United States Merchant Marine Academy - Midships Yearbook (Kings Point, NY)

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n 1859 Drake discovered oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania. This was the event that marked the end of the Golden Era of whaUng and the beginning of a steady decline that was to mark the end of this colorful profession. Petroleum was much cheaper and a better source of illumination. The Civil War, that war of Americans against Americans, helped to put an end to the Yankee Whalemen ' s war against whales. The Confed- erate commerce raider, the Alabama, captured at least fourteen whalers and destroyed ten of these proud vessels before the eyes of their crews. The other four were converted to troop transports. In 1865, the cruiser Shenandoah destroyed al- most the entire Arctic whaUng fleet. On her cruise up the Bering Straits she burned twenty- four whalers within six days-and all were burned after General Lee made his unconditional sur- render at Appomatox Courthouse. On November twentieth 1861, Thanksgiving Day, the first twenty-five whalers of the Stone Fleet sailed from Clark ' s Point outside of New Bedford destined to be sunk in Charleston Harbor in an effort to blockade the South by impeding the navigation of her harbors. These twenty-five ships were sunk on December twen- tieth of that year and fourteen more were scutded in the same effort on January fourteenth of 1862. On August twentieth 1925, the last of the New Bedford whalers, the schooner John R. Manta, tied up to discharge her catch, never to sail again. The square rigger Wanderer was wrecked and the Charles W. Morgan was hauled off to be- come a museum piece. So it was, the end of an era.

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L toms of the south sea h V h ilenien taken by the boats when the ship started cnoising the whaling grounds and it was his duty to have an adequate supply of barrels assembled and ready in the hold to place the oil in. A supply of hoops and staves were stored in the hold and he received no assistance in assembling the casks. Jim, the sailmaker, was busy making minor repairs to old canvas just aft of the main mast. Skip looked up towards the sails and saw that old canvas was being used today. With this he continued his glance skyward and smiled know- ing that the captain expected fair winds for today or he would have ordered stronger canvas to be hoisted. So it was that hfe aboard the bark Anne B. continued from da ' to da ' and would thus sus- tain itself for the ne.xt few but long years until the voyage was over. As for Skip, he will most likely be captain of his own whaler someday. But no matter what the final outcome of his life- time is, he will never forget his voyage as a green hand aboard a whaler and especially these first few days. For more about the highlights of the cruise of a whaler, consult the sectional dividers. A whaler dischar ttr a Ions voyage.

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The End of An Era