68 A History of the American Whale Fishery. 
value of about $8,000,000.? Many of the ports, however, 
employed less than a half dozen vessels, perhaps only one 
or two, the industry having been undertaken as a result 
of the great whaling prosperity beginning in the early 
forties. The industry was abandoned from some of these 
minor posts before the climax of whaling prosperity was 
reached in 1846. Thus there is no record of vessels 
sailing from the following ports after the dates given:* 
1841 1845 
Hudson, N. Y. Portsmouth, N. H. 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
Newark, N. J. 1846 
Wilmington, Del. Barnstable, Mass. 
Bucksport, Me. Plymouth, Mass. 
Bristol, R. I. 
1844 Bridgeport, Conn. 
Duxbury, Mass. 
Freetown, Mass. 
But most of the ports continued to send out their 
vessels until a change in conditions began to be felt. 
The minor ports seemed almost to foretell the approaching 
depression, for at one after another the business was 
abandoned, in most cases never to be resumed. The 
business at a number of these ports was given up while 
whaling was still enjoying remarkable prosperity at 
New Bedford and other places. Why it should have been 
so is hard to tell. The suggestion that the smaller 
enterprises were crowded out by the larger seems to 
be refuted by the very nature of the industry and the 
fact that market prices were steadily rising. The most 
logical conclusion apparently is that these vessels from 
small ports really made the large ports their headquarters, 
and it was only an easy step for them to be transferred or 
sold to the larger companies operating from New Bedford, 
Sag Harbor or New London. Hence what is commonly 
?Scammon, p. 243. 
Compiled from Starbuck’s records of sailing. 
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