APPENDIX D 



A Cross-Section View of the American Whale Fishery on January i, 1844 ^ 



Table I 



Figures Descriptive of the Industry as a Whole 



Average Num- Average Length 



Number of Number of ber of Men of Voyage, In- 



Vessels Men per Vessel eluding Time 



Sperm Whaling 242 



Right Whaling 329 



Atlantic Sperm Whaling 73 



Totals 



644* 



i7>594 



♦Made up of 595 ships and barks, 41 brigs, and 8 schooners, displacing 

 200,484 tons. 



Table II 



Whaling Vessels, Tonnage, and Seamen Sailing From the Ports of the 

 New Bedford District 



Ports Number of Vessels Tonnage Number of 



(Ships, Barks, and Brigs) Men 



New Bedford 219 69,803 5,888 



Fairhaven 45 I4j350 iji70 



Dartmouth I 387 



Westport 11 1,982 



Mattapoiset 10 I5938 



Sippican 7 1,335 



Wareham 6 13366 



30 



253 

 230 

 161 

 138 



Total 



299 



91,161 



7,870 



^The statistical material included in the seven tables of Appendix D was 

 taken from compilations made by Joseph Grinnell, Member of Congress from 

 New Bedford. Mr. Grinnell made use of these figures in preparing a speech 

 on whaling which he delivered in the House of Representatives on May i, 

 1844; and during the same year he published his remarks in the form of a 

 sixteen-page pamphlet entitled, "Speech on the Tariff, With Statistical Tables 

 of the Whale Fishery." While many of the calculations are admittedly esti- 

 mates, and are so labelled, Mr. Grinnell's official position and the ready 

 access to reliable sources of information which it gave him, plus his own 

 familiarity with the conditions of the whale fishery, confer a strong degree of 

 presumptive accuracy upon his compilations. 



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