A. E. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 685 



Governor He} T don and Council reported to the Bermuda Company. 

 June 22, 1669, that according to the husband's account, in 1664, 44 

 hogsheads of " whale oyl with blubber" and " 400 weight of ffins " 

 [bone] were sent to London in the "Elias"; in 1666, 11" hhds. of 

 oil ; in 1667, 47^ tuns of oil. In all, 131 tuns of oil had been sent 

 in four years. 



Governor Coney, in 1685, reported to the Royal Committee that 

 about fourteen whales had been killed that yeai*, but no account of 

 the oil had been made to him, for the people claimed it as their own 

 property. He stated that a large whale was then worth £80. 



After the Bermudas became a crown colony, in 1685, the whale 

 fishery was carried on with greater activity than before, especially 

 as the cultivation of tobacco had become unprofitable and was rap- 

 idly abandoned, about 1700. But during most of the 18th century 

 a special license to carry on this fishery was required, for which a 

 considerable fee was charged by the governor. The fishery did not 

 become free till the time of Governor Brown, 1782, or about the 

 close of the Revolutionary War. Perhaps this measure was due 

 partly to the poverty of the people and the lack of other commer- 

 cial resources, at that time, for the war caused very hard times in 

 Bermuda, as did the subsequent war with France. 



However, the continuous killing of the whales, during the 18th 

 century and later, gradually reduced their numbers, so that for the 

 past fifty years they have been rarely captured. In fact, for forty 

 or fifty years, the Sperm Whale has apparently been much more 

 frequently taken than the Hump-back. 



As the Hump-back is a migratory whale, visiting the West Indies 

 in winter and the New England coast in summer, the fishery at Ber- 

 muda was not the only cause of its decrease in numbers. Probably 

 the New England whale fishermen killed as many, and perhaps 

 many more, than the Bermudians.* This was certainly the case with 

 the Biscay Whales, which were formerly taken in large numbers off 

 the New England coast, but apparently only in small numbers at 

 Bermuda. 



* From 1765 to 1770, there were from 100 to 125 American vessels engaged in 

 whaling, taking from 11,000 to 19,000 bbls. of oil annually. From 1771 to 1775 

 the average annual number was 304 vessels, tonnage 27,840, sperm oil taken 

 39,390 bbls.; other whale oil 8,650 bbls. In 1839, 557 American vessels, mostly 

 from New England, were engaged in this fishery ; in 1842 the number was 652 ; 

 in 1846, 678 ships, 35 brigs, and 22 schooners, with a total tonnage of 233,189 

 tons. 



