 In 1857, New Bedford had 329 registered whaling ships.The discovery of petroleum in Titusville, Pennsylvania, on August 27, 1859, by Edwin L. Drake was the beginning of the end of commercial whaling in the United States as kerosene, distilled from crude oil, replaced whale oil in lamps.Later, electricity gradually replaced oil lamps, and by the 1920s, the demand for whale oil had disappeared entirely.