74 A History of the American Whale Fishery. 
more years each. The vessels were larger, 300 to 500 
tons about the middle of the last century, and the cost 
of fitting for a three years voyage was increased to $30,- 
000 to $60,000 each.® The rivalry of different captains 
in trying to secure the most luxurious fittings often added 
unnecessarily to the expenses of fitting and refitting. 
As these changes were going on the North Pacific and 
especially the Arctic fisheries were becoming more and 
more the only profitable cruising grounds. But there 
the danger of losses was increased because of encounters 
with the ice, and every vessel wrecked meant a greater 
financial loss than before. The two factors of uncertainty 
of profits and risk of losses of whole investments, were 
strong arguments for capital to seek employment else- 
where. 
Outside the fishery itself several factors were at work 
to accomplish its downfall. In 1849 gold had been dis- 
covered in California, and the great rush to the gold 
fields began. For years it had been the custom among 
the Pacific whalers to touch at some Pacific port, either 
for water, to refit, or to spend the ‘between seasons’”’ 
when the northern grounds were closed by ice. The 
whalers offered an easy means of reaching California and 
its gold deposits. Starbuck says’ that whole crews ap- 
parently shipped merely as a cheap means of reaching 
the mines, that desertions from the ships were numerous, 
often in such numbers as to actually cripple the efficiency 
of the ship. “In this way many voyages were broken 
up and hundreds of thousands of dollars were sunk by 
the owners.”’ Ships were fired by mutinous crews, some 
even entirely destroyed. In fact, so complete was the 
demoralization of the fleet that captains and officers left 
their ships to seek for gold. : 
The rise of the cotton cloth industry was also a potent 
*Scammon, p. 216. : 
10 Starbuck, p. 112. 
