The Plough Boy Anthology

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Alexander Starbuck

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Note: Post-OCR editing of the footnote section is not yet complete. tgt, 4/17/03



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY FROM ITS EARLIEST INCEPTION TO THE YEAR 1876

BY ALEXANDER STARBUCK
__________



CONTENTS

A.INTRODUCTION:
Value of the fisheries as accessories to advancing civilization — (Note. - Intentions of S. H. Jenks, esq., and Hon. L. Sabine to write the history of whaling; difficulties in the way of compiling the history; names of parties to whom the author is specially indebted for assistance — Whalemen the first to display the American flag in foreign ports — The influence of the fisheries in our national politics and diplomacy — (Note. - The experience of a Russian and an English exploring party).

B.FROM 1600 TO 1700-CAPE COD, CONNECTICUT, LONG ISLAND, NANTUCKET, MARTHA'S VINEYARD, SALEM:
MASSACHUSETTS. - Origin of the American whale-fishery — Why the Puritans favored Cape Cod — (Note. — Grant to Massachusetts under the charter) — Indian whaling — (Note. — .Whales numerous along the coast of America) — Protection and promotion of the fisheries by Massachusetts — Drift whales — (Note. — Indian custom; Greenlander's idea of heaven; Purchas's account of whaling) — Letter from the general court of Plymouth to Sandwich, Barnstable, Yarmouth, and Eastham, and reply — Tradition of William Hamilton; its apparent unreasonableness — (Note. — Order of Plymouth court concerning drift whales) — Testimony of Randolph to value of whale-fishery — Regulations of general court of Massachusetts concerning drift whales — Inspectors of whales appointed by the Plymouth government; their duties defined — CONNECTICUT. — Whaling from Connecticut — Resolve of the general court — NEW YORK. — The first organized prosecution of whaling probably from Long Island — Regulations of the town of Southampton — (Note. — Settlement of Southampton) — Whaling from Easthampton — Petition of Easthampton, Southampton, and Southwold to the English government — Action of the Dutch — Letter from Samuel Mavericke to Colonel Nicolls — Confirmation by Governor Lovelace of order of Southampton — Drift whales — Employment of Indians — Absorption of the trade in oil by the New England colonies, and consequent disturbance of the authorities at New York — The Dutch interregnum, and its hardships to the people of Long Island — Oppression of the colonial government; petition of Benjamin Alford, of Boston — (Note. — Blank form of clearance) — Act to encourage trade and navigation — Petition of Timotheus Vanderuen for permission to sail to the Bahamas sperm-whaling — Whaling on Long Island, 1688 — Rate of exchange at Easthampton, 1688 — First whaling expedition at Nantucket — Proposed agreement of James Loper — (Note. — Probability that Loper never settled in Nantucket) — The islanders employ Ichabod Paddock — Whaling at Martha's Vineyard — (Note. — Paddock at Nantucket) — Whaling from Salem — From Canada — (Note. — Canadian whaling).

C.FROM 1700 TO 1750-NANTUCKET, LONG ISLAND, CAPE COD, SALEM, BOSTON, RHODE ISLAND, MARTHA'S VINEYARD:
Shore whaling at Nantucket — (Note. — Late prosecution of this pursuit from Southamption) — The first sperm whale taken by Nantucket men — Whaling out in the "deep" — Oil shipped from Nantucket to London in 1720 — (Note. - Drift sperm whale on Nantucket; bill of lading) — Increase of the business — (Note. — Vessels registered from 1694 to 1714; Russian India Company ordered to fit out whalers; statement of Greenland whaling; Sweden) — Exports to England, 1730 — Culminating point of shore-whaling at Nantucket — First recorded loss of a whaling vessel from Nantucket — (Note. — Names of the whale-boat captains at Nantucket and what they did in 1726; rescue of William Walling by a Nantucket whaleman; vessel of 118 tons burden built at Nantucket in 1732; accidents from whaling; petition of Dinah Coffin) — Increase in the business at Nantucket — Indians employed — Cape Cod and Long Island called upon to supply the deficiency of men — (Note. — Anecdote of Indian crew shorewhaling; Indian carried down by a foul line, 1744; imports of oil at London from New England, 1729) — Nantucket merchants chip oil to London — Date of Davis's Straits fishery, according to Macy — LONG ISLAND. — Difficulties between the Long Islanders and the New York government — (Note. — Indian plot at Nantucket, and fears for whaling fleet; Macy's date of Davis's Straits fishery erroneous) — Quarrels between the New York governors and the whalemen — Act for "Encouragement of whaling" — (Note. — Whale ashore at Nantucket; drift whales at Suffolk County, New York) — Quantity of oil brought into Long Island and the fishing season — Endeavor to monopolize the business — Samuel Mulford, of Easthampton, va the New York colonial government — EASTHAM. — Petition of the people of Eastham and vicinity for exclusive leave to make available the waste of whales — Falmouth Indians discharged from the army to attend to the whale-fishery in 1724 and '25 — Renewed activity in whaling from Cape Cod — (Note. — Severe storm at Provincetown in 1728) — Boat's crew lost near Chatham — Large whale killed at Provincetown — Accident to a Chatham crew — Ill success at Provincetown — Accident — (Note. — A dozen whalers fit from Provincetown, 1737) — French and Spanish privateers — Provincetown in luck — (Note. — Accident at Truro; gradual recession of whales) — Captain Roach's vessel seized by a French privateer — Salem — Boston — (Note. — Whale killed in Boston harbor; whale warps and blubber advertised; price of whalebone quoted, 1723) — RHODE ISLAND. — Acts of the assembly encouraging whaling — According to Arnold, the first regularly equipped whaleman from Rhode Island arrives in 1733 — Whaling at Martha's Vineyard — Sailing of the Diamond, Leopard, Humbird, and Susannah, and result of the experiments.

D.FROM 1750 TO 1784-NANTUCKET, MARTHA'S VINEYARD, CAPE COD, BOSTON, LONG ISLAND, RHODE ISLAND, NEW BEDFORD, WILLIAMSBURGH, ETC.:
An eventful period for the fishery — English bounties — Concession of bounties to the colonies a part of the scheme for the expulsion of the Acadians — Embargo on bank-fishermen — (Note. — Colonists taxed to support a frigate on the banks) — Petition of John Norton, for Martha's Vineyard, and Abishai Folger, for Nantucket, for permission to whale — (Note. - Usual course of whalemen) — Opening of the Saint Lawrence and Belle Isle whaling-ground, and its monopoly — Petition of American oil merchants against unjust discriminations, with statement of fishery — (Note. — Names of 75 Nantucket whaling captains in 1763) — Influence of the colonial whale-fishery on English politics — Nantucket whalemen captured by French privateers — Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard — Further misfortunes to the Vineyard whaling fleet — Boston's share in the business — Whalemen lost — (Note. — Revival of fashions) — LONG ISLAND. — Three sloops fit from Sag Harbor in 1760 — (Note. — Sag Harbor settled in 1630) — RHODE ISLAND. — Reports of whaling there in 1766 — Williamsburgh, Virginia, sends out a whaling-vessel — Dartmouth invests in the business — (Note. - Ricketson's account; accident to a Dartmouth man) — Extract from log of the whale-ship Betsey — English governors claim a monopoly of the Saint Lawrence fisheries, to the exclusion of the colonists — Their orders, proclamations, and acts, and the effects upon colonial whaling — (Note. — Extracts from the Boston News-Letter in 1766) — (Note. — The main features of the fishing act of William III) — The misdeeds of whalemen, as recited by Palliser, doubtless exaggerated — Whaling at the southward — Providence, New York, and Newport, their connection with the business — (Note. — Reported success of the people of Nantucket) — Resumption of the Saint Lawrence fishery — Casualties there — (Notes. — Extract from log of the Tryall, of Dartmouth; affray of Indians on a Nantucket vessel) — The whaling fleet of 1768 — (Note. — Nantucket's fleet; fight between the crew of a Marblehead brig and a press-gang) — From 1770 to 1775, community of interests among the inhabitants of Nantucket — (Notes. - Whalemen fitted from Middletown, Conn.; method of settling voyages; Nantucket's home-workmen interested in the result of the voyages) — (Notes. - Difference between "head" and "body" oil) — Description of cutting-in a sperm whale — Restrictions on colonial commerce) — Capture of whalemen by French and Spanish privateers in 1771 — Crews of two Nantucket whalingsloops capture a piratical ship — American navigators and the Gulf Stream; English self-sufficiency — The course of the Gulf Stream first charted by a Nantucket captain — Whalemen captured by Spanish cruisers in 1772 — (Note. — The Rhode Island fleet: a fish story) — Whaling on the coast of Africa — Massacre of part of the crew of a Boston brig — Captures by the French — (Note. — Dates of the fishery in different localities) — The Portuguese mode of obtaining experience in 1774 — (Notes. — Infrequency of going into a port of some whaling-ships; description of a "snow") — Statistics of the fishery in 1774 — (Note. — Detailed statement of the business from 1771 to 1775) — The Revolution — Massachusetts the focus of insurrection — The fisheries first to feel the shock of war — (Note. — Importance of colonial trade to England) — Efforts of the English government to reduce New England by restrictions upon her fisheries — Strenuous fight of the minority in Parliament — Petitions against the restraining act — (Note. — Evidence introduced by the opponents of the act) — Arguments against the passage of the act — Burke's eloquence — (Note. — The Falkland Islands) — Relief for Nantucket — Massachusetts also passes a restraining bill — Nantucket relieved of its rigors — Resolve of the general court of Massachusetts in regard to whaling-vessels — Nantucket alone in the business — (Note. — Importation of gunpowder; complaint of the Earl of Dartmouth) — Desperate strait of the islanders — Petitions to the general court of Massachusetts for permission to sail on whaling voyages — (Note. — Form of bond required by the general court — Attempt to secure the alliance of France and Spain, and the position of the fishery question — How England was affected by the cutting-off of colonial commerce — Efforts of the English ministry to transfer the fisheries to Great Britain, and their result — (Note. — Captures of American whalemen) — Terrible calamity on the banks of Newfoundland — (Note. — Distress at the Barbadoes) — Further severity of the English government — Its operation on American commerce — (Note. — Heroism of a ship captain) — Letter from John Adams detailing the method by which England prosecuted the whale-fishery — (Note. - Report from Messrs Franklin and Adams of captives — List of some of the captains of whaling-vessels forced into the English service — Destruction of property by the British in sea-port towns in 1778-'79 — (Notes. — British fishery at Canso destroyed; abstract of property destroyed by the British at New Bedford, Fairhaven, Falmouth, Edgartown, Holmes's Hole, Sag Harbor, and Warren) — Further negotiation between the United States and France — Sad state of affairs at Nantucket — Petitions to the Federal and British authorities for permission to live — (Note. — Correction of slanders by Mr. Rotch; form of permit issued by the English) — Difficulties in prosecuting the fishery — (Note. — Destroyed and defaced records) — Petition of the people of Nantucket reciting their distressed condition and praying for relief — Reference to the Continental Congress — (Note. — Explanation of a charge against the islanders) — Nantucket sends two citizens to Philadelphia to intercede with Congress for relief — Diplomatic battle on the terms for peace — (Note. — Congress grants 35 licenses to Nantucket vessels to whale)

E.FROM 1784 TO 1876:
The condition in which the war left the business of whaling — Nantucket's sacrifice on the altar of liberty — (Notes. — Loss of men to Nantucket; Warren's loss) — The first ship to hoist the "rebellious stripes of America" in any British port — (Notes. — Anecdote of a sailor; where and when the Bedford was built) — Revival of whaling — New ports enter into competition — The market overstocked — Bounty on oil — The bounty injurious to the business — Effort to transfer the fishery to foreign ports — Mr. Rotch in England — (Note. — Letter of Capt. Alexander Coffin to Hon. Samuel Adams) — Negotiations with the English and French governments — English obstinacy and French concession — National negotiations for a treaty of commerce — The American minister thoroughly alive to American necessities — (Note. — One hundred wbalemen in 78° north latitude;* whalemen as far north as 79° 2' 82") — (Note. - The Portuguese fishery — Massachusetts navigation act only operative against Great Britain — Letter from James Bowdoin to Minister Adams — (Note. - The English sperm-whale fishery) — Effect of foreign bounties on the American fishery — Founding of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia — (Note. — Why the transfer from Nantucket to Nova Scotia suddenly stopped; Mr. Rotch returns to the United States 1796) — Milford Haven supplants Dartmouth — The Dunkirk transfer not a success — France favors the United States — (Notes. - Consumption of oil in France; comparative statement of the English and American fisheries in 1775 and 1788) — Revival of the fishery in the United States — Vessels fitting out for the Pacific Ocean — (Notes. — Sag Harbor and New Bedford recommence whaling; the Pacific fishery; singular incident in Woolwich Bay) — French spoliations — (Notes. — Report that England would monopolize the Delago Bay ground; sensitiveness of the people of Nantucket on the subject of spoliations) — Ships seized and condemned in Spanish America — Augmentation of the whaling-fleet — (Note. — East Haddam and New London vessels) — The war of 1812 — Rapid diminution of the fleet by capture — (Notes. — Meeting of ship-owners at Nantucket; captured wbalemen used in the English fishery) — Lima seizes American whalemen — Poinsett effects their release by the eloquence of powder and balls — (Notes. — The Nanina, of New York, betrayed by a rescued English crew; the Sally and Triton, of New Bedford, captured) — Captain Porter sent to the Pacific to protect American shipping — Destruction of the English Pacific fishery — (Notes. — Capture and recapture of the Walker and the Barclay, of New Bedford; amusing anecdote of a duel) — An English privateer on the coast — (Note. — Vessels captured by Porter) — Peace — Resumption of whaling — Activity of the people of Nantucket — (Note. — Degrand on the Nantucket fleet) — Strong competition — New grounds opened — (Note. — Amusing but rather erroneous prophecy of Nantucket captains) — Daring of the "toilers of the sea" — Wilkes, Perry, and Maury indebted to our whalemen for much information; Agassiz on the Hayes expedition; cruelties practiced upon the South Sea islanders, and their legitimate fruits — Even the Red Sea invaded — The golden age of whaling — The Kodiah[sic] ground — The first bow-head whale — (Note. — Difference of opinion as to who first ascertained the value of the bow-head) — Captain Royce enters the Arctic — (Note. — Extract from the Saratoga's log) — (Note. — Record of thirteen Arctic wbalemen in 1849) — Gradual diminution of the fleet — (Notes. — Ludicrous fears of a manufacturer; revival of the English South Sea fishery; San Francisco, Monterey, and Crescent City become whaling ports; remarkable journey of wrecked oil) — The rebellion and its effect upon whaling — Capture of whalemen — Atrocious manner of capture — Sale and transfer of vessels — The stone fleets — (Note. — history of the Corea) — The Shenandoah enters the Pacific — Fearless conduct of Captain Young, of the bark Favorite — (Notes. — Names of the stone fleet and the captured whalemen) — Captain Nye mans his boats to warn his brother whalemen — Ravages of the Shenandoah — Alacrity with which the sea-port towns responded to the calls for men — (Note. — Whaling-agents in Payta tender their services to the government) — Terrible disaster in the Arctic — (Note. — Table of Arctic whaling) — (Note. - Protest of the captains of the beleaguered whale-ships) — (Note. - Names and value of the fleet; condition of what was left in 1872; another disaster; lowest ebb of the fishery) — Constant decline of the business — Its condition in 1877 — Causes of its decline — (Notes. — Atlantic whaling; cost of outfitting — (Note. — Enormous outlays in refitting in the Pacific; consular care for personal interests; testimony of an English journal to the value of the whale-fishery to the United States; what has been done by our seamen)

* The latitude is misprinted in the note.

F.THE DANGERS OF THE WHALE FISHERY:
The position of whaling captains as navigators — (Notes. — Comparative rates of English and American insurance; a Nantucket captain) — Loss of the ship Union, of Nantucket — (Note. — Instances of vessels running upon whales) — Belligerent whales; loss of the Essex, of Nantucket — (Note. — Careful avoidance of the subject of his terrible boat-journey, by Captain Pollard) — Loss of the Ann Alexander, of New Bedford — (Note. — What became of the whale which sunk the Ann Alexander; similar accidents to vessels) — Fighting whales; attacks on boats — The Hector, of New Bedford — (Notes. — Position of the sperm whale in attacking; the Emerald, of Now Bedford; description of a whale-boat) — The Parker Cook, of Provincetown — Captain Huutting — Furious attack by a right whale — (Note. — Modes of attack by the right and sperm whales) — (Note. — The secret of the weakness of the right whale overlooked by naturalists) — Method of signaling to boats from the ship — (Notes. — Sunk whales; different opinions as to the captain's place) — Fights with the savages; the Awashonks, of Falmouth — (Note. — Vessels which have been attacked in a similar manner to the Awashonks) — Lost boats; the Janet, of Westport — (Note. — Statement of the Janet's mate; the Massachusetts, of New Bedford; foul lines) — Mutinies — The Globe, of Nantucket — The Junior, of New Bedford — (Note. — The William Penn, of San Francisco) — Polar whaling and its perils — Letter from Captain Pease, of the Champion, of Edgartown — Letter from Captain Kelley, of the James Allen, of New Bedford — Heavier anchors and cables needed in Arctic whaling — Hudson's Bay — (Notes. — Extract from Malte Brun; the Ansel Gibbs, of New Bedford) — Horrible tale of the English whale-ship Diana — Shipwrecks; the Canton, of New Bedford — The Junius and Logan, of New Bedford — The Lawrence, of ———— (Note. — The Manhattan, of Sag Harbor, rescues 22 shipwrecked Japanese; doubts as to reported shipwrecks) — The Lagoda, of New Bedford — (Note. — One of the crew of the Plymouth, of Sag Harbor, visits Japan) — Fire; the Cassander, of Providence — Boringworms — The Minerva 2d, of New Bedford — (Note. — The Niphon, of Nantucket)

G.A MISCELLANEOUS CHAPTER:
Good voyages; the Wilmington and Liverpool packet, of New Bedford — The Uncas, of Falmouth — The Loper, of Nantucket — The Sarah, of Nantucket — The South America, of Hudson — The Magnolia, of Now Bedford — The William Hamilton, of New Bedford — The America, of New Bedford — The Maria, of Nantucket — The Silas Richards, of Sag Harbor; the Bowditch, of Providence; the Cordelia, of Provincetown — The Lowell and General Williams, of New London — The South America, of Providence; the Russell, of New Bedford; the Plymouth, of Sag Harbor — The Coral, of New Bedford — The Envoy, of New Bedford — The Arctic fleet — The Favorite, of Fairhaven; Montreal and Sheffield, of New Bedford — The Pioneer, of New London — Success not confined to large vessels — The Admiral Blake, James, and Altamaha, of Sippican — The Watchman, of Nantucket — (Notes. — Arctic whalebone; ambergris) — Bad voyages — The Clifford Wayne, of Fairhaven — The Emeline, of New Bedford — The Benjamin Rush, of Warren — $1,000,000 loss in 1858 — $36,000 loss to Provincetown in 1870 — Sperm candles; Macy's account of the manufacture — (Notes. — Macy manifestly in error in date; petition of Benjamin Crabb) — Exports of sperm candles from 1791 to 1815 — (Notes. — Duck factories at Salem, Boston, Nantucket, and Newport; bounty for the manufacture of duck by the general court of Massachusetts, in 1727; candle factories in Hudson, in 1797) — Harpoons lost and found — Whistling whale — Large whales — (Notes. — Recovery of an iron; use of whalebone unknown in 1578; list of its present uses) — Whalebone — Description of the right whale — Prices of whalebone — (Note. — Use of the bone in the whale's economy; high price of cut-bone) — (Note. — Description of brit) — Large whales — (Note. — Liability to exaggeration) — Endurance and strength of whales — Thirty-one bomb-lances required to subdue one — (Note. — A whale takes out nearly six miles of line — "Settling" of whales — Appearance and disappearance of whales — (Note. — Large captures from schools of whales) — Description of the capture of a whale — (Note. — Whale-boats from rival nations struggle for a whale in the South Pacific; how the American stole a march on the Englishman, in Delago Bay)

H.INTRODUCTORY TO RETURNS.

I.RETURNS OF WHALING VESSELS from 1715 to 1784.
[Note: not included in this transcription. tgt]

J.SUMMARY OF IMPORTATION OF OIL AND BONE from January 1, 1804, to January 1, 1887.
[Note: not currently available. tgt]

K.SYNOPSIS OF IMPORTATION, BY PORTS, from 1804 to 1877, with the nature and number of vessels returning, and (from 1839) the class and tonnage of vessels engaged.
[Note: not currently available. tgt]

L.EXPORTS FROM THE UNITED STATES, the products of the whale-fishery, from 1791 to July 1, 1876.
[Note: not currently available. tgt]

M.TONNAGE OF VESSELS ENGAGED IN THE WHALE FISHERY.
[Note: not currently available. tgt]

M.AGGREGATE YEARLY TONNAGE OF VESSELS ENGAGED IN THE WHALE-fishery from 1794 to 1816, and from 1818 to 1839.
[Note: not currently available. tgt]

N.SPECIAL TABLE OF THE YEARLY TONNAGE OF VESSELS ENGAGED IN whaling from New
Bedford and Fairhaven from 1820 to 1839.
[Note: not currently available. tgt]

INDEX TO VOYAGES BY VESSELS; names arranged alphabetically, and towns also in alphabetical order.
[Note: not currently available. tgt]

GENERAL INDEX.
[Note: not currently available. tgt]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
[Note: not currently available. tgt]



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY FROM ITS EARLIEST INCEPTION TO THE YEAR 1876 1

BY ALEXANDER STARBUCK
__________

A. — INTRODUCTION.

      Few interests have exerted a more marked influence upon the history of the United States than that of the fisheries. Aside from the value they have had in a commercial point of view, they have always been found to be the nurseries of a hardy, daring, and indefatigable race of seamen, such as scarcely any other pursuit could have trained. The pioneers of the sea, whalemen were the advance guard, the forlorn hope of civilization. Exploring expeditions followed after to glean where they had reaped. In the frozen seas of the north and the south, their keels plowed to the extreme limit of navigation, and between the tropics they pursued their prey through regions never before traversed by the vessels of a civilized community. Holding their lives in their hands, as it were, whether they harpooned the leviathan in the deep, or put into some hitherto unknown port for supplies, no extreme of heat or cold could daunt them, no thought of danger hold them in check. Their lives have ever been one continual round of hair-breadth escapes, in which the risk was alike shared by officers and men. No shirk could find an opportunity to indulge his shirking, no coward a chance to display his cowardice, and in their hazardous life incompetents were speedily weeded out. Many a tale of danger and toil and suffering, startling, severe, and horrible, has illumined the pages of the history of this pursuit, and scarce any, even the humblest of these hardy mariners, but can, from his own experience, narrate truths stranger than fiction. In many ports, among hundreds of islands, on many seas the flag of the country from which they sailed was first displayed from the mast-head of a whale ship. Pursuing their avocation wherever a chance presented, the American flag was first unfurled in an English port from the deck of one American whaleman, and the ports of the western coast of South America first beheld the Stars and Stripes shown as the standard of another. It may be safely alleged that but for them the western oceans would much longer have been comparatively unknown,2 and with equal truth may it be said that whatever of honor or glory the United States may have won in its explorations of these oceans, the necessity for their explorations was a tribute wrung from the Government, though not without earnest and continued effort, to the interests of our mariners, who, for years before, had pursued the whale in these uncharted seas, and threaded their way with extremest care among these undescribed islands, reefs, and shoals. Into the field opened by them flowed the trade of the civilized world. In their footsteps followed Christianity. They introduced the missionary to new spheres of usefulness, and made his presence tenable. Says a writer in the London Quarterly Review: "The whale fishery first opened to Great Britain beneficial intercourse with the coast of Spanish America; IT LED IN THE SEQUEL TO THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE SPANISH COLONIES." * * * * * "But for our Whalers, we never might have founded our colonies in Van Dieman's Land and Australia — or if we had we could not have maintained them in their early stages of danger and privation. — Moreover, our intimacy with the Polynesians must be traced to the same source. The Whalers were the first that traded in that quarter — they PREPARED THE FIELD FOR THE MISSIONARIES: and the same thing is now in progress in New Ireland, New Britain, and New Zealand." All that the English fishery has done for Great Britain, the American fishery has done for the United States — and more. In war our Navy has drawn upon it for some of its sturdiest and bravest seamen, and in peace our commercial marine has found in it its choicest and most skilful officers. In connection with the cod-fishery it schooled the sons of America to a knowledge of their own strength, and in its protection developed and intensified that spirit of self-reliance, independence, and national power to which the conflict of from 1775 to 1783 was a natural and necessary resultant. The wars carried on between England and France from 1600 to 1760 had, as one of their objective points, a monopoly of these fisheries on the American coast from the plantations in Maine to the northward, and Port Royal, the culminating point of the conflict revealed to America the secret of her own strength. In the final treaty of peace succeeding the war for Independence the protection of these interests, which the colonists had, unaided, maintained, was made one of the ultimati on the part of the Commissioners for the United States, and subsequent events have demonstrated conclusively the wisdom of their statesmanship. At almost every stage of the arrangement of treaties of peace between England and France prior to 1783 and since 1600, and at almost every similar occasion in treaties between England and the United States subsequently to that time, the question of the fisheries has obtruded itself, and demanded a satisfactory solution. Latterly, it is true, the questions have hinged wholly upon the cod-fishery, since the taking of whales is mostly carried on outside of any national jurisdiction, but prior to and immediately after the war of the Revolution, as late indeed as 1818, the question of whaling was quite as much involved.

      The development of this industry in the United States, from the period when a few boats first practiced it along the coast to the time when it employed a fleet of seven hundred stanch ships and fifteen thousand hardy seamen, is an interesting chapter in our national history.



B. — FROM 1600 TO 1700.
CAPE COD, CONNECTICUT, LONG ISLAND, NANTUCKET, MARTHA'S VINEYARD, SALEM.

      The American whale fishery (limiting that subject entirely to the prosecution of that pursuit from what is now known as the United States,) is cotemporary with the settlement of the New York and New England colonies. Indeed, one of the main ideas in the settlement of Massachusetts was the founding of a fishing colony, and one of the provisions in the charter guaranteed to the colonists their right to unrestrictedly fish.3 It was a serious question with the settlers of Eastern Massachusetts whether to adopt Cape Cod for a residence, or select some more propitious site, and the main arguments adduced for that locality were: "1st. That it afforded a good harbor for boats, though not for ships. 2d. That the ground was well adapted to the raising of corn. 3d. It was a place of profitable fishing; for large whales of the best kind for oil and bone came daily alongside and played about the ship. The master and his mate, and others experienced in fishing, preferred it to the Greenland whale fishery, and asserted that were they provided with the proper implements, £300 or £400 worth of oil might be obtained?" 4th. The situation was healthy, secure, and defensible. 5th. It was in the depth of winter and inexpedient to look further.4 Coming from England, as the vast majority of the early settlers did, where the value of the fisheries had already assumed considerable importance, it would have been strange if they had failed to have appreciated this important feature of their surroundings.

      At this time the whales were very numerous both along the coast and in deep water.5 Their habits seem to have been somewhat migratory, as the boat-whaling season usually commenced very regularly early in November and ceased in March or April. According to some writers, the Indians, before the advent of the whites, were accustomed to pursue the whales in their canoes, and occasionally succeeded in harassing them to death. Their weapons consisted of a rude wooden harpoon, to which was attached a line with a wooden float at the end,6 and the method of attack was to plunge their instruments of torture into the body of the whale whenever he came to the surface of the water to breathe. In Waymouth's journal of his voyage to America in 1605,7 in describing the Indians on the coast, he says: "One especial thing is their manner of killing the whale, which they call powdawe; and will describe his form; how he bloweth up the water; and that he is twelve fathoms long and that they go in company of their king with a multitude of their boats; and strike him with a bone made in fashion of a harping iron fastened to a rope, which they make great and strong of the bark of trees, which they veer out after him; then all their boats come about him as he riseth above water, with their arrows they shoot him to death; when they have killed him and dragged him to shore, they call all their chief lords together, and sing a song of joy: and those chief lords, whom they call sagamores, divide the spoil and give to every man a share, which pieces so distributed, they hang up about their houses for provisions; and when they boil them they blow off the fat and put to their pease, maize, and other pulse which they eat." Among the Indians of Rhode Island it was the custom when a whale was cast ashore or killed within their jurisdiction, to cut the flesh into pieces and send to the neighboring tribes as a present of peculiar value.8 Scammon says:9 "It has been stated by several writers that the American colonists followed up the Indian mode of capturing the whale, by first striking it with a harpoon having a log of wood attached to it by a line, even as late as the commencement of the Sperm Whale fishery." It is quoted that the Hon. Paul Dudley stated: "Our people formerly used to kill the whale near the shore, but now they go off to sea in sloops and whale-boats. Sometimes the whale is killed by a single stroke, and yet at other times she will hold the whalemen in play near half a day together, with their lances; and sometimes they will get away after they have been lanced and spouted thick blood, with irons in them, and drags (droges) fastened to them, which are thick boards about fourteen inches square." * * * "We are of the opinion, however, that the colonial whalers did not follow the Indian mode of whale-fishing; for it is well known that the British whalers, as early as 1670, used the line attached to the boat, and, so far as the drags or 'droges' are concerned, they are used at the present day in cases of emergency.10

      As early as 1639, Massachusetts, with an eye to the importance of the fisheries, passed an act to encourage them. By its provisions all vessels employed in taking or transporting fish were exempted from all duties and taxes for the term of seven years, and all fishermen were exempted from military service during the fishing season. As important as the pursuit of whaling seemed to have been considered by the first settlers, many years seem to have elapsed before it was followed as a business, though probably something was attempted in that direction prior to any recorded account that we have. The subject of drift-whales appears to have attracted considerable importance both in the Plymouth and the Massachusetts Bay colonies. The colonial government claimed a portion, a portion was allowed to the town, and the finder, if no other claimant appeared to dispute his title, might presume to claim the other third. Evidently at times some disposition to rebel was manifested, for in 1661, the general court of Plymouth Colony sent to Sandwich, Barnstable, Yarmouth, and Eastham the following proposition:

      "OCT. 1, 1661. — LOUEING FRINDS: Whereas the Generall Court was pleased to make some proposition to you respecting the drift fish or whales; in case you should refuse theire proffer, they impowered mee, though vnfitt, to farme out what should belonge vnto them on that account; and seeing the time is expired, and it fales into my hands to dispose of, I doe therefore, with the advice of the Court, in answare to your remonstrance, say, that if you will duely and trewly pay to the countrey for euery whale that shall come one hogshead of oyle att Boston, where I shall appoint, and that current and merchantable, without any charge or trouble to the countrey.11 — I say, for peace and quietness sake you shall have it for this present season, leaueing you and the Election Court to settle it soe as it may bee to satisfaction on both sides; and in case you accept not of this tender, to send it within fourteen dayes after the date heerof and if I heare not from you, I shall take it for graunted that you will accept of it, and shall expect the accomplishment of the same.

            "Youers to vse,
"CONSTANT SOUTHWORTH TREASU."12     

      The offer was accepted and indorsed as follows:

"THE SIXT OF THE FIRST MONTH 61-62.     

      "Agreement to give 2 bbls of oyle from each whale according to proposition made for yeare past, to end all troubles.

            "ANTHONY THACHER.
            "ROBERT DENIS.
            "THOMAS BOARDMAN.
            "RICHARD TAYLER."

      Numerous instances of orders relating to drift-whales occur in the records of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and New York. In 1662, the town of Eastham voted that a part of every whale cast ashore should be appropriated for the support of the ministry.13 Many were the disputes that the general court was called upon to adjust in regard to stranded whales, but the decisions seem to be, if not generally satisfactory, at least universally acquiesced in.

      The earliest account of whale-killing by the people of Cape Cod comes to us in the form of a tradition, and quite an unsatisfactory and improbable tradition, too. It is to the effect that one William Hamilton was the first to kill these fish from that region, and be was obliged to remove from that section of country, as his fellow-citizens persecuted him for his skill, attributing his success to undue familiarity with evil spirits. Hamilton is said to have removed to Rhode Island, and from thence to Connecticut, where he died in 1746, aged 103 years. Several things militate against this story. Neither the annals of the Cape14 nor genealogical registers contain any record of him. Naturally the courts would take some cognizance of an offense so heinous that the offender was openly persecuted, but we do not find him noted as a criminal. The people who settled on the Cape were too familiar with fishing to attribute success to aught but skill and natural causes, and the Cape was more an asylum for the persecuted than the source of persecution. It is far more probable that at the time of his birth, if he ever existed there, there were people familiar with this art in that region. It had certainly become a pursuit of much importance in other sections of the country long before he was old enough to handle a harpoon, and the product of this fishery had found its way to Boston while he was yet a young man.

      In 1683 Secretary Randolph writes home from Massachusetts: "New Plimouth Colony have great profit by whale killing. I believe it will be one of our best returnes, now beaver and peltry fayle us."15 In March of the same year there was placed on the colonial records of Massachusetts Bay a memorandum embodying the universally recognized law of whalemen that "craft claims the whale." It specifies:

      "furst: if aney pursons shall find a Dead whael on the streem And have the opportunity to toss herr on shoure; then ye owners to alow them twenty shillings;

      2ly: if thay cast hur out & secure ye blubber & bone then ye owners to pay them for it 30s (that is if ye whael ware lickly to be loast;)

      3ly, if it proves a floate son not killed by men then ye Admirall to Doe thaire in as he shall please; —

      4ly; that no persons shall presume to cut up any whael till she be vewed by toe persons not consarned; that so ye Right owners may not be Rongged of such whael or whaels;

      5ly, that no whael shall be needlessly or fouellishly lansed behind ye vitall to avoid stroy;

      6ly, that each companys harping Iron & lance be Distinckly marked on ye heads & socketts with a poblick mark: to ye prevention of strife;

      7ly, that if a whale or whalls be found & no Iron in them: then thay that lay ye neerest claime to them by thaire strokes & ye natoral markes to haue them;

      8ly, if 2 or 3 companyes lay equal claimes, then thay eqnelly to shear."16

      In November, 1690, the colony of New Plymouth appointed "Inspectors of Whale," in order to the "prevention of suits by whalers." The rules governing them were:

  1. All whales killed or wounded & left at sea the killers to repaire to the inspectors & give marks, time, place, which shall be recorded.

  2. All whales brought or cast ashore to be viewed by inspector or deputy before being cut & marks & wounds recorded with time & place.

  3. Any person cutting or defacing whale before being viewed unless necessary shall lose right to it, & pay 10£ to county, & fish to be seized by inspectors for owners' use. Inspectors to have power to make deputy and allow 6s. per whale.

  4. Those finding whale a mile from shore not appearing to be killed by man shall be first to secure them, pay 1 hogshead of oyle to ye county for each whale."17

      In 1647 (May 25) at a meeting of the general court held at Hartford, Conn., the following resolve was passed: "Yf Mr. Whiting, wth any others shall make tryall and prsecute a designe for the takeing of whale wthin these libertyes, and if vppon tryall wthin the terme of two yeares, they shall like to goe on, noe others shalbe suffered to interrupt the, for the tearme of seauen yeares."18 Whether Mr. Whiting, who seems to have been quite a prominent man and a merchant at Hartford, ever did "prosecute his designe," or not, we are left to conjecture; but so far as we at present know, this is the earliest official document showing any intention in that direction, and many years elapse before Connecticut again claims attention upon this subject.

      It is probably safe to assert that the first organized prosecution of the American whale-fishery was made along the shores of Long Island. The town of Southampton, which was settled in 1640 by an offshoot from the Massachusetts Colony at Lynn,19 was quick to appreciate the value of this source of revenue. In March, 1644, the town ordered the town divided into four wards of eleven persons to each ward, to attend to the drift-whales cast ashore. When such an event took place two persons from each ward (selected by lot) were to be employed to cut it up. "And every Inhabitant with his child or servant that is above sixteen years of age shall have in the Division of the other part," (i. e. what remained after the cutters deducted the double share they were, ex officio, entitled to) "an equall proportion provided that such person when yt falls into his ward a sufficient man to be imployed aboute yt."20 Among the names of those delegated to each ward are many whose descendants became prominent in the business as masters or owners of vessels — the Coopers, the Sayres, Mulfords, Peirsons, Hedges, Howells, Posts, and others. A few years later the number of "squadrons" was increased to six.

      In February, 1645, the town ordered that if any whale was cast ashore within the limits of the town no man should take or carry away any part thereof without order from a magistrate, under penalty of twenty shillings. Whoever should find any whale or part of a whale, upon giving notice to a magistrate, should have allowed him five shillings, or if the portion found should not be worth five shillings the finder should have the whole. "And yt is further ordered that yf any shall finde a whale or any peece thereof upon the Lord's day then the aforesaid shillings shall not be due or payable."21 "This last clause" says Howell, "appears to be a very shrewd thrust at 'mooning' on the beach on Sundays."

      It was customary a few years later to fit out expeditions of several boats each for whaling along the coast, the parties engaged camping out on shore during the night. These expeditions were usually gone about one or two weeks.22 Indians were usually employed by the English, the whites furnishing all the necessary implements, and the Indians receiving a stipulated proportion of oil in payment.

      In Easthampton on the 6th of November, 1651, "It was Ordered that Goodman Mulford shall call out ye Town by succession to loke out for whale"23 Easthampton, however, like every other town where whales were obtainable, seems to have had its little unpleasantnesses on the subject, for in 1653 the town "Ordered that the share of whale now in controversie between the Widow Talmage and Thomas Talmage" (alas for the old-time Chesterfieldian gallantry) "shall be divided among them as the lot is."24 In the early deeds of the town the Indian grantors were to be allowed the fins and tails of all drift-whales; and in the deed of Montauk Island and Point, the Indians and whites were to be equal sharers in these prizes.25 In 1672 the towns of Easthampton, Southampton, and Southwold presented a memorial to the court at Whitehall "setting forth that they have spent much time and paines, and the greatest part of their Estates, in settling the trade of whale-fishing in the adjacent seas, having endeavoured it above these twenty yeares, but could not bring it to any perfection till within these 2 or 3 yeares last past. And it now being a hopefull trade at New Yorke, in America, the Governor and the Dutch there do require ye Petitioners to come under their patent, and lay very heavy taxes upon them beyond any of his Maties subjects in New England, and will not permit the petitioners to have any deputys in Court,26 but being chiefe, do impose what Laws they please upon them, and insulting very much over the Petitioners threaten to cut down their timber which is but little they have to Casks for oyle, altho' the Petrs purchased their landes of the Lord Sterling's deputy, above 30 yeares since, and have till now under the Government and Patent of Mr. Winthrop, belonging to Conitycut Patent, which lyeth far more convenient for ye Petitioners assistance in the aforesaid Trade." They desire, therefore, either to continue under the Connecticut government, or to be made a free corporation. This petition was referred to the "Council on Foreign Plantations."

      This would make the commencement of this industry date back not far from the year 1650. In December, 1652, the directors of the Dutch West India Company write to Director General Peter Stuyvesant, of New York: "In regard to the whale fishery we understand that it might be taken in hand during some part of the year. If this could be done with advantage, it would be a very desirable matter, and make the trade there flourish and animate many people to try their good luck in that branch.27" In April, (4th,) 1656, the council of New York "received the request of Hans Jongh, soldier and tanner, asking for a ton of train-oil or some of the fat of the whale lately captured.28

      In April, 1669, Mr. Samuel Mavericke writes to Colonel Nicolls:29

"On ye Eastend of Long Island there were 12 or 13 whales taken before ye end of March, and what since wee heare not; here are dayly some seen in the very harbour, sometimes within Nutt Island. Out of the Pinnace the other week they struck two, but lost both, the iron broke in one, the other broke the warpe.30 The Governor hath encouraged some to follow this designe. Two shallops made for itt, but as yett wee doe not heare of any they have gotten?'

      In 1672, the town of Southampton passed an order for the regulation of whaling, which, in the latter part of the year, received the following confirmation from Governor Lovelace:

"Whereas there was an ordinance made at a Towne-Meeting in South Hampton upon the Second Day of May last relating to the Regulation of the Whale ffishing and Employment of the Indyans therein, wherein particularly it is mentioned. That whosoever shall Hire an Indyan to go a-Whaling, shall not give him for his Hire above one Trucking Cloath Coat, for each whale, hee and his Company shall Kill, or halfe the Blubber, without the Whale Bone under a Penalty therein exprest: Upon Considerac'on had thereupon, I have thought good to Allow of the said Order, And do hereby Confirm the same, untill some inconvenience therein shall bee made appeare, And do also Order that the like Rule shall bee followed at East Hampton and other Places if they shall finde it practicable amongst them.

      "Given under my hand in New Yorke, the 28th of November, 1672.

[Sign.] "FRAN: LOVELACE."31     

      Upon the same day that the people of Southampton passed the foregoing order, Governor Lovelace also issued an order citing that in consequence of great abuse to his Royal Highness in the matter of drift-whales upon Long Island, he had thought fit to appoint Mr. Wm. Osborne and Mr. John Smith, of Hempstead, to make strict inquiries of Indians and English in regard to the matter.32

      It was early found to be essential that all important contracts and agreements, especially "between the English and Indians relating to the killing of whales should be entered upon the town books, and signed by the parties in presence of the clerk and certified by him. Boat-whaling was so generally practiced and was considered of so much importance by the whole community, that every man of sufficient abilits in the town was obliged to take his turn in watching for whales from some elevated position on the beach, and to sound the alarm on one being seen near the coast."33 In April, (2d,) 1668, an agreement was entered on the records of Easthampton, binding certain Indians of Montauket in the sum of £10 sterling to go to sea, whaling, on account of Jacobus Skallenger and others, of Easthampton, beginning on the 1st of November and ending on the 1st of the ensuing April, they engaging "to attend dilligently with all opportunitie for ye killing of whales or other fish, for ye sum of three shillings a day for every Indian: ye sayd Jacobus Skallenger and partners to furnish all necessarie craft and tackling convenient for ye designe." The laws governing these whaling-companies were based on justice rather than selfishness. Among the provisions was one passed January 4, 1669, whereby a member of one company finding a dead whale killed by the other company was obliged to notify the latter. A prudent proviso in the order was that the person bringing the tidings should be well rewarded. If the whale was found at sea, the killers and finders were to be equal sharers. If irons were found in the whale, they were to be restored to the owners.34 In 1672, John Cooper desired leave to employ some "strange Indians" to assist him in whaling, which leave was granted;35 but these Indian allies required tender handling, and were quite apt to ignore their contracts when a fair excuse could be found, especially if their hands had already closed over the financial consideration. Two or three petitions relating to cases of this kind are on file at New York. One of them is from "Jacob Skallenger, Stephen Hand, James Loper and other adjoined with them in the Whale Designe at Easthampton," and was presented in 1675. It sets forth that they had associated together for the purpose of whaling, and agreed to hire twelve Indians and man two boats. Having seen the natives yearly employed both by neighbors and those in surrounding towns, they thought there could be no objection to their doing likewise. Accordingly, they agreed in June with twelve Indians to whale for them during the following season. "But it fell out soe that foure of the said Indians (competent & experienced men) belonged to Shelter-Island whoe with the rest received of your peticonrs in pt. of their hire or wages 25s. a peece in hand at the time of the contract, as the Indian Custome is and without which they would not engage themselves to goe to Sea as aforesaid for your Peticonrs." Soon after this there came an order from the governor requiring, in consequence of the troubles between the English and the aborigines, that all Indians should remain in their own quarters during the winter. "And some of the towne of Easthampton wanteing Indians to make up theire crue for whaleing they take advantage of your honrs sd Ordre thereby to hinder your peticonrs of the said foure Shelter-Island Indians. One of ye Overseers being of the Company that would soe hinder your peticonrs. And Mr. Barker warned yor peticonrs not to entertaine the said foure Indians without licence from your hour. And although some of your peticoners opposites in this matter of great weight to them seek to prevent yor peticonrs from haveing those foure Indians under pretence of zeal in fullfilling yr honrs order, yet it is more then apparent that they endeavor to break yor peticonrs Company in yt mater that soe they themselves may have opportunity out of the other eight Easthampton Indians to supply theire owue wants." After representing the loss liable to accrue to them from the failure of their design and the inability to hire Easthampton Indians, on account of their being already engaged by other companies, they ask relief in the premises,36 which Governer Andross, in an order dated November 18, 1675, grants them, by allowing them to employ the aforesaid Shelter-Island Indians.37

      Another case is that of the widow of one Cooper, who in 1677 petitions Andross to compel some Indians who had been hired and paid their advance by her late husband to fulfill to her the contract made with him, they having been hiring out to other parties since his decease.38

      The trade in oil from Long Island early gravitated to Boston and Connecticut, and this was always a source of much uneasiness to the authorities at New York. The people inhabiting Easthampton, Southampton, and vicinity, settling under a patent with different guarantees from those allowed under the Duke of York, had little in sympathy with that government, and always turned toward Connecticut as their natural ally and Massachusetts as their foster mother. Scarcely had what they looked upon as the tyrannies of the New York governors reduced them to a sort of subjection when they were assailed by a fresh enemy. A sudden turn of the wheel of fortune brought them, in 1673, a second time under the control of the Dutch. During this interregnum, which lasted from July, 1673, to November, 1674, they were summoned, by their then conquerors, to send delegates to an assembly to be convened by the temporary rulers. In reply the inhabitants of Easthampton, Southampton, Southold, Seatoocook, and Huntington returned a memorial setting that up to 1664 they had lived quietly and prosperously under the government of Connecticut. Now, however, the Dutch had by force assumed control, and, understanding them to be well disposed, the people of those parts proffer a series of ten requests. The ninth is the particular one of interest in this connection, and is the only one not granted. In it they ask, "That there be ffree liberty granted ye 5 townes afresd for ye procuring from any of ye united Collonies (without molestation on either side:) warpes, irons or any other necessaries ffor ye comfortable carring on the whale design" To this reply is made that it "cannot in this conjunction of time be allowed." "Why," says Howell,39 "the Council of Governor Colve chose thus to snub the English in these five towns in the matter of providing a few whale-irons and necessary tackle for capturing the whales that happened along the coast, is inconceivable;" but it must be remembered that the English and Dutch had long been rivals in this pursuit, even carrying their rivalry to the extreme of personal conflicts. The Dutch assumed to be, and practically were, the factors of Europe in this business at this period, and would naturally be slow to encourage any proficiency in whaling by people upon they probably realized that their lease of authority would be brief. Hence, although they were willing to grant them every other right in common with those of their own nationality, maritime jealousy made this one request impracticable. How the people of Long Island enjoyed this state of affairs is easy to infer from their petition of 1672. The oppressions alike of New York governors and Dutch conquerors could not fail to increase the alienation that difference of habits, associations, interests, and rights had implanted within them. Among other arbitrary laws was one compelling them to carry all the oil they desired to export to New York to be cleared, a measure which produced so much dissatisfaction and inconvenience that it was beyond a doubt "more honored in the breach than in the observance." At times some captain, more scrupulous than the rest, would obey the letter of the law or procure a remission of it. Thus, in April, 1678, Benjamin Alford, of Boston, in New England, merchant, petitioned Governor Brockholds for permission to clear with a considerable quantity of oil that he had bought at Southampton, directly from that port to London, he paying all duties required by law. This he desires to do in order to avoid the hazard of the voyage to New York and the extra danger of leakage thereby incurred. He was accordingly allowed to clear as he desired.40

      In 1684 an act for the "Encouragement of trade and Navigation" within the provinco of New York was passed, laying a duty of 10 per cent. on all oil and bone exported from New York to any other port or place except directly to England, Jamaica, Barbadoes, or some other of the Caribbean Islands.

      In May, 1688, the Duke of York instructs his agent, John Leven, to inquire into the number of whales killed during the past six years within the province of New York, the produce of oil and bone, and "about his share."41 To this Leven makes reply that there has been no record kept, and that the oil and bone were shared by the companies killing the fish. To Leven's statement, Andross, who is in England defending his colonial government, asserts that all those whales that were driven ashore were killed and claimed by the whalers or Indians.42

      In August, 1688, we find the first record of an intention to obtain sperm oil. Among the records in the State archives at Boston is a petition from Timotheus Vanderuen, commander of the brigantine Happy Return, of New Yorke, to Governor Andross, praying for "Licence and Permission, with one Equipage Consisting in twelve mariners, twelve whalernen and six Diuers — from this Port, upon a fishing design about the Bohames Islands, And Cap florida, for sperma Coeti whales and Racks: And so to returne for this Port."43 Whether this voyage was ever undertaken or not we have no means of knowing, but the petition is conclusive evidence that there were men in the country familiar even then with some of the haunts of the sperm whale and with his capture.

      Francis Nicholson, writing from Fort James, December, 1688, says: "Our whalers have had pretty good luck, killing about Graves End three large whales. On the Easte End aboute five or six small ones."44 During this same year the town of Easthampton being short of money, debtors were compelled to pay their obligations in produce, and in order to have some system of exchange the trustees of the town "being Legally met March 6, 1688-9 it was agreed that this year's Towne rate should be held to be good pay if it be paid as Follows:

£.S.d.
"Dry merchantable hides att006
"Indian Corn030
"Whale Bone 3 feet long and upwards008." 45

      The first whaling expedition in Nantucket "was undertaken," says Macy,46 "by some of the original purchasers of the island; the circumstances of which are handed down by tradition, and are as follows: A whale, of the kind called 'scragg,' came into the harbor and continued there three days. This excited the curiosity of the people, and led them to devise measures to prevent his return out of the harbor. They accordingly invented and caused to be wrought for them a harpoon, with which they attacked and killed the whale. This first success encouraged them to undertake whaling as a permanent business; whales being at that time numerous in the vicinity of the shores"

      In 1672 the islanders, evidently desirous of making further progress in this pursuit, recorded a memorandum of a proposed agreement with one James Loper, in which it is said that the said James

"doth Ingage to carrey on a Designe of Whale Catching on the Island of Nantucket that is to say James Ingages to be a third in all Respects, and som of the Town Ingages also to carrey on the other two thirds with him in like manner — the town doth also consent that first one company shall begin, and afterwards the rest of the freeholders or any of them have Liberty to set up another Company provided they make a tender to those freeholders that have no share in the first company and if any refuse the rest may go on themselves, and the town doth engage that no other Company shall be allowed hereafter; also, whoever kill any whales, of the Company or Companies aforesaid, they are to pay to the Town for every such whale five shillings and for the Incoragement of the said James Loper the Town doth grant him ten acres of Land in sume Convenant place that lie may chuse in (Wood Land Except) and also liberty for the commonage of three cows and Twenty sheep and one horse with necessary wood and water for his use, on Conditions that he follow the trade of whalling on this Island two years in all seasons thereof beginning the first of March next Insuing; also he is to build upon his Land and when he leaves Inhabiting upon this Island then he is first to offer his Land to the Town at a valuable price and if the Town do not buy it he may sell it to whom he please; the commonage is granted only for the time of his staying here."47

At the same meeting John Savidge had a grant made to him, upon condition that lie took up his residence on the island for the space of three years, and also that he should "follow his trade of a cooper upon the island as the Town or whale Company have need to employ him." Loper beyond a doubt never improved this opportunity offered him of immortalizing himself, but Savidge did, and a perverse world has, against his own will, banded down to posterity the name of Loper, who did not come, while it has rather ignored that of Savidge, who did remove to that island.

      The history of whaling upon Nantucket from that time until 1690 is rather obscure. There is a tradition among the islanders that in this year several persons were standing upon what was afterward known as Folly House Hill, observing the whales spouting and sporting in the sea. One of these people, pointing to the ocean, said to the others: "There is a green pasture, where our children's grandchildren will go for bread."48 It would be a matter of interest to know the name of the individual to whom this prophetic vision was revealed, but tradition is almost always lame somewhere. In 1690 the people of Nantucket, "finding that the people of Cape Cod had made greater proficiency in the art of whale-catching than themselves," sent thither and employed Ichabod Paddock to remove to the island and instruct them in the best method of killing whales and obtaining the oil.49 Judging from subsequent events, he must have come and proved himself a good teacher and they most admirable pupils.

      The earliest mention of whales at Martha's Vineyard occurs in November, 1652, when Thomas Daggett and William Weeks were appointed "whale cutters for this year." The ensuing April it was "Ordered by the town that the whale is to be cut out freely, four men at one time, and four at another, and so every whale, beginning at the east end of the town." In 1690 Mr.50 Sarson and William Vinson were appointed by "the proprietors of the whale" to oversee the cutting and sharing of all whales cast on shore within the bounds of Edgartown, "they to have as much for their care as one cutter."

      In 1692 came the inevitable dispute of proprietorship. A whale was cast on shore at Edgartown by the proprietors, "seized by Benjamin Smith and Mr. Joseph Norton in their behalf," which was also claimed by "John Steel, harpooner, on a whale design, as being killed by him." It was settled by placing the whale in the custody of Richard Sarson, esq., and Mr. Benjamin Smith, as agents of the proprietors, to save by trying out and securing the oil; "and that no distribution be made of the said whale, or effects, till after fifteen days are expired after the date hereof, that so such persons who may pretend an interest or claim, in the whale, may make their challenge; and in case such challenge appear sufficient to them, then they may deliver the said whale or oyl to the challenger; otherwise to give notice to the proprietors, who may do as the matter may require."

      Mr. Felt, in his History of Salem,51 says that James Loper, of that town, in 1688, petitioned the colonial government of Massachusetts for a patent for making oil. In his petition Loper represents that he has been engaged in whale-fishing for twenty-two years.

      On the 12th of March, 1692, John Higginson and Timothy Lindall, of Salem, wrote to Nathaniel Thomas: "We have been jointly concerned in severall whale voyages at Cape Cod, and have sustained greate wrong and injury by the unjust dealing of the inhabitants of those parts, especially in two instances: ye first was when Woodbury and company, in our boates, in the winter of 1690, killed a large whale in Cape Cod harbour. She sank and after rose, went to sea with a harpoon, warp, etc. of ours, which have been in the hands of Nicholas Eldredge. The second case is this last winter, 169t. William Edds and company, in one of our boates, struck a whale, which came ashore dead, and by ye evidence of the people of Cape Cod was the very whale they killed. The whale was taken away by Thomas Smith, of Eastham, and unjustly detained."52

      Nor was the art of whaling unknown or unpracticed by our Canadian neighbors in these early years, for M. de Denonville writes to M. de Seignelay, in 1690, that the Canadians are adroit in whaling, and that the "last ships have brought to Quebec, from Bayonne, some harpooners for Sieur Riverin."53



C. — 1700 TO 1750.
NANTUCKET; LONG ISLAND; CAPE COD; SALEM; BOSTON; RHODE ISLAND; MARTHA'S VINEYARD, ETC.

      Immediately after the commencement of the eighteenth century the town of Sherburne,54 on the island of Nantucket, advanced rapidly to the front rank among whaling ports. So plentiful was their prey almost at their very doors, as it were, that no difficulty was at first experienced by the islanders in obtaining all the oil they desired without going out of sight of land. "The south side of the island," says a writer,55 "was divided into four equal parts, and each part was assigned to a company of six, which, though thus separated, still carried on their business in common. In the middle of this distance" (of about three and a half miles to each division) "they erected a mast, provided with a sufficient number of rounds, and near it they built a temporary hut where five of the associates lived, whilst the sixth from his high station carefully looked toward the sea, in order to observe the spouting of whales." When one was seen, the boats were launched and the chase commenced. Sometimes, in pleasant weather, the whalemen would venture nearly out of sight of land. A capture once made, the whale was towed ashore and the blubber "saved" after the manner of cutting in on board a vessel. Try-works were erected on the beach, and the blubber, after being cut up and sliced, was subjected to the process of "trying out." These try-works were used for many years after exclusive shore-fishing had ceased, the blubber of the whales captured at sea being cut up into square pieces and stowed into casks on board of the vessels. On the return home this product was removed to the try-houses and the oil extracted. This was substantially the method of carrying on the fishery all along the coast. As the natural consequence of long-continued practice, the inhabitants of Nantucket soon acquired great dexterity in the pursuit. Says St. John: "These people are become superior to any other whalemen."56 In this business many Indians were employed, each boat's crew being manned in part, some wholly, by aborigines, the most active among them being promoted to steersmen, and even at times one of them being allowed to command a boat. Under the stimulus of this encouragement they soon became experienced whalemen and conversant with all the details of the business.57

      The first sperm whale taken by Nantucket whalemen was captured by Christopher Hussey, about the year 1712, and the capture, destined to effect a radical change in the pursuit of this business, was the result of an accident. "He was cruising," says Macy,58 "near the shore for Right whales, and was blown off some distance from the land by a strong northerly wind, where he fell in with a school of that species of whales, and killed one and brought it home. * * * * This event gave new life to the business, for they immediately began with vessels of about thirty tons to whale out in the 'deep,' as it was then called, to distinguish it from shore whaling. They fitted out for cruises of about six weeks, carried a few hogsheads, enough probably to contain the blubber of one whale, with which, after obtaining it, they returned home. The owners then took charge of the blubber, and tried out the oil, and immediately sent the vessels out again."59 In 1715 Nantucket had six sloops engaged in this fishery, producing oil to the value of £1,100 sterling, the shore fishery being, in the mean time, still continued. There was no perceptible diminution in the number of whales taken from along the coast for quite a number of years after the establishment of the fishery.

      In 1720 the inhabitants of Nantucket made a small shipment of oil to London in the ship Hanover, of Boston, William Chadder, master.60 Whether this was the first adventure of this kind or not we have no means of ascertaining, and we are in a similar state of uncertainty in regard to its success. As the fishery became more important, and vessels were used, it became necessary to select the site where there was the best harbor, and the location where the town of Nantucket now stands was selected.61 As the number of vessels increased it was also found necessary to replace the old landing-places, which at best were only temporary, and often destroyed by winter storms, with more subtantial wharves, and accordingly, in 1723, the "Straight" wharf was built.62 At this time the usual custom in winter was to haul the vessels and boats up on shore, as being safer and less expensive than lying at the wharf. The boats were placed bottom upwards and lashed together to prevent accidents in gales of wind, and the whaling "craft" was carefully stored in the warehouses. In the early days of whaling each vessel carried two boats, one of which seems to have been held in reserve in case of accident to the one lowered for whales.

      In 1730 Nantucket employed in the fishery twenty-five vessels of from 38 to 50 tons burden each, and the returns were about 3,700 barrels of oil, worth, at £7 per ten, £3,200. Holmes says:63 ,The whale-fishery on the North American coasts must, at this time" (1730), "have been very considerable; for there arrived in England from these coasts, about the month of July, 151 tons of train and whale oil, and 9,200 of whale bone." At this time there were nearly five hundred ships, manned by four thousand sailors, engaged in foreign traffic from Massachusetts.64

      The culminating point of shore-whaling at Nantucket was probably reached in 1726. During that year there were 86 whales taken by boats, and the Coffins and Gardners, the Folgers, the Husseys, the Swains and Paddacks, the progenitors of that race of men who carried the name and fame of the little island of Nantucket to every accessible port on the globe, are chief among those who gathered this harvest.65

      The first recorded loss of a whaling-vessel from the island occurred in 1724, when a sloop, of which Elisha Coffin was master, was lost at sea with all on board.66 The second loss was that of another sloop, Thomas Hathaway master, in 1731. These losses were a serious matter for a small whaling-port, where nearly all the inhabitants were related by birth or marriage. In the year 1742 still another sloop, commanded by Daniel Paddack, was lost while on a whaling-voyage, with all on board.

      An increase in the business brought with it an increase in the number and size of the vessels employed. Schooners were added, and the size of the vessels increased to between 40 and 50 tons. Whales began to grow scarce in the vicinity of the shore, and still larger vessels were put into the service and sent to the "southward" as it was termed, cruising on that ground till about the first of July, when they returned, refitted, and cruised to the eastward of the Grand Bank during the remainder of the whaling season, unless, as was often the case, they filled sooner. Vessels for this service were generally "sloops of 60 or 70 tons; their crews were made up, in part, of Indians,"67 there being generally from four to eight natives to each vessel.

      But the time came when Nantucket did not furnish men enough to man the whaling-vessels which the islanders desired to fit out, and Cape Cod, and even Long Island, were called in to supply the deficiency of seamen. It naturally occurred that, with the limited colonial demand, the business became at times overdone, the market glutted, and what oil was sold was disposed of at too low a price to be as remunerative as the islanders thought it should be. The people began to think of another market. For a series of years they had made Boston their factor, selling there their oil and drawing from thence their supplies.68 Probably had their oil commanded the price which they considered it should have brought, this state of affairs might long have continued, but such was not the case. "It was found," says Macy,69 "that Nantucket had in many places become famed for whaling, and particularly so in England, where partial supplies of oil had been received through the medium of the Boston trade. The people, finding that merchants in Boston were making a good profit by first purchasing oil at Nantucket, then ordering it to Boston, and thence shipping it to London, determined to secure the advantages of the trade to themselves, by exporting their oil in their own vessels. They had good prospects of success in this undertaking, yet, it being a new one, they moved with great caution, for they knew that a small disappointment would lead to embarrassments that would, in the end, prove distressing. They, therefore, loaded and sent out one vessel, about the year 1745. The result of this small beginning proved profitable, and encouraged them to increase their shipments by sending out other vessels. They found, in addition to the profits on the sales, that the articles in return were such as their business required, viz, iron, hardware, hemp, sailcloth, and many other goods, and at a much cheaper rate than they had hitherto been subjected to." This naturally gave renewed life to the enterprise, and induced the fitting of new vessels and the development of new adventurers. The sky was not always fair, not every voyage proved remunerative, but the business as a whole steadily increased in importance and profit. At about this time (1746), according to Macy's History, whaling was commenced by our people in Davis's Straits.70

      The transfer of the trade of Long Island to Boston and Connecticut was a source of great uneasiness to the early governors of New York. They were repeatedly stirred up on the subject by the lords of trade in England, but with all their trouble and skill and efforts they were unable to alienate the sympathies of the Long Islanders from those who were their friends both by birth and association. They had but little in common with the New York government, which seemed to them only the symbol of wrong, injustice, and oppression. The governors of that province were numerous and tyrannical, and the people had no redress. The boast of one of them that be would tax them so high that they would have no time to think of anything else but paying these duties, seemed to be resolved into a motto adopted by the majority, and the groanings and writhings of the people only seemed to serve as the excuse for another turn of the screws of executive tyranny.

      In June, 1703, Lord Conbury, in a letter to the lords of trade,71 speaking of the difficulties the commerce of New York had to contend with from the position of some parts of its territory in relation to Connecticut and Massachusetts, writes that Connecticut fills that part of Long Island with European goods cheaper than New York can, since New York pays a duty which is not assessed by Connecticut; "nor will they" (the inhabitants of the east end of Long Island) "be subject to the Laws of Trade nor to the Acts of Navigation, by which means there has for some time been no Trade between the City of New Yorke and the East end of Long Island, from whence the greater quantity of Whale oyle comes." He adds that the people are full of New England principles, and would rather trade with Boston, Connecticut, and Rhode Island than with New York.

      In 1708, however, under Lord Cornbury, an act was passed for the "Encouragement of Whaling," in which it was provided, 1st, that any Indian, who was bound to go to sea whale-fishing, should not "at any time or times between the First Day of November and the Fifteenth Day of April following, yearly, be sued arrested, molested, detained or kept out of that Imployment by any person or persons whatsoever, pretending any Contract, Bargain Debt or Dues unto him or them except and only for or concerning any Contract, Debt or Bargain relating to the Undertaking and Design of the Whale-fishing and not otherwise under the penalty of paying treble Costs to the Master of any such Indian or Indians so to be sued, arrested, molested or detained." Section 2 provided that "if any person or persons shall purchase, take to pawn or anyways get or receive any Cloathing, Gun or other Necessaries that his Master shall let him, from any such Indian or Indians or suffer any such Indian to be drinking or drunk in or about their Houses, when they should be at Sea, or other business belonging to that Design of Whale-fishing or shall carry or cause to be carried any Drink to them, whereby such Indians are made incapable of doing their Labour and Duty in and about their Master's Service," within the date above named, shall be compelled to restore the articles taken, and forfeit to the master the sum of thirty shillings. This act was to be in force seven years after publication, but it did not finally become a law until June 10, 1710. It was renewed in 1716 for four years longer,72 and again in 1720 for a further term of six years.73

      In July, 1708, Lord Cornbury writes again to the board of trade regarding New York affairs.74 In his letter be says: "The quantity of Train Oyl made in Long Island is very uncertain, some years they have much more fish than others, for example last year they made four thousand Barrils of Oyl, and this last Season they have not made above Six hundred: About the middle of October they begin to look out for fish, the Season lasts all November, December, January, February, and part of March; a Yearling will make about forty Barils of Oyl, a Stunt or Whale two years old will make sometimes fifty, sometimes sixty Barrils of Oyl, and the largest whale that I have heard of in these Parts, yielded one hundred and ten barrels of Oyl, and twelve hundred Weight of Bone."

      In 1709 the fishery had attained such value on Long Island that some parties attempted to reduce it, so far as possible, to a monopoly, and grants of land previously made by Governor Fletcher and others, in a reckless and somewhat questionable manner were improved for personal benefit. Earl Bellomont, in commenting on these irregular practices, writes to the lords of trade, under date of July 2 of that year,75 citing, among others, one Colonel Smith, who, he states, "has got the beach on the sea shore for fourty miles together, after an odd manner as I have been told by some of the inhabitants * * * * * * having forced the town of Southampton to take a poore £10 for the greatest part of the said beach, which is not a valuable consideration in law, for Colonel Smith himself own'd to me that that beach was very profitable to him for whale fishing, and that one year he cleared £500, by whales taken there."

      In 1716, Samuel Mulford, of Easthampton, in a petition to the King, gave a sketch of the progress of this industry in that vicinity.76 In the recital of the grievances of his neighbors and himself, he writes that a the inhabitants of the said Township and parts adjacent did from the first Establishment of the said Colony of New York enjoy the Privilege & Benefit of fishing for whale & applying ye same to their own use as their undoubted right and property."77 By his petition it appears further that in 1664 Governor Nicolls and council directed that drift-whales should pay a duty of every sixteenth gallon of oil to the government, "exempting the whales that were killed at Sea by persons who went on that design from any duty or imposition." Governor Dongan also claimed duty on drift-whales, and be also exempted those killed at sea. "There was no pretence," under Dongan, "to seize such whales or to exact anything from the fishermen on that account, being their ancient right and property. Thus the inhabitants had the right of fishing preserved to them, and the Crown the benefit of all drift Whales, and everything seemed well established between the Crown and the People, who continued chearfully, and with success, to carry on the said fishing trade." This state of affairs continued until 1696, when Lord Cornbury (afterward Earl of Clarendon) became governor. It was then announced by those in authority that the whale was a "Royal Fish," and belonged to the Crown; consequently all whalers must be licensed "for that purpose which he was sure to make them pay for, and also contribute good part of the fruit of their labour; no less that a neat 14th part of the Oyle and Bone, when cut up, and to bring the same to New York an 100 miles distant from their habitation, an exaction so grievous, that few people did ever comply for it."78 The result of this policy was to discourage the fishery, and its importance was sensibly decreased. In 1711 the New York authorities issued a writ to the sheriffs, directing them to seize all whales. This demand created much disturbance, but the people, knowing no remedy, submitted with what grace they could to what they felt was a grievous wrong, and an infringement upon their rights under the patent under which their settlement was founded. Since that time, Mulford continues, a formal prosecution had been commenced against him for hiring Indians to assist him in whaling. He concludes his petition with the assertion that, unless some relief was afforded, the fishery must be ruined, since "the person concerned will not be brought to the hardship of waiting out at sea many months, & the difficulty of bringing into New York the fish, and at last paying so great a share of their profit."

      Mulford, during the latter part of his life, was continually at loggerheads with the government at New York. A sturdy representative of that Puritan opposition to injustice and wrong with which the early settlers of Eastern Long Island were so thoroughly imbued, the declining years of his life were continual eras of contention against the tyrannies and exactions of governors, whose only interest seemed to be to suck the life-blood from the bodies of these unfortunate flies caught in their spider's net, and cast the useless remains remorselessly away. He was one of the remonstrants against the annexation of the eastern towns to the New York government, and from 1700 to 1720 was the delegate from these towns to the assembly. In 1715 the opposition of the government to his constituency reached the point of a personal conflict with him. In a speech delivered in the assembly in this year, he boldly and unsparingly denounced the authorities as tyrannical, extravagant, and dishonest. He cited numerous instances of injustices from officers of the customs to the traders of and to his section. While grain was selling in Boston at 6s. per bushel, and only commanding one-half of that in New York, his people were compelled by existing laws to lose this difference in value. While the government was complaining of poverty and the lack of disposition on the part of the people to furnish means for its subsistence, the governor had received, says Mulford, during the past three years, three times the combined income of the governors of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. In 1716 the assembly ordered this speech to be put into the hands of the speaker, but Mulford, without hesitation, caused it to be published and circulated.79 From this time forth the war upon him was, so far as the government was concerned, a series of persecutions, but Mulford undauntedly braved them all and in the end was triumphant. Quite a number of letters passed between the governor and himself, and between them both and the lords of trade in London. As an earnest of the feeling his opposition had stirred up, the governor commenced a suit against him in the supreme court, the judges of which owed their appointment to the executive. Shortly after this, Governor Hunter, in a communication to the lords of trade regarding the state of affairs in the province,writes that he is informed that Mulford, who "has continually flown in face of government," and always disputed with the Crown the right of whaling, has gone to London to urge his case.80 He states that "that poor, troublesome old man" is the only mutineer in a province otherwise quiet (an assertion that evidenced either a reckless disregard for truth, or a want of knowledge of affairs inexcusably culpable); that the case he pleads has been brought before the supreme court and decided against him, and Mulford is the only man who disputes the Crown's right, and the good governor charitably recommends their lordships to "bluff him."81 Still later, Hunter states that it was the custom long before his arrival to take out whaling licenses. Many came voluntarily and did so. If whaling is "decayed," it was not for want of whalemen, for the number increases yearly; "but the truth of the matter is, that the Town of Boston is the Port of Trade of the People inhabiting that end of Long Island of late years, so that the exportation from hence of that commodity must in the Books be less than formerly." The perquisites arising from the sale of these licenses were of no account in themselves, but yielding in this matter would only open a gap for the disputation of ever perquisite of the government.82

      To this the lords of trade reply:83 "You intimate in your letter to our Secretary of 22d November last that the Whale fishery is reserved to the Crown by your Patents: as we can find no such thing in your Commission, you will explain what you mean by it." Mulford is now in London, and desires dispatch in the decision in regard to this matter, pending which the lords desire to know whether dues have been paid by any one; if so, what amount has been paid, and to what purpose this revenue has been applied.84 They close their letter with the following sentence, which would hardly seem open to any danger of misconstruction: "Upon this occasion we must observe to you, that we hope you will give all due incouragement to that Trade." Evidently the case of Mulford vs. Hunter looks badly for the governor. Still, Hunter is loth to yield readily, and the discussion is further prolonged.

      It is now 1718. Governor Hunter, in his answer to the inquiries of their lordships,85 says Commission was issued giving power, "Cognoscendi de Flotsam, Jetsom, Lagon, Deodandis, &c.," follows "et de Piscibus Regalibus Sturgeonibus, Balenis Coetis Porpetus Delphinis Reggis, &c." In regard to the income, he again writes that it is inconsiderable; that only the danger of being accused of giving up the Crown's right would have led him to write about it. In amount, it was not £20 per annum, (corroboratory of Mulford's assertion of its decline), and as the fish had left this coast, he should not further trouble them about it. Up to the present time all but Mulford had paid and continued to pay. The subject appears to have been finally referred to the attorney-general, and the governor says (1719), waiting his opinion, he has surceased all demands till it comes. The question must have been left in a state of considerable mistiness, however, for in 1720 Governor Burnett informs the lords,86 in a letter which indicates a satisfied feeling of compromise between official dignity and the requirements of the trade, that he remits the five per centum on the whale-fishery, but asserts the King's rights by still requiring licenses, though in "so doing he neglects his own profit," "and this," he adds, "has a good effect on the country." Under his administration the act for the encouragement of the whale-fishery was renewed.

      In 1706 some of the inhabitants of Eastham and parts adjacent (ineluding, as one of the names seems to indicate, Nantucket) presented to the general court a petition,87 setting forth that the parties "whose names are hereunto subscribed, being Inhabitants of Eastham and other places thereunto adjoining, In regard all or most of us are concerned in fitting out Boats to Catch & take Whales when ye season of ye year Serves: and whereas when wee have taken any whale or whales, our Custom is to cutt them up, and to take away ye fatt and ye Bone of such Whales as are brought in, And afterwards to let ye Rest of ye Boddy of ye Lean of whales Lye on shoar in lowe water to be washt away by ye sea, being of noe vallue nor worth any Thing to us;" therefore they petition for an act of the court to permit Thomas Houghton, of Boston, or his assigns, to take and carry away all this waste, and endeavor, for the space of ten years, to put it to some profitable use, all other persons in New England to be in the mean time "forbidden, discharged, and restrained to make any further use of it than is now usually made, with a penalty on such as presume to doe it during yt time without ye Consent and allowance of ye said Thom: Houghton or his Assignes." With an eye to future commercial prosperity, they allege the following reasons why the patent, if granted, will inure to their benefit: "first ... It will cause more staves to be fetcht and brought in from other places as well as our own, and more Barrells made, and soe more Coopers will be sett at Work, with other hands to build houses for ye use of it. secondly. It will imploy our people to cutt it up, and to order it according to his direction, at such convenient houses and places as he appoints. Thirdly When tis ordered and prepared as hee or his Assignes would have it, it will implye our Sloopes to carry it to Boston, or to such places as hee or they direct, wich will be an advantage to us. Fourthly If any Improvement can be made of it for Exportation, it will not only be of great advantage to Boston, but to many of ye Inhabitants of New England." (This is signed by Simon, Nathll Coffin, John Jones.) To this is appended a postscript, stipulating that said Houghton employ the inhabitants of the whaling-towns as much as possible for his work; that he shall give the public the benefit of his discovery, if made, at the end of the ten years; and that he shall pay each whale-man "one shilling in money acknowledgment for their several shares in the Lean of the whale fishes that they shall take for the space of ten years." The postcript is signed "Samll Treat senr, David Mc. * * * * *, Jona sparrow, Samll Knowles, Samll freeman jr, Richard * * * * , Richard Godfree."

      The council granted the patent with the somewhat novel proviso: "That within the space of Four years he shew forth to the Satisfaction of the Governr Council & Assembly That his Projection will take effect, for the rayseing of Salt Petre to supply the province."

      During the years 1724 and 1725, in the prosecution of the wars between the Indians and the colonists, some of the friendly Indians from Cape Cod were enlisted, with the express understanding that they were to be discharged in time to take part in the fall and winter whale-fishery. Accordingly, in 1724 Lieutenant-Governor Dummer, of the Massachusetts Bay, writes to Colonel Westbrook: "Upon Sight hereof you must forthwith dismiss Cpt. Bournes Compy of Indians & send them hither in one of the Sloops, That so they may lose no Time for Following the Whale Fishery, wch is agreeable to my Promise made to them at Enlisting."88 In a postscript he adds: "Let Capt Bourne come with them to see them safe return'd." And again, in 1725, the secretary writes: "His Honr Having promised the Indians enlisted by Cpt. Bourne (being all those of the County of Barnstable) to dismiss them in the Fall that so they attend their Whale Fishing; directs that you as soon as you have opportunity to send them up to Boston, in Order to their Return Home, & let none of them be detained on any Pretense whatsoever."89

      Under date of March 20, 1727, the Boston News-Letter says: "We bear from the Towns on the Cape that the Whale Fishery among them has failed much this Winter, as it has done for several Winters past, but having found out the way of going to Sea Upon that Business, and having had much Success in it, they are now fitting out several Vessels to sail with all Expedition upon that dangerous Design this Spring, more (its tho't) than have ever been sent out from among them."

      The same paper, in its issue of February 12, 1730,90 contains the following extract from a letter from Chatham, dated "February 6, 1729-30:"

"There has been a remarkable Providence in the awful death of some of my neighbors; On the day commonly called New Year's Day, a whaleboat's Crew (which Consists of a Stersman, an Harpineer, and Four Oarmen) coming home from a Place called Hog's-Back, where they had been on a Whaling design, the Boat was overset, and all the Men lost, on a reaf of Sand that lies out against Billingsgate. When the Boat was found bottom upward, and the Stern post broken off, there were two Chests found in it, which were wedged so fast under the Thwards that the water had not washed them out; in which were found the Pocket books of two of the Men, by which it plainly appears what Boat it was; but none of the Bodies are, as yet found, that I can hear of; tho they found an iron Pot which they had with them, upon the reaf, and discovered the Whaling Irons at the bottom of the Water, where it is about 8 feet deep.

      "P.S. — Before I had done writing I had News that two of their Bodies were found."

      In March, 1736, the inhabitants of Provincetown captured a large whale at sea, cut him up, and brought the blubber into that port. The estimated quantity of oil that this blubber would produce was 100 barrels.91 In the News-Letter of May 27 of the same year a statement is published to the effect that on the 11th of May a whaling-sloop, of which Solomon Kenwick was master, arrived at Chatham, and reported that while on the voyage, "about forty leagues to the eastward of George's Banks, they struck and wounded two Whales, which then lay upon the Water seemingly in a dying Posture: but one of them suddenly rush'd with great Violence over the midst of one of their Boats, and sunk both the Boat and Men into the Sea; one Man was thereby kill'd outright, and two others much wounded: Tis a wonder they were not all destroy'd, for the Whale continued striking and raging in a most furious Manner in the midst of them (now in the Water) for some Time, but the other Boat came and took them all up (except the Man that was kill'd, who sunk immediately) and carried them safe to the Sloop."

      The season of 1737-8 must have been an unfortunate one at Provincetown, for up to January 5, 1738, the people of that town had only killed two small whales, and some of the inhabitants took into serious consideration a change of residence.92 In July, 1738, Captain Anthony Haugh, master of a whaling-vessel, took "in the Straits" a large whale, and brought him to the vessel's side to cut in. In hoisting the blubber into the hold the runner of the block gave way, by which Benjamin Hamlin, of Eastham, was killed instantly.93 In February, 1738, the Yarmouth whalemen had killed but one large whale during the season; the bone of that one was from 8 to 9 feet long.

      Nor was the whaling-season of 1738-9 any more successful to the inhabitants of the cape. Up to the 15th of February, 1739 — the whaling-season being then over — there had been taken at Provincetown but six small and one large whale, and at Sandwich two more small ones. This was the extent of the catch.94 As a result of two successive poor seasons, many of the people of Provincetown were in straitened circumstances and much distressed. Those depending upon the early spring whaling "returned as they went, only more in debt." Many of them were without money or provisions.95

      Early in 1741 the French and Spanish privateers commenced their depredations upon the English commerce. Naturally our whaling-vessels came in for their proportion of loss. In May a Spanish privateer, under Don. Francisco Lewis, captured a whaling-vessel from Barnstable, commanded by Capt. Solomon Sturgis, "dismissed the captain and eight Hands, carried away the Sloop and four Hands, and put in John Davis, Mate of said Sloop."96 It The seasons still continued unfavorable for the coast-whaling on the cape,97 but late in the summer and during the early fall of 1741 the inhabitants of that section were cheered by an unexpected success. Great numbers of porpoises and black fish came swarming into the bay, and the hardy fishermen lost no time in attacking them. By the close of October they had killed 150 porpoises and over 1,000 black fish, yielding them about 1,500 barrels of oil, for the most of which they found an immediate sale. "This unexpected Success so late in the Year, put new Life into Some who had spent all the former Season of the Year in Toil and Labour to little or no Purpose." 98

      The presence of privateers on the coast appears to have entirely prevented the prosecution of the Davis Strait whaling, for no departures to or arrivals from that region are reported for several years. Whalemen were liable to be overhauled anywhere, but it is to be presumed that the risk became greater as the distance from port increased. Occasionally these privateers would swoop down through Nantucket and Vineyard Sounds and bear off whatever came in their way that they were able to take care of. Such a raid was made in the middle of the summer of 1744. One Captain Roach, in a vessel from Cape Cod, arrived in Boston and reported that on the 24th of June, just before night, being in a sloop from Nantucket for Boston, with a cargo of 330 barrels of oil, the weather being calm and his vessel somewhat in advance of the others, another sloop came up showing but few men on deck and hoisting the English flag. Captain Roach, suspecting in spite of her appearance that she was an enemy, and being only about two miles from the shore, took out the most necessary things, and, putting them into his boat, escaped with his crew to the shore. As soon as the pursuer found the sloop was abandoned, he sent a boat of armed men to her, took possession of her, and carried her off. The same vessel, which proved to be a French privateer, took in September several coasting and merchant vessels and one Nantucket whaling-vessel, and landed many of her prisoners on the island of Nantucket.99

      The facts in regard to whaling at Salem and vicinity from 1700 to 1750 are very meager. Undoubtedly the business was carried on all through this section in the early part of 1700 in a small way. In 1700 John Higginson writes concerning the business there and at other portions of the coast: "We have a considerable quantitie of whale oil and bone for exportation."100 Again, in 1706, he writes to a friend in Ipswich, as one concerned with others in boats engaged in whaling. Here, as elsewhere, there were drift-whales, and in 1722-'23 public101 notices are given to claimants to prove in courts of admiralty their rights in two such cases.102 In August, 1723,a drift-whale is advertised in the Boston News-Letter as ashore at Marblehead, and the usual notice of court is appended.

      Whether Boston was at this period a participant in this pursuit is difficult to determine. Various reasons tended to make that port the factor of the colony in that regard. Vessels from the whole colony cleared from there to go to the northward whaling, while those from Nantucket, the Vineyard, and the south shore of the cape pursued their southern voyages along the edge of the Gulf Stream to the Leeward and Cape de Verde Islands under clearances from Newport, R. I. In the absence of the custom-house records of Boston prior to 1776,103 it is impossible to determine which of the numerous clearances and entries are whaleman, and equally impossible to determine to what port they belonged. Referring to the files of the colonial gazettes of this period, we find in the News-Letter of September 3, 1722, an advertisement of a court of admiralty to be held to adjudicate on a drift-whale found floating near Brewster's, and towed ashore in August. It was much wasted and decayed, and in cutting it up a ball was found, indicating that it had been attacked by some party, and the advertisement notifies the public that "If any Persons can try any Claim to said Whale so as to make out a property," they should appear at the said court at Boston on the last Wednesday in the month.104 On the 5th of December, 1723, "Mr. Peter Butler, of Boston," advertises for sale, "lately Imported from London, extraordinary good Whale Warps at 16d. a Pound, which are made of the finest Hemp, either by the Quoile or less Quantity."105 In 1730 Samuel Torrey, currier, on Water street, Boston, advertises "Good Blubber by the Barrel or Tun, full Bound."

      In 1731 the Rhode Island assembly passed an act for the encouragement of the whale and cod fisheries, giving "a bounty of five shillings for every barrel of whale oil, one penny a pound for bone, and five shillings a quintal for codfish, caught by Rhode Island vessels and brought into this colony * * * to be paid from the interest accruing upon a new bank, or issue bills of credit to the amount of sixty thousand pounds."106 The whale-fishery had, according to Arnold,107 long been. carried on in a small way within that colony, and whales had frequented Narragansett Bay and often been taken with boats. This bounty gave something of a stimulus to the business, and these colonists too began to "whale out into the deep," and in 1733 the first regularly equipped whaleman of which Rhode Island has any record arrived in Newport from her voyage, having on board 114 barrels of oil and 200 pounds of bone. This sloop was the Pelican, of Newport, Benjamin Thurston, owner, and she received the bounty according to the law.108

      By the inhabitants of Martha's Vineyard, in 1702-'3, there appear to have been several whales killed. The following entry occurs under that date in the court records:

"The marks of the whales killed by John Butler and Thomas Lothrop. One whale lanced near or over the shoulder blade, near the left shoulder blade only; another killed with an iron forward in the left side, marked W; and upon the right side marked with a pocket-knife T. L.; and the other had an iron hole over the right shoulder-blade, with two lance holes in the same side, one in the belly. These whales were all killed about the middle of February last past; all great whales, betwixt six and seven and eight foot bone, which are all gone from us. A true account given by John Butler from us, and recorded Per me, Thomas Trapp, Clerk."109

      It is quite probable that deep-sea whaling did not commence at the Vineyard until about the year 1738. In that year Joseph Chase, of Nantucket, removed there, taking with him his sloop, the Diamond, of about 40 tons burden. He purchased a house and about 20 acres of land on the shores of Edgartown Harbor, erected a wharf with a try-house near, and commenced the fishery with his vessel. He followed this pursuit two or three years, till finally his ill success caused him to abandon it.

      The year succeeding Chase's immigration James Claghorn purchased a small sloop of 40 tons, called the Leopard, and fitted her for the business. Two or three years' experience served to give him a distaste for it, and he sold out and retired from the contest with a loss of about $500, a large sum for those days.

      In 1742 John Harper, of Nantucket, removed to the Vineyard, carrying with him the sloop Humbird, of about 45 tons. For several years he too followed whaling, in his sloop and in other vessels; but the same ill success that attended Chase and Clagborn visited also the standard of Harper, and finding himself running behind-hand year after year, he too sold out his shipping and withdrew.

      Undeterred by the misfortunes of the others, John Newman, with partners, in 1744 bought the sloop Susannah, of 55 tons, and they continued nearly one year. In the fall, the corn crop on the Vineyard proving insufficient, Samuel Finley was sent in command of her to the southward for a load of that grain, and on the return passage the vessel was cast away on the Carolina coast, and with her cargo totally lost.



D. — 1750 TO 1784.
NANTUCKET; MARTHA'S VINEYARD; CAPE COD; BOSTON; LONG ISLAND; RHODE ISLAND; NEW BEDFORD; WILLIAMSBURGH, &C.

      The period from 1750 to 1784 was the most eventful era to the whale-fishery that it has ever passed through. For a large proportion of the time the business was carried on under imminent risk of capture, first by the Spanish and French and after by the English. The colonial Davis Strait fishery seems to have been quite abandoned, and the vessels cruised mostly to the eastward of the Grand Banks, along the edge of the Gulf Stream and in the vicinity of the Bahamas. In 1748 the English Parliament had passed a second act to encourage this fishery. By it the premium on inspection of masts, yards, and bowsprits, tar, pitch, and turpentine, and on British-made sail-cloth were to continue, and the duties on foreign-made sail-cloth were remitted to vessels engaged in this pursuit. A bounty was also granted on all ships engaged in whaling during the then existing war; harpooners and others employed in the Greenland fishery were exempted from impressment. The commissioners of customs were, under the required certificate, to pay the second twenty shillings per ton bounty granted by Parliament over the first twenty previously granted.110 The ships which had sailed during the previous March or April were to be equal sharers in this bounty with those whose sailing had been delayed. All ships built or fitted out for this pursuit from the American colonies conforming to this act were to be licensed to whale, and in order to receive the bounties must remain in Davis Straits or vicinity from May (sailing about May 1) until the 20th of August, unless sooner full or obliged to return by accident. Foreign Protestants serving in this fishery for two years, and qualifying themselves for its prosecution, were to be treated as though they were natives.111 The cause of this concession to the colonies was a part of Lord Shirley's scheme to rid Acadia of the French. It was his desire that George II should cause them to be removed to some other English colony, and settle Nova Scotia with Protestants,112 and to this end invitations were sent throughout Europe to induce Protestants to remove thither. "The Moravian Brethren were attracted by the promise of exemption from oaths and military service. The good will of New England was encouraged by care for its fisheries; and American whalemen, stimulated by the promise of enjoying an equal bounty with the British, learned to follow their game among the icebergs of the Greenland seas."113 "The New Englanders of this period," says Bancroft.114 "were of homogeneous origin, nearly all tracing their descent to the English emigrants of the reigns of Charles the First and Charles the Second. They were a frugal and industrious race. Along the seaside, wherever there was a good harbor, fishermen, familiar with the ocean, gathered in hamlets; and each returning season saw them with an ever-increasing number of mariners and vessels, taking the cod and mackerel, and sometimes pursuing the whale into the icy labyrinths of the Northern seas; yet loving home, and dearly attached to their modest freeholds."

      Of this period Hutchinson says: 115 "The increase of the consumption of oil by lamps as well as by divers manufactures in Europe has been no small encouragement to our whale-fishery. The flourishing state of the island of Nantucket must be attributed to it. The cod and whale fishery, being the principal source of our returns to Great Britain, are therefore worthy not only of provincial but national attention."

      A continual succession of foreign wars, in which the hardy fishermen and farmers of New England were constantly called to the aid of England, coupled with a continual succession of intolerant measures adopted by the mother country toward the plantations, which, in common with the colonists at large, they felt impelled to resist, was gradually preparing America for the eventful struggle which was to end in its independence. By the experience of the wars they learned their strength, through the pressure of the tyrannical acts they learned their rights.

      Pending the expedition for the reduction of Nova Scotia in 1755 an embargo was laid upon the "bank" fishermen, though the risk of capture was so great that it of itself must have quite effectively embargoed many of them.116

      In 1757 — the embargo being still continued upon the fishery in these waters — a petition was presented to the general court of Massachusetts from the people of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, representing that the memorialists

      "being Informed that your Honours think it not advisable to Permit the fishermen to Sail on their Voyages untill the time limited by the Embargo is Expired by Reason that their fishing banks where they Usually proceed on said Voyages lyes Eastward not far from Cape breton which may be a means of their falling into the hands of the french which may be of bad Consequence to the Common Cause. Your Memorialists would Humbly observe to Your Honours that that is not the Case with the whalemen their procedure oil their Voyages is Westward of the Cape of Virginia and southward of that untill the month of June from which Your Memorialists are of the mind their is nothing like the Danger of their falling into the hands of the Cape breton Privateers as would be If they went Eastward. Your Memorialists would further Observe that the whalemen have almost double the Number of hands that the fishermen Carry which makes Their Charge almost Double to that of fishermen and ye first part of the Whale season is Always Esteemed the Principal time for their making their Voyages which If they lose the greatest part of the People will have