WHALING IN THE COLONIES 25 



Unexpected prizes in the form of drift-whales consti- 

 tuted the settlers' first introduction to the whaling industry j 

 and the disposition of these gifts of providence gave rise to 

 many sets of canny regulations. In the early years of the 

 Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies it was provided that 

 the sum realized from every drift-whale was to be divided into 

 three parts — one-third to go to the colonial government, an- 

 other portion to the town having jurisdiction, and the final 

 third to the finder. In 1662 the town of Eastham, on Cape 

 Cod, voted appreciatively that a certain portion of every 

 whale cast ashore should be devoted to the support of the 

 minister. And Southampton, on Long Island, developed an 

 elaborate code for the proper handling of its whaling prob- 

 lems. In 1644 it was ordered that the town be divided into 

 four wards of eleven persons each, and that two individuals 

 from each ward, chosen in rotation, be employed to cut up 

 every drift-whale. Each cutter was then to be allowed a 

 double share in the proceeds realized from his particular 

 whale 5 while every other male inhabitant was to receive only 

 a single share. One year later it was decreed that anyone 

 who reported the location of a stranded whale to a magistrate 

 was to receive a reward of five shillings. But this munifi- 

 cent sum was forfeited if the carcass were discovered on Sun- 

 day! * 



From such accidental and occasional contacts with whales 

 the colonists soon passed to an organized prosecution of the 

 fishery. During the third quarter of the seventeenth century 

 the deliberate pursuit of whales was begun by communities on 

 the eastern end of Long Island, on Martha's Vineyard, on 

 Cape Cod, in the Bermudas, and on Nantucket. Probably 

 Southampton wa!s the first. Sometime between 1645 and 

 1655 the settlers of that village began to fit out boat expedi- 

 tions which cruised speculatively along the coast during ab- 

 sences of one to two weeks, landing each night in order to 

 sleep on shore. Martha's Vineyard adopted similar tactics 

 in 1652; and about 1665 whale oil was being sought in the bays 

 of the Bermudas. Cape Cod, too, must have entered the 

 ranks before 167OJ for during the years 1 672-1 690 the Nan- 



* Starbuck, A., "History of the American Whale Fishery," pp. 6 ff. 



