60 A History of the American Whale Fishery. 
had penetrated as far as the Arctic. From the very first 
the value of the Arctic fishery was apparent, and the 
fleet frequenting the Arctic grounds increased rapidly in 
numbers. In the last few decades it has been the most 
important of all whaling regions, almost all the Pacific 
fleet cruising in Arctic waters. 
Up to the time that whaling was begun in the Arctic, 
the whole Pacific fishery had been carried on from the 
whaling ports on the Atlantic. Though the whalers often 
put into Pacific ports, or wintered along the coast, it was 
from the New England ports that the vessels sailed and to 
them that they returned with their cargoes of oil and 
bone. Many months of valuable time were thus con- 
sumed in the long voyages out and in around Cape Horn. 
Two years after the first whaler entered the Arctic 
region whaling was begun as a Pacific coast industry. 
Late in 1850 an old whaling vessel, the Popmunnett, was 
fitted and sent out from San Francisco on a sperm whal- 
ing voyage to the Gallipagos Islands, and the coasts of 
Chili and Peru. A bark soon followed, but what success 
these voyages met is not recorded. And it was not until 
fifteen years later that San Francisco again appeared as a 
whaling port. 
In 1851, however, shore whaling was tried at Monterey. 
The whales were pursued in boats and when captured 
were towed ashore where the blubber was removed. 
In fact the whole experiment was carried on in essentially 
the same way as it had been done by the New England 
whalers more than 150 years before. Out of this exper- 
iment arose a regular system of shore whaling which in the 
course of twenty years was carried on from eleven sta- 
tions.’ These stations were located along the coast from 
Half Moon Bay, on the north, to Point Abanda, in Lower 
California, on the south. They were situated near Half 
Moon Bay, Pigeon Point, two at Monterey Bay, Carmel 
* Starbuck, p. 100. 
*’Scammon, p. 247. 
