The first whaler to sail from San Francisco was the “Popmunnett” in
the year 1850, and for thirty years after there were a few whaleships
registered in this port. Steam whalers were introduced into the
American fleet in 1880, when New Bedford sent out one, but it was
the adoption of steam and the proximity to the Arctic that made San
Francisco a whaling port at the time other places were giving up the
pursuit. In 1893 there were thirty-three vessels enrolled there, many
of which had been transferred from the Eastern cities. Since 1895
Boston, New Bedford, Provincetown, and San Francisco have been the only
places from which whalers have been regularly registered, and in 1903
Boston recorded her last whaleship.
[Illustration: A modern steam whaler in the act of shooting a harpoon
gun.]
[Illustration: The modern harpoon gun, showing line with which to hold
the whale.]
There are a number of reasons for the decline of the whale fishery,
but the chief factor was undoubtedly the introduction of kerosene.
The opening of the first oil well in Pennsylvania sealed the fate of
whaling. Henceforth sperm candles were used for ornament, and whale
oil lamps soon became interesting relics. Other causes doubtless
contributed to this rapid decline; for instance, the financial crisis
of 1857; the uncertainty of the business, especially since Arctic
whaling was begun in 1848; the increased cost of fitting out the ships
for longer voyages; and the California gold craze in 1849, when many
crews and officers deserted. Also the rise of the cotton industry from
about 1850 to 1875 in New Bedford drew a great deal of capital from
the uncertain whale fishery to the more conservative investments in
cotton mills, which were successful from the very start. As whaling
died out the mills were built up, and it is owing to these same mills
that the city was saved from becoming a deserted fishing village. Then
later even the lubricating oils began to be made from the residuum of
kerosene, and about the same time wax was invented for candles, which
again robbed the whaling industry of another market for oil. Soon came
the Civil War, in which many vessels were captured or destroyed, then
followed the sinking of forty or more vessels of the Charleston Stone
Fleet described elsewhere, and finally came the Arctic disasters of
1871 and 1876, all of which hastened the end of the industry.
[Illustration: Whale-meat in Japan awaiting shipment to market. It is
sold to the poorer classes in all the large towns at prices which range
from 7 to 8 cents a pound. One whale yields as much meat as a herd of
100 cattle.]