36 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



to be short-lived. For the increased production stimulated by 

 the bounty was met by a disappointingly small demand. Dur- 

 ing the war, when whaling products were not to be had, the 

 Americans had become accustomed to tallow candles j and 

 they were slow in changing their habits of consumption. At 

 the same time the British market, profitable for a decade be- 

 fore the Revolution, was now effectually barred by an import 

 duty of eighteen pounds sterling per tun on sperm oil. This 

 double drop in demand, coming in conjunction with the en- 

 larged catches, soon glutted the market and reduced prices to 

 such an extent that whaling became unprofitable in spite of 

 the bounty. 



The outlook at Nantucket was so gloomy that a number of 

 the inhabitants determined to emigrate. After a protracted 

 series of negotiations, one group of families sailed for Dun- 

 kirk, France. There, under the leadership of William Rotch 

 and the patronage of the French Government, they carried on 

 a small whale fishery from 1786 until 1793, when they were 

 stopped by the events of the French Revolution. During 

 these same years another colony of the islanders removed to 

 Nova Scotia, where they founded the village of Dartmouth. 

 This settlement fell apart within a few years j but some of 

 the colonists were thereupon induced to migrate to Milford 

 Haven, in England. And under the British Jack they finally 

 secured an opportunity to practice their calling with some 

 success. 



The stay-at-home Nantucketers, together with the whale- 

 men on the mainland, began to experience a brief return of 

 prosperity about 1790. Sperm candles were being used more 

 widely in the world of wealth and fashion, and the govern- 

 ment was buying large quantities of sperm oil for the grow- 

 ing chain of light-houses. The foreign demand also showed 

 a gratifying increase. France, in particular, began to consume 

 whaling products in such amounts that her trade filled the 

 gap caused by the loss of the pre-war British market. Nan- 

 tucket lost her air of apathy and of ruin, and gradually came 

 to regain some semblance of hopeful well-being." 



2 An interesting account of Nantucket life about 1790 may be found in 

 Crevecoeur, J. H. St. John de, "Letters From an American Farmer." Letters 



