Enderby's ship, the EMILIA, first ventured round
Cape Horn, as the pioneer of a greater trade than ever. The way
once pointed out, other ships were not slow to follow, until, in
1819, the British whale-ship SYREN opened up the till then
unexplored tract of ocean in the western part of the North
Pacific, afterwards familiarly known as the "Coast of Japan."
From these teeming waters alone, for many years an average
annual catch of 40,000 barrels of oil was taken, which, at the
average price of L8 per barrel, will give some idea of the value
of the trade generally.
The Australian colonists, early in their career, found the sperm
whale fishery easy of access from all their coasts, and
especially lucrative. At one time they bade fair to establish a
whale fishery that should rival the 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.
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