XX INTRODUCTION, 



splendid trade of the Americans ; but, like the mother 

 country, they permitted the fishery to decline, so that 

 even bounties could not keep it alive. 



Meanwhile, the Americans added to their fleet 

 continually, prospering amazingly. But suddenly the 

 advent of the civil war let loose among those peaceable 

 cruisers the devastating Alabama, whose course was 

 marked in some parts of the world by the fires of 

 blazing whale-ships. A great part of the Geneva award 

 was on this account, although it must be acknowledged 

 that many pseudo-owners were enriched who never 

 owned aught but brazen impudence and influential 

 friends to push their fictitious claims. The real 

 sufferers, seamen especially, in most cases never 

 received any redress whatever. 



From this crushing blow the American sperm whale 

 fishery has never fully recovered. When the writer 

 was in the trade, some twenty-two years ago, it was 

 credited with a fleet of between three and four hundred 

 sail ; now it may be doubted whether the numbers reach 

 an eighth of that amount. A rigid conservatism of 

 method hinders any revival of the industry, which is 

 practically conducted to-day as it was fifty, or even 

 a hundred years ago ; and it is probable that another 

 decade will witness the final extinction of what was 

 once one of the most important maritime industries in 

 the world. 



