28 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



in rig and hull which transformed them from tiny sloops to 

 more pretentious schooners and brigs. 



These improvements vastly increased the radius of activ- 

 ities. Freed from the necessity of returning to shore after 

 each capture, the whalemen ventured on longer and longer 

 voyages. By the time the Revolution broke out they had 

 explored most of the whaling grounds of the North Atlantic 

 and were preparing to invade the regions of the South At- 

 lantic. Tradition has it, in fact, that the first American whaler 

 to cross the equator — the brig Amazon, of Nantucket, Uriah 

 Bunker, Master — reached home on the very day which wit- 

 nessed the battles of Lexington and Concord. Before this, 

 however, the ever-expanding activities of the New England 

 whalers had taken them to Davis Straits between 1732 and 

 17465 to Baffin Bay by 1751J to the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 and Hudson Bay by 1761; to the coast of Guinea in 17635 to 

 the Western and Cape Verde Islands, the West Indies, and 

 the Caribbean Sea by 17655 and to the coast of Brazil in 



1774- 



In this widening search for new whaling grounds, as in 



other phases of the industry, the Nantucket fleet took the lead. 



And her initiative was rewarded with larger and larger catches. 



In 1730 her 25 small vessels, of 38 to 50 tons each, secured 



3700 barrels of oil which sold for 3200 pounds sterling. In 



1756 her fleet of 80 vessels, averaging about 75 tons per vessel, 



brought home some 12,000 barrels of oil which exchanged for 



27,600 pounds sterling. And by 1775 she had 150 whalers, 



ranging from 90 to 180 tons each, which captured about 30,000 



barrels of oil and enabled her to lay claim to 167,000 pounds 



sterling.^ Such figures meant that whaling, to the islanders, 



was neither an adventure nor an experiment: it had become an 



industry. 



But other regions also felt the stimulus and the lure of 



expanding activities. Southern New England and eastern 



Long Island, in particular, began to find in whaling a serious 



6 These figures are taken from an article written in 1785, but published in 

 1794, entitled "The Progress of the Whale Fishery at Nantucket." Massachu- 

 setts Historical Society Collections, Series i, Volume III, p. 161. 



