110 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OP FISH AND FISHERIES. 



formed no positive impediment. The increase in population would have 

 caused an increase in consumption beyond the power of the fishery to sup- 

 ply, for even at the necessarily high prices people would have had light. 

 But other things occurred. The expense of procuring oil was yearly 

 increasing when the oil-wells of Pennsylvania were opened, and a source 

 of illumination opened at once plentiful, cheap, and good. Its danger- 

 ous qualities at first greatly checked its general use, but, these removed, 

 it entered into active, relentless competition with whale-oil, and it proved 

 the more powerful of the antagonistic forces. 



The length of voyages increased from two years for a cargo of sperm 

 and from nine to fifteen months for a cargo of whale oil to four years 

 to fill with the latter, while the former was practically abandoned as a 

 separate business * after it became necessary to make voyages of four, 

 five, and even six years, and then seldom return with a full cargo. As 

 a matter of necessity the fitting of ships became far more expensive,! 



inenced closing around them ; agaiu they cherished delusive hopes that a strong gale 

 would drive it off-shore and afford them a means of escape, and again these hopes were 

 doomed to a bitter disappointment. Again the masters decided it was necessary to 

 abaudon their vessels, and again the abandonment was accomplished. Here the paral- 

 lel ceases. Several men perished from exposure in journejiug from oue beleaguered 

 vessel to another apparently more safe, and many died on the toilsome, perilous march 

 and voyage to the rescuing ships. Many more preferred to stay by the ships and risk 

 their chances of surviving during the terrible Arctic winter to assuming the nearer and, 

 to them, apparently no less dangerous alternative of an immediate escape. These men 

 are still there, and there seems no feasible way to communicate with them until the 

 summer of 1877. Judging by the experience of Arctic navigators and by the condition 

 of several of the former abandoned fleet when found in the eusuiug season, their chance 

 for a comfortable survival seems good, unless attacked by the avaricious natives. Pro- 

 visions and fuel are reported amply sufficient for them, and with the first clear water 

 of 1877 ready hands aud willing hearts will hasten to their assistance. Fifty-three men 

 remained, aud three hundred made their escape. The names of the lost and abandoned 

 vessels with their approximate values, not including cargoes, are as follows: (Of these 

 the Arctic is reported lost; the others abandoned.) From New Bedford, the Acors 

 Barns, $35,000 ; Camilla, $36,000 ; Cornelius Howland, $40,000 ; James Allen, $36,000 ; 

 Java 2d, $-26,000; Josephine, $40,000; Marengo, $40,000; Mount Wollaston, $32,000; 

 Onward, $40,000 ; and St. George , $36,000. From San Francisco, the Clara Bell, $24,000. 

 Aud from Honolulu, the Arctic, $32,000, and Desmond, $24,000. A total loss of $442,000. 

 The estimated value of reported cargoes is about $375,000 more. 



* Always excepting, of course, Atlantic whalers. Sperm- whaling in the Atlantic has 

 always been pursued by the bulk of the Provincetown vessels and by quite a fleet of 

 schooners and brigs from other ports. There is an occasional revival of this pursuit in 

 larger vessels at intervals of a few years, at present some of the most successful voy- 

 ages beiug made by ships and barks cruising for sperm whales in this ocean. 



t The cost of fitting of late years has grown out of all proportion to the value of the 

 return. Thus, in 1790, a ship carrying 1.900 barrels of oil would be fitted for a two- 

 years' sperm whaling voyage to the Pacific Ocean for $12,000, while in 1858, with a 

 doubled capacity, the length of the average voyage was more than doubled, and the 

 cost of fitting had increased to about $65,000. But few people have an idea of the 

 amount aud variety of occupations to which the fitter-out of a whale-ship pays trib- 

 ute. In 1765 the schooner Lydia, of Edgartown, Capt. Peter Pease, used the following 

 articles in fitting for her whaling-cruise : 5 barrels beef, 6 barrels pork, 1,200 pounds 

 bread, 60 pouuds butter, 3 small cheeses, 500 pump-nails, 2 wine-glasses, 600 board-nails, 

 1,500 shingle-nails, 24 deck-nails, 30 spikes, 1 mallet, 1 dipsy-line, 2 scrapers, 1 adze, 2 



