CHAPTER VI. 
THE DECLINE OF AMERICAN WHALING. 
Sixty years ago the American whaling fishery was in 
the full height of its greatest prosperity, with the largest 
number of vessels ever employed in whaling. Now its 
glory is gone and the fleet both in number and tonnage 
of vessels is smaller than at almost any other time since 
the Revolution. To trace the progress of this decline and 
the economic changes which have induced it, is one of the 
most important phases in the history of the whaling 
industry. 
During the height of whaling, the industry had grown 
with remarkable rapidity to proportions far beyond all 
expectations. The climax was reached in 1846 when the 
fleet numbered 736 sail, with an aggregate tonnage of 
Over 230,000 tons.’ The sudden increase of the fleet in 
1846,—an increase of forty-one over 1845 and of ninety- 
one over 1844—Wwas the result of a demand for more ships 
in the lucrative, newly opened fisheries for bowhead 
whales in Okhotsk Sea, along the Kamtchatkan coast 
and in Bering Strait. But the very causes which had 
helped to bring about this rapid growth, operated event- 
ually toward the beginning of the decline. 
The prosperity continued for several years, almost a 
decade in fact, until the returning vessels brought such 
great quantities of oil and bone that the market was 
glutted and prices of oil fell. Voyages that would 
formerly have yielded good profits were made at a loss, 
and the condition of success and prosperity became one of 
+ ““Whalemen’s Shipping List,’’ Mar. 7, rgos. 
