130 CAPTAIN ZACHARY G. LAMSON 



rounded the "Horn," touched at St. Felix 

 and the Galapagos, and then proceeded to 

 Canton, where they sold their cargoes at 

 great profit. 



The sealing fleet consisted of some 

 twenty ships averaging two hundred and 

 fifty tons burden, manned, it is said, by the 

 best young men of New Haven. 1 These 

 ships carried crews of forty men each be- 

 sides the captain, mates, supercargo, sur- 

 geon, blacksmith, carpenter and cooper. 

 Including vessels owned outside of New 

 Haven, it is probable that the sealing fleet, 



"We, the undersigned, masters of American vessels now 

 in the port of Christiansand, having heard with astonish- 

 ment that one of the principal charges against the Ameri- 

 can brig 'Hannah,' from Boston bound direct to Riga, 

 and condemned at the prize court of this place, is as fol- 

 lows, That the said court have pronounced it absolutely 

 impossible to cross the Atlantic without a chart or sextant. 

 We therefore feel fully authorized to assert that we have 

 frequently made voyages from America without the above 

 articles, and we are fully persuaded that every seaman 

 with common nautical knowledge can do the same." 



1 New Haven Hist. Society Papers, vol. 4, p. 146. 



