STATISTICS OF THE WHALE FISHERY. 

 By A. Howard Clark. 



The American wliale fishery is now of small importance when com- 

 pared with its greatly prosperous condition of thirty or forty years ago. 

 There is still, however, a considerable number of vessels scattered over 

 the whaling grounds in different parts of the world, and enough energy 

 manifested in the pursuit of whales to make the business profitable in 

 spite of the drawbacks with which it has to contend. 



Three-fourths of the fleet is owned at New Bedford, which is the head- 

 quarters of the fishery. Other places, as Provincetown, Boston, and 

 New London, in Ne>v England, and San Francisco on the Pacific coast, 

 have an interest in the business and meet with fair success. 



The entire fleet in 1880 numbered 171 vessels, aggregating 38,037.88 

 tons, valued, with outfits, at $2,857,650. In this fleet there were 119 bark- 

 rigged vessels, 7 ships, 9 brigs, and 46 schoouers. Two of the barks were 

 fitted with propellers. The largest vessel of the fleet was the steam - 

 bark Belvidere, measuring 440.12 tons, and the smallest vessel employed 

 in ocean whaling was the schooner Union, 66.22 tons. Most of the 

 schooners and the smaller vessels of tlie other classes were emi)loyed 

 in the Atlantic Ocean whaling, while the largest and best equipped 

 vessels were in the Pacific and Arctic fleets. The men required for 

 these vessels numbered 4,198, and were of many nationalities, from the 

 native American to the natives of the Sandwich or South Pacific Islands. 

 A large proportion of the whalemen were Azorean and Cape de Yerde 

 Portuguese. The distribution of the fleet in 1880 was as follows : Hud- 

 son Bay, 5 vessels 5 North and South Atlantic grounds. 111 vessels; 

 Bering Strait, 25 vessels; Pacific Ocean, 22 vessels; in port through- 

 out the year, 8 vessels. The ownership of the vessels was divided be- 

 tween the difl'erent ports as follows: Ports in Massachusetts: Boston, 

 vessels; Provincetown, 20; Marion, 2; New Bedford, 123; Dartmouth, 

 1; Westport 2, and Edgartown, 7. In Connecticut there were 5 vessels, 

 hailing from New Loudon, and in San Francisco, California, 5 vessels. 

 The interest of San Francisco in this fishery- cannot, however, be meas- 

 ured by the number of vessels owned there, for almost the en tire Arctic 

 fleet and vessels cruising in the North Pacific are accustomed to make 

 San Francisco a fitting-port and the headquarters for the reshipment of 

 oil and bone to the Atlantic coast. 



The value of the products of the whaling industry in 1880 was 

 $2,636,322; the yield included 37,614 barrels of sperm oil and 34,626 bar- 

 rels of whale oil, valued at $1,723,808 ; 458,400 pounds of whalebone, 

 worth $907,049; and $5,465 worth of ambergris and walrus ivory. The 



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