416 The Story of the New England Whalers 



compelled the whalers to adopt steam. It was 

 the use of steam that made San Francisco a popu- 

 lar port with whalers, in the first place. Then it 

 was seen that the shipment of the crude oil across 

 the continent was a large and, to a great extent, 

 a needless expense. In 1883 "extensive works 

 for the manufacture and sale of whale and sperm 

 oil" were erected at that port, "thus enabling 

 the owners there located as well as others who 

 import oil at that place to find a market without 

 paying the heavy cost of shipping the same to 

 the Atlantic seaboard." (The Whale Fishery.) 

 The whale fishery fleet of 1883 numbered 125 

 all told, of which number nineteen were registered 

 at San Francisco. Thereafter the fleet decreased 

 steadily until 1901, when only forty American 

 vessels were employed in the pursuit of whales. 

 The last report of the Commission of Navigation 

 shows that the fleet yet numbers forty, and that 

 San Francisco owns eighteen of them, twelve 

 steamers and six ships of the sail. 



The space allotted to this story is filled. We, 

 the reader and the writer, have travelled far to- 



