Whaling was more dangerous than ever in the late 19th Century, as the number of whales declined and it became necessary to venture farther north and stay longer in pursuit. By the early 1880s, the bomb lance, an iron tube 20 inches long and an inch in diameter, was loaded with dynamite and prepared to explode inside the whale. The bomb lance was shot from a gun that enabled small whale boats to remain at a safe distance from the dying agonies of the whale.
The more whales that were killed the fewer that were left to kill. Kerosene replaced sperm whale oil, and later electricity superseded oil lamps. Women gave up boned corsets as fashions changed. The pursuit of whales by men in open boats from San Francisco became a thing of the past in 1910.
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Stacks of baleen - bone from the whale's jaw - created a jungle as it drys at the Arctic Oil Works in the Potrero. In 1882, whalebone was worth $2.50 a pound, a the season's catch in San Francisco was 354,000 pounds, worth $885,000 dollars. The primary use for baleen was for stays in women's corsets. San Francisco became the largest whaling port in the world between 1885 and 1905.
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Thirteen Whalers Caught in the Arctic Sea Of these San Francisco Vessels six are believed to be safe, but Fear is felt Regarding Other Seven Ships. Out of the frozen north, where the seas of the short summer have now become bleak deserts of ice and the night lasts for months is closing in, there came yesterday a tale of thirteen whalers caught somewhere in the frigid wastes that stretch eastward and westward from Point Barrow, a tale of perilous exposure to scurvy and possible death of the five hundred men the whalers carried with them when they sailed away from San Francisco months ago. It is believed that six of these thirteen vessels are safe, since they took up the long trail to the Arctic, they were provisioned for two years. For the remaining vessels, which number seven, there are grave fears...Captain L.W. Williams, a whaling skipper who has hunted the leviathans in the Arctic for the past thirty years, takes a hopeful view, "There need be no fear that the men on the ships will starve. There are plenty of fish to be had in the Arctic. Reindeer are abundant on shore. The thing to fear is that some of the ships may have tried to buck their way out and are frozen westward of Point Barrow. In that case they would be in grave danger of being crushed in the heavy Arctic ice pack."
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From 1884 to 1926 the famous revenue cutter Bear made her annual trip to polar waters as a floating outpost of the U.S. government. Her captain was the policeman and judge, prosecutor and defender, physician and minister, teacher and mailman to all of the America's adopted people in the Arctic Circle - including whalers. For 53 years she battered icebergs, rescued the perishing, succored distressed shipping, rushed aid to famine-stricken people, and broke up piracy and poaching among sealers. The Bear was San Francisco's lifeline to the whaling fleet whenever the winter closed in.
Whalers out of San Francisco from 1876 to 1923
(right side of the pylon)
Florence, a 56 ton schooner, 1876 · Flying Fish, a 75 ton schooner, 1876 · Golden West, a 144 ton schooner, 1879 · L.P. Simmons, an 89 ton schooner, 1876 · Trinity, a 317 ton bark, 1876 · Dawn, a 260 ton bark, 1877 · N.J. Roscoe, an 89 ton bark, 1878 · Coral, a 362 ton bark, 1878 · Alaska, a 139 ton schooner, 1879 · Francis Palmer, a 195 ton bark, 1879 · Hidalgo, a 175 ton brigantine, 1879 · Abram Barker, a 380 ton bark, 1881 · Norman, a 317 ton bark, 1881 · Rainbow, a 351 ton bark, 1881 · Atlantic, a 297 ton bark, 1881 · Belvedere, a 508 ton steam whaler, 1881 · Eliza, a 297 ton bark, 1881 · Hellen Mar, a 324 ton bark, 1881 · Hunter, a 355 ton bark, 1881 · John Howland, a 384 ton bark, 1881 · Northern Light , a 385 ton bark 1881 · Progress , a 359 ton bark, 1881 · Sea Breeze, a 323 ton bark, 1881 · Thomas Pope, a 227 ton bark, 1881 · Tropic Bird, a 181 ton brigantine, 1881 · Arnolda, a 340 ton bark, 1882 · Bowhead, a 533 ton steamer, 1882 · Josephine, a 385 ton bark, 1882 · Louisa, a 304 ton bark, 1882 · Lucretia, a 350 ton streamer. 1882 · Noble, a 188 ton bark, 1882 · Mary & Susan, a 237 ton bark, 1882 · Ohio II, a 363 ton bark., 1882 · Sea Breeze, a 323 ton bark, 1882
(back of the pylon)
Reindeer, 352 ton bark, 1882 · Young Phoenix, a 355 ton ship, 1882 · Amethyst, a 356 ton bark, 1883 · Baelena , a 524 steam whaler, 1883 · Bounding Billow, a 240 ton bark, 1883 · Clara Light , a 179 ton schooner. 1883 · Cyane , a 296 ton schooner, 1883 · Gazelle, a 273 ton bark, 1883 · Mary & Helen II, a 508 ton steamer, 1883 · Narwhal, a 524 ton steamer, 1883 · Orca, a 628 ton streamer. 1883 · Page , a 100 ton schooner. 1883 · Stamboul , a 260 ton bark, 1883 · Wanderer, a 303 ton bark,1883 · Caleb Eaton, a 110 ton schooner, 1884 · Cape Horn Pigeon, a 212 ton bark, 1884 · E.F. Herriman, a 385 ton bark, 1884 · Mars, a 256 ton bark, 1884 · Napoleon, a 322 ton bark, 1884 · Ocean, a 288 ton bark, 1884 · Thrasher, a 512 ton steamer, 1884 · Alliance, a 271 ton steamer, 1885 · Andrew Hicks, a 271 ton steamer, 1885 · Europa, a 323 ton bark, 1885 · George & Susan, a 343 ton bark, 1885 · Lydia, a 330 ton bark, 1885 · Grampus, a 326 ton steamer, 1886 · James A. Hamiton, a 77 ton schooner, 1886 · San Jose, 32 ton schooner, 1886 · Beluga, a 508 ton steamer. 1887 · Charles W. Morgan, a 314 ton bark, 1887 · Ino, a 98 ton schooner, 1887 · Lancer, a 296 ton bark, 1887 · William Bayless, a 325 ton bark, 1889 · Jane Grey, a 113 ton schooner, 1889
(left side of the pylon)
James Allen, a 348 ton bark, 1889 · Lagoda, a 371 ton bark, 1889 · La Ninta, a 126 ton schooner, 1889 · Rosario, a 149 ton schooner, 1889 · Alice Knowles, a 303 ton bark, 1889 · Alton, an 89 ton schooner, 1889 · J.H. Freeman, a 515 ton steamer, 1889 · John F. West, a 353 ton bark, 1889 · Nicoline, a 69 ton schooner, 1889 · Sea Ranger, a 273 ton bark, 1889 · Tamerlane, a 372 ton bark, 1889 · Triton, a 265 ton bark, 1889 · William Lewis, 463 ton steamer, 1889 · Bonanza, 235 ton schooner, 1890 · Francis Barstow, a 128 ton brig, 1890 · William D. Meyer, a 169 ton brig, 1890 · Emma D. Herriman, a 385 ton bark, 1891 · California, a 365 ton bark, 1891 · Horatio, a 349 tone bark, 1892 · John & Winthrop, a 338 ton bark, 1892 · Karluk, a 321 ton steamer, 1892 · Newport, a 281 ton steamer, 1892 · Percy Edward, a 199 ton brig, 1892 · Blakeley, a 152 ton brigantine, 1893 · Jeanette, 190 ton steamer, 1893 · Mermaid, a 273 ton bark, 1893 · Narvarch, a 494 ton steamer, 1893 · Alexander, a 294 ton steamer, 1894 · Fearless, a 400 ton steamer, 1894 · Gotma, a 198 ton steamer, 1903 · Monterey, 126 ton gas steamer, 1903 · Morning Star, a 471 ton steamer · Barbara Hernster, a 148 ton gas steamer,1904 · Herman, a 410 ton steamer, 1904 · Olga, a 46 ton schooner, 1904
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