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.
*
THE CRUISE OF THE "CACHALOT"
*
CHAPTER I
OUTWARD BOUND
At the age of eighteen, after a sea-experience of six years from
the time when I dodged about London streets, a ragged Arab, with
wits sharpened by the constant fight for food, I found myself
roaming the streets of New Bedford, Massachusetts.
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