30 HISTORY AND METHODS OP THE FISHERIES. 



"In 1692," says Starbuck, " came the inevitable dispute of proprietorship. A whale was cast 

 oil shore at Edgarfown 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 Sarsou, 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. By the inhabitants of Martha's Vineyard, in 1702-'3, there appear to 

 have been several whales lulled. The following entry occurs under that date in the court records: 

 'The marks of the \\ hales 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 (i and 7 and 8-foot bone, which are all gone from us. A true account given by John 

 Butler from us, and recorded Per me, Thomas Trapp, clerk.' " 



NANTTJCKET. 



The history of shore-whaling at Nantucket begins with the occupancy of that island by Euro- 

 peans, about the year 1640, although prior to that time the Indians were doubtless accustomed to 

 occasionally capture a whale. "The very earliest account of a capture," says Mr. C. S. Raleigh, 

 "was in the year 1608, when a party of Indians killed a humpback whale which got stranded on 

 a part of Nantucket, called Chiton, in the inner harbor." "The first whaling expedition," says 

 Macy. "was undertaken 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."* 



The islanders were, anxious to rugate in the whaling industry and, according to Starbuck,t 

 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 Desigue of Whale Catching on the Island of Nan- 

 tucket that is to say James In gages 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 Incoragemeut of the said James Loper the Town doth grant him ten acres of Land in 

 surne Couvenaut place that he may chuse in (Wood Laud Except) and also liberty for the com- 

 monage of three cows and Twenty sheep and one horse with necessary wood and water for his 

 " MACY : Hist. Nantucket, p. 28. t Report U. S. Fish Com., 1875-76. 



