WHALE FISHERY OF NEW ENGLAND 



tributed to this rapid decline; for instance, the financial crisis of 1857; 

 the uncertainty of the business, especially ^since Arctic whaling was 

 begun^m 184;~~thc iiici'cascchTosT~6TTirting out the ships foFTonger 

 voyages; and the California gold craze in 1849, when many crews and 

 officers deserted. Also the rise of the cotton industry from about 1850 

 to 1875 in New Bedford drew a great deal of capital from the uncertain 

 whale fishery to the more conservative investments in cotton mills, 

 which were successful from the very start. As whaling died out the 

 mills were built up, and it is owing to these same mills that the 

 city was saved from becoming a deserted fishing village. Then later 

 even the lubricating oils began to be made from the residuum of kero- 



Whale-meat in Japan awaiting shipment to market. Tt is sold to the poorer 

 classes in all the large towns at prices which range from 7 to 8 cents a pound. One 

 whale yields as much meat as a herd of 100 cattle. 



sene, and about the same time wax was invented for candles, which 

 again robbed the whaling industry of another market for oil. Soon 

 came the Civil War, in which many vessels were captured or destroyed, 

 then followed the sinking of forty or more vessels of the Charleston 

 Stone Fleet described elsewhere, and finally came the Arctic disasters 

 of 1871 and 1876, all of which hastened the end of the industry. 



WHALING OF TO-DAY 



Whaling will doubtless be carried on from San Francisco in a small 

 way as long as there is any demand for whalebone, and from New 

 Bedford and Provincetown while there is any market for sperm and 



