| | Whaling History
Commercial shipping and whaling was a huge industry during Herman Melville’s time. That is, the early nineteenth century. The whaling history of the United States was widespread. Whaling was a tradition that reached back to the earliest settlers of North America, even before colonization by Europeans. The United States was at the center of the world whaling industry in the 19th century. Massachusetts was the primary whaling center during this time. By the mid-eighteen hundreds, the quantity of whaling ships in the Massachusetts area was astronomical. Numerous fishing ports were actually whaling ports that built whaling ships. Before the gradual decline of whaling at the end of the eighteen hundreds, the blubber or fat from whales was used extensively in many products. The principal focus of whaling in the United States was the lamp oil made from the phenomenal amount of fat found in whales. The whaling ships carried equipment that removed fat from the carcasses as soon as it was raised onto the ships. Aside from the fat, the large portion of the carcass was generally thrown back into the ocean, because there was no market for whale meat. Whale oil was, the highest quality oil for lamps. But when petroleum was discovered in the late eighteen hundreds, the gradual decline of commercial whaling in the United States began, as kerosene, distilled crude oil, replaced whale oil in lamps. Later, electricity gradually replaced oil lamps, and by the 1920's, the demand for whale oil had disappeared entirely.
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| | Posted 10/14/2006 9:07 PM - 1 view - 0 comments
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