10 NANTUCKET TREES 



and yellow pine were imported from the southern States 

 for the whaling vessels. Under date of March, 1694, the 

 town prescribed a penalty for cutting wood on Coatue but 

 provided "nevertheless aney freeholder may cut timber 

 for whale bots or the Like anything in this order not- 

 withstanding. " Starbuck quotes under a later date: "At 

 a Towne meeting of ye inhabitants freeholders Nantucket 

 ye 25 of ye 11 mo 1711 ye town takeing into consideration 

 ye great benefit ye Coetue neck is to them for ye sucker 

 of their sheep in hard seasons as is lately Experienced 

 do now conclude that there is necessity of preserving ye 

 Seaders & p^nes & other groaths there do now voate yt 

 after of this order no person whatsoever shall not for 

 time to come cutt or carry of from Coetue any sort of 

 Wood by land or Water, Either seaders p^nes or any other 

 groaths of wood under any notion or pretence Whatsoever 

 on penalty of paying a fine of ten shxllings for any 

 quantity whatsoever & to forfit what is brought of & ye 

 informer to have it & one half of ye fine." 43 



We wonder at the mention of pines m this last 

 quotation. There are no pines today on Coatue; indeed 

 all pines on Nantucket today are traced to introductions 

 of the 19th and 20th centuries. Perhaps the use of the 

 term "pines" here is the same as its use by many people 

 today for whom pine is synonymous with evergreen. 



The increasing dependence of Nantucket upon wood 

 from the mainland brought dire hardship during both the 

 War of the Revolution and the War of 1812 as Nantucket 

 ships were continually in danger of capture. One may 

 get a vivid picture from Starbuck' s extracts both from 

 the diary of Mrs. Fanning (Keziah Coffin) and from the 

 town records . 



From Mrs. Fanning' s diary, 1776, we read: "Tues. 

 Sept. 5, Rand, P. F., Sampson, Brister &c sl'd this morn- 

 ing to Vineyard in Fathers vessel for a load of wood. 

 Fri. Oct. 6... a number of our vessels have long been 

 look'd for from Kennebeck with wood." Mrs. Fanning writes 

 of the exceptional severity of the winter of 1779-80, 

 "The harbor was frozen over the latter part of Dec. 1779, 

 and by the 15th of Jan., 1780 people travelled over the 

 ice to Quaxse. No water was in sight from any part of 



