In that year the total whaling tonnage of Massachusetts was 10,210, with 1611 men and an annual product of 7880 barrels sperm and 13,130 barrels whale oil.
Fifteen years earlier--before the war--the figures were thrice as great.
[Illustration: "SENDING BOAT AND MEN FLYING INTO THE AIR"] Before this period, however, whaling had taken on a new form.

Deep-sea whaling, as it was called, to distinguish it from the shore fisheries, had begun long ago.Capt.Christopher Hursey, a stout Nantucket whaleman, cruising about after right whales, ran into a stiff northwest gale and was carried far out to sea.

He struck a school of sperm-whales, killed one, and brought blubber home.

It was not a new discovery, for the sperm-whale or cachalot, had been known for years, but the great numbers of right whales and the ease with which they were taken, had made pursuit of this nobler game uncommon.

But now the fact, growing yearly more apparent, that right whales were being driven to more inaccessible haunts, made whalers turn readily to this new prey.