238 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



Conn., twenty-seven; Warren, R.I., twenty-three; 

 Provincetown, eighteen; and Mystic, Conn., with 

 seventeen ships. 



After 1847 there was a gradual decline in the 

 number of whaling vessels, the smaller ports drop- 

 ping out rapidly. 



The following table gives the number of vessels 

 and the aggregate tonnage for each tenth year after 

 1846, when the number of yessels was a maximum : 



No. of Vessels. Tonnage. 



1846 736 233,262 



1856 635 199,141 



1866 263 68,535 



1876 169 38,883 



1886 124 29,118 



1896 77 16,358 



igo6 42 9,878 



Although the smaller ports declined after 1847, 

 New Bedford continued to increase its fleet until 

 1857, when its maximum was attained with three 

 hundred and twenty-nine sail, valued at twelve 

 million dollars, giving employment to ten thousand 

 seamen. 



Soon after the introduction of the mineral oils 

 referred to above, and which of itself was beginning 

 to prove a severe handicap to the American whalers, 

 the outbreak of the Civil War proved a formidable 

 blow to industry. At this time most of the fleet was 

 at sea, some of the vessels being in the Pacific on 

 voyages of four years' duration. The Atlantic 

 whalers soon felt the effect of the war, some of them 

 being captured by Southern privateers as early as 



