88 A History of the American Whale Fishery. 
added to the New Bedford fleet.** The voyage was 
very successful, securing in one season a cargo valued at 
$100,000, and fully demonstrating the practicability of 
using steam in the whaling fleet. 
It seems strange, however, that the experiment had not 
been tried before, for the English had sent out a steam 
whaler to Davis Strait as early as 1857.% The experi- 
ment proved so advantageous that new wooden steam 
vessels were built and old vessels were converted, so that 
in 1869 the whole Dundee fleet was composed of screw 
steamers—ten vessels in all.** The explanation for the 
American tardiness probably lies in the decline of Ameri- 
can ship building, then just beginning, and especially in 
its almost total suspension immediately after the Civil 
War. The first steam whaler was soon followed by others 
and the catch was temporarily increased by the new 
methods. Now the fleet of steam whalers is one of the 
most important in the whole fishery. 
The vessels comprising the fleet during the last two 
decades may be divided into the two classes, sailing vessels 
and steamers. The sailing vessels are mainly schooners 
and square rigged vessels, no sloops having been employed 
for many years. The schooners cruise chiefly in the 
Atlantic grounds and the others are engaged in the Pacific. 
The steam vessels are almost without exception entirely 
engaged in Arctic whaling from San Francisco as their 
port. 
The size of the fleet at present is, of course, but a mere 
fraction of what it was fifty or sixty years ago. It is only 
natural, therefore, to wonder what became of the hundreds 
of ships which were once engaged in the whale fishery. 
Probably the greatest number would be accounted for by 
wrecks in all parts of the world. For example, in the 
autumn of 1871 a sudden setting in of the pack ice de- 
a ols. “p> 433. 
* Goode, p. 237. 
8 Simmonds: Animal Products, p. 369. 
