FROM DOLDRUMS TO STU'N'S'LS 39 



Some of these vessels were recaptured in 18 13 and 18 14 by 

 the American naval expedition under Admiral Porter; but 

 most of them were burned, sunk, or transformed into British 

 transports or pirate craft. Other whaleships, including many 

 of those which sought to make port soon after the outbreak 

 of hostilities, were captured or destroyed in the Atlantic. 



And again, as during the Revolution, Nantucket bore the 

 brunt of the losses. In fact, to the older inhabitants of the 

 island this second war must have seemed but a dark and evil 

 memory of the first. There was the same fatalistic persever- 

 ance in sending out vessels even while it was known that most 

 of them would never return j the same suspense and agony of 

 waiting and of ascending day after day to the boat-walk, 

 spy-glass in handj the same lack of provisions and of new 

 materials J and the same terrifying increase in the number of 

 widows and of fatherless children. Other ports could and 

 did suspend operations for the duration of the war. But 

 Nantucket had no other means of livelihood: she was forced 

 to rely upon the small percentage of her vessels which did 

 return in order to stave off complete destitution. And the 

 result of this inevitable but ruinous policy, as before, was the 

 loss of a crushing percentage of her entire fleet. In 18 12 

 the inhabitants of the island owned and operated 116 whal- 

 ing vessels: in 18 15 only 23 strained and battered craft re- 

 mained. 



But the War of 18 12 was to be the last major reverse suf- 

 fered by the fishery for a half-century. In 18 15 American 

 whaling finally emerged from the long series of calamities 

 which had beset it since 1775, and entered a decade of pre- 

 liminary reconstruction and general clearing of decks. This 

 stage of rehabilitation, in turn, gradually merged into the 

 long period stretching from about 1825 to i860, rightfully 

 regarded as the golden era of New World whaling. 



The first decade of peace was utilized to the full in repair- 

 ing the ravages of war and in laying the foundations for future 

 expansion. New and fertile whaling grounds were opened 

 in rapid succession j and each newly-discovered whaling haunt 

 drew to itself, as to a magnet, hundreds of new harpoons. 

 In 1 8 18 the ship Globe, of Nantucket, George W. Gardner;, 



