San Deigo Historic Site 50 WHALING STATION SITE

Now covered by spoil dredged from the bay are traces of the foundation of trying-out works. On this location, halfway out on the inner beach of BallastPoint, whalers operating the shore stations during the 1850's and 1860's cutup the whales they had taken in the harbor and at sea. The blubber was boileddown for the oil, which was coopered and stored for shipment on the spot.According to old accounts, there were often so many whales in San Diego Bay that it was dangerous, if not impossible, to cross from Point Loma to North Island to get water from the springs there. The San Diego whaling industry produced as much as 55,000 gallons of oil annually.

In 1871 the whalers were forced to move their equipment to North Island, as their old works were within the new military reservation.