Previous to the revolt of the North American provinces this fishery, as well as that in the Southern Ocean, was prose cuted with great spirit by the colonists of Massachussetts. Just before the begin ning of the war they employed annually 183 ships of 13,820 tons in the northern, and 121 ships of 14,026 tons in the southern whale-fisheries. The fisheries are still prosecuted by the people of New England with great success.
It was not until after the breaking out of war between England and the Ameri can provinces had, for a time at least, in terrupted this sprit enterprise, that England embarked in the southern fishery. In 1791 the number of English vessels so employed was 75; 1819 to 1823 above 100; and from 1830 to 1833 the number varied from 104 to 110. Since this period the number of ships employed has gra lually fallen off; but the price of oil has long been rising, and is now double what it was twenty years ago. This, however, will probably not have much effect in increasing the number of vessels fitted out in this country for the southern whale-fishery, but it may give an im petus to the Australian fishery. By the Tariff of 1842 (5 & 6 Viet. c. 47) the ehuty on train blubber and sperm oil, the produce of foreign fishing, was reduced from a uniform rate of 261. 12s. per ton to 61. on train oil, and 101. on sperm oil ; bat the alteration of duty did not take Ned until July of the following year. In the period between 1832 and 1842 the highest value of the products of the southern whale-fishery imported into this country was 721,000/. in 1838.
It requires a considerable sum of money to fit out a ship in England for the southern whale fishery. A new vessel of the size usually employed-350 tons— costs, when ready for sea and fully pro visioned, from 12,000/. to 15,000l.; and the adventurer must wait three years for the return of his capital.
In the three years 1830-31-32, and in three years 1841-42-43, the number of British ships and their tonnage, and British seamen of all ranks employed in the South Sea, Greenland, and Davis's Strait Fisheries, were as follows :— South Sea Fishery.
Ships. Tons. Men.
1830 32 9,682 924 1831 24 8,335 735 1832 35 12,066 1091 1841 13 4,836 404 1842 6 1,835 169 1843 9 3,096 262 Greenland and Davis's Straits.
Ships. Tons. Men.
1830 91 30,484 4120 1831 86 28,137 4093 1832 81 26,147 3706 1841 19 5,742 897 1842 18 5,118 830 1843 25 6,971 1146 In 1840 the value exported from New South Wales of the produce of the whale fishery was 224,1441., but the exports were considerably less in the two following years. In 1810 the quantity of sperm oil exported was 1854 tans, black whale oil 4297 tuns, whalebone 250 tuns.
The whale fishery of the United States of North America is nowgreater than that of all other nations. Even on the coasts of our own colonies in Australia and New Zealand, the American whalers outnumber those of the English. What Burke said of the fisheries of the colonists of Massachusetts, in 1774, is applicable at the present day to their descendants employed in the southern whale-fishery : "Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dex terous and firm sagacity of English enter prise, ever carried this most perilous mode of hardy industry to the extent to which it has been pursued by this recent people." In 1843 the imports from the whole fishery into the United States, was 165,744 barrels of sperm, and 205,861 of whale oil, and 1,908,047 lbs. of bone. These imports gave employment to 193 ships and barques, 28 brigs, and 13 schooners (234 vessels); and their tonnage was 165,744 tons. The voyage of each vessel engaged in the sperm fishery ave rages three and a half years, and the whale fishery gave employment to 650 ships, barques, brigs, and schooners, which are manned by 17,500 seamen ; and their aggregate tonnage amounts to 200,000 tons. The cost of these 650 vessels at the time of their sailing is estimated at twenty million dollars, and their annual consumption of stores, &c. is 3,845,000 dollars. The value of the annual imports of oil and whalebone in a raw state is estimated at seven million dollars. (American Alm., Boston, 1845.) The Chinese belonging to Hainan and the neighbouring islands pursue the whale-fishery with considerable success near their own coasts. There is an ac count of this fishery in Simmonds' Colo Mal Magazine,' vol. ii. p. 237.