Nantucket -- Fortunately, we found the food much improved in Nantucket although I pretty much stuck to fish and seafood. This museum opened in 2006 in an old candle factory where whale sperm oil was turned into more accessible energy sources. At right is a huge spermaceti press. (Whaling ships would unload their oil which would be purified and let to congeal over the winter; later it would be put in bags and crushed on this press; refining and pressing would continue several times.) Sperm oil candles were sold as luxury items.This factory was built after the great fire of 1846 obliterated this part of town. By the 1860s, the whale industry was over. Energy now came from long-dead animals deep in the ground rather than those living in the sea. Kerosene replaced whale oil for artificial lighting. The energy capital of the world eventually moved from tiny Nantucket to sprawling Houston. This building will soon be a museum longer than it was a working factory.
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