Fracking changed everything for offshore oil

摘要

In 1859, a small town in Western Pennsylvania changed the course of history and signaled the start of the decline of the whaling industry. The town, Titusville, was the site of the first commercially successful oil well and the birthplace of the modern oil industry. Whale oil, at the time, was the main source of fuel for oil lamps. It was eventually displaced by cheaper and widely available kerosene. The last U.S. whaling sailing ship was the Wanderer, which grounded at Buzzard's Bay, Massachusetts in 1924.