2o6 : The Atlantic 



past centuries were very different from the shapes in which they have 

 elected to cheer our eyes today, but the requirements of fashion 

 then were just as changeable and just as exacting. The ladies counted 

 on one kind of whale, the right whale, to keep them in trim. They 

 counted on whale oil from several kinds of whale to provide illumina- 

 tion for the lamps of the chandeliers and wall sconces. If the light of 

 the lamps was too strong they turned to the clear light of the candles 

 made from the spermaceti of the sperm whale, and it was this whale 

 who supplied the ambergris that served as a carrier for the ladies' per- 

 fume. 



In the days of whaling metals like steel were rigid, heavy and lim- 

 ited in their application. Plastics were nonexistent and there were no 

 synthetic fabrics like lastex and nylon. The one thing the ladies could 

 count on which they knew to be durable, flexible and relatively light 

 was whalebone. 



Whalebone went into corsets but it also went into shaped materials 

 for collars and cuffs — framework to give shape to sleeves or the brim 

 of a hat or into a score of other places that needed attention. It was 

 used for the ribs of sunshades, parasols and umbrellas and, no doubt, 

 had other uses too that it is difficult now to reconstruct. 



Whalebone brought fantastic prices. In the beginning, a ton of 

 good Greenland whalebone cost $700. In the 1850's, about the time 

 when the industry was fully developed and competition was extraor- 

 dinarily active, whalebone brought only $25. Oddly enough, the high- 

 est price ever paid for whalebone was about $2,000 a ton. This price 

 was reached because whaling had declined rapidly and, at the same 

 time, people did not know how to get along without it. 



The best quality of whalebone was always supplied by the right 

 whale of Labrador waters though many other fisheries in the Arctic 

 and Antarctic were also diligently developed. The price of these devel- 

 opments in Greenland and elsewhere was paid by ships lost and lives 

 lost throughout the whole period of the whaling industry and was 

 colossal. It would take a whole chapter to even suggest the form of 

 losses in the whaling industry. But fortunately there is no need for 

 such an extended treatment. The following incidents that come 

 readily to hand illustrate what could happen. 



In the year 1835 the British had been for some time exploring the 

 Arctic shores and waters of Canada and had also been engaged in the 

 Greenland-Davis Straits fisheries. Hull was one of the most impor- 

 tant of the British whaling ports. In December of that year thirty- 

 four shipowners of that port sent a memorial to the admiralty ask- 



