32 



THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



the Revolution was given in a report on the whale and cod 

 fisheries submitted to the House of Representatives by the then 

 Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, on February i, 1791. 

 Fortunately the Secretary saw fit to add to the main body of 

 the report an "Appendix on the State of the Whale Fishery 

 in Massachusetts, 1771 to 1775," which contained this en- 

 lightening table: ® 



Totals 183 13,820 121 14,020 4,059 39,390 7,650 



Massachusetts then, as later, was far ahead of any other 

 state in the size of her whaling fleet and the value of its 

 products. The ports of all other states taken together, how- 

 ever, did raise the figures for the industry as a whole appre- 

 ciably above those applying to Massachusetts alone. For in 

 1774 the entire colonial fleet consisted of 360 vessels, aggre- 

 gating about 33,000 tons, and employing some 4,700 men. 



*This report, including the appendix, was first printed separately at Phila- 

 delphia in 1791. Its title was "Report of the Sec. of State on the Subject of 

 the Cod and Whale Fisheries, Feb. i, 1791." Later it was joined with the 

 "Report on the Principal Fisheries of the American Seas," made by Lorenzo 

 Sabine, and both were printed in House Miscellaneous Documents No. 32, 2nd 

 Session, 42nd Congress. 



