336 The Story of the New England Whalers 



The average yearly income per ship during the 

 twenty years after the war was greater than that 

 during the twenty years preceding the war. The 

 total sales of products in the year 1846 amounted 

 to $6,203,115.43, or $8428 for each ship in the 

 fishery; the income per ship in 1885, $15,550. 

 The average income per ship in 1854 was some- 

 thing over $16,000, while the average in 1905 was 

 about $19,000. 



With individual receipts higher on the average, 

 the number of ships steadily decreased, but the 

 seeming paradox is easily explained. The prices 

 of oils have been maintained at the figures noted 

 solely because the number of ships in the fishery 

 was decreasing. The substitution of petroleum 

 for whale oils as illuminants, and in part as lu- 

 bricants, has destroyed the market for whale oils, 

 or nearly so. The development of the cotton- 

 seed oil business also affected the fishery. If 

 the price of whalebone had not increased during 

 the years since the Civil War, it is likely that the 

 whale fishery would have been abandoned long 

 ago. 



The competition of the new oils was not the sole 



