
the Pacific. Between 1820 and 1821 the first vessels 
went to the Japanese coast and in the following year more 
than thirty vessels cruised there.2, From that time on the 
voyages were extended rapidly to other parts of the North 
and South Pacific, while some vessels, going out by way 
of the eastern route, cruised for a time in the Indian 
Ocean, mainly about Madagascar and the mouth of the 
Red Sea. 
The steadily increasing prosperity of whaling after the 
war was reflected in the growth of the Pacific fishery. 
About 1830 to 1835 the Nantucket fleet went mainly to 
the Pacific, and after 1840 they went there almost exclu- 
sively. The Nantucket fleet was also soon followed by 
the majority of the New Bedford fleet, and a large part 
of the New London and the Sag Harbor vessels. In fact 
it was largely due to the vessels from these latter ports 
that the Pacific fishery was so rapidly and successfully 
extended. The Nantucket whalemen, on. the other 
hand, persisted in resorting to the older grounds often 
for many years after new grounds were proving more 
profitable to the vessels from other ports. This fact alone 
was an important factor in bringing about the early 
reverses in whaling enterprises from Nantucket. 
About 1838 the great northwest coast whaling grounds 
were discovered. Five years later whales were first 
taken along the coast of Kamtchatka and in the Okhotsk 
Sea, and ten years later, 1848, a Sag Harbor vessel made 
a very successful voyage in the Arctic Ocean north of 
Bering Strait. For several years previous to that date 
the chief cruising grounds in the North Pacific had been 
along the northwest coast and south of Bering Strait.* 
Thus it had taken only a little over half a century from 
the time the first whalers entered the Pacific until they 
4 Macy, p. 218. 
* Goode, note, p. 85. 
