Abstract:
By 1700, ships from the New England Whaling Fleet took advantage of beached whales along North Carolina's coast, using the carcasses to make oil. By 1885, a town of over 500 people lived in Lookout Woods, later called Diamond City, chiefly to whale live specimens. Most of the whales killed were Right Whales, yielding an average of 200 barrels of oil each. Due to a decreased number of whales swimming off the coast, whaling in North Carolina ended around 1899.