Whaling as a Business Enterprise 319 



York, 2, and from Westport, Massachusetts, I. 

 While fourteen of these ships returned to port 

 "clean," more than half of them brought home 

 full cargoes, and it was in 1817, when those of 

 the fleet which had gone to the Pacific were com- 

 ing into port, that the recorded catch of sperm 

 for the first time rose above 1,000,000 gallons, 

 the actual amount being 1,028,475, worth 72 cents 

 a gallon. The take of whale oil was 561,830, 

 which then sold for 60 cents, and this, with 19,444 

 pounds of bone that sold for 12 cents a pound 

 (it was hardly worth saving at the price), brought 

 the total income of the whalers for that year up 

 to $1,091,576.88. 



Fewer ships had been fitted for the fishery in 

 .1816 and 1817 than in 1815, but the success of 

 the Pacific ships that arrived in 1817 started a 

 growth of the fishery which continued practically 

 unchecked for about thirty years. 



A curious feature of this growth was the in- 

 terest taken by capitalists in out-of-the-way ports. 

 Two ships sailed from Hudson in 1817, following 

 those of 1815 to the Pacific, and one, the Eliza 

 Baker, Captain Paddock, was long remembered 



