THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERIES 233 



they had gone on voyages of two and two and a 

 half years' duration. Some of the vessels returned 

 on receiving the news of the outbreak of war, to be 

 laid up for its duration. Others were captured at 

 sea. Nantucket and New Bedford, the chief 

 whaling ports, suffered severely. The war again 

 affected whaling in an adverse manner, though the 

 early years of the nineteenth century witnessed the 

 rise of several influences which benefited the 

 whalers. The general increase in prosperity of 

 America 4ed to a demand for whale oil, and sperm 

 candles in preference to tallow candles. There was 

 an increasing demand from all the seaports on the 

 coast, the export trade, especially to the West 

 Indies, developing rapidly. 



The war lasted three years (1812-5)^ and again 

 the whaling trade shrank to zero, except at Nan- 

 tucket, where perforce a little coastal whaling was 

 indulged in, and an occasional vessel sent out on a 

 longer yoyage. 



At the close of the war in 1815, the Nantucket 

 whaling fleet numbered twenty-three vessels; in 

 1819 there were sixty-one, and in 1821 eighty-four. 

 The success of the Nantucket whalers stimulated 

 other ports to follow their example, and there was a 

 general recrudescence of American whaling at this 

 time. The Pacific whalers, which up to this time 

 had frequented only the " onshore grounds," in 

 1818 first visited the " offshore grounds." In 1820 

 the first vessels sailed for the Japanese coasts ; by 

 1822 from thirty to forty vessels were whaling there. 



