The Central Atlantic^ as Seen by the Nantucketers 



The eastern seaboard of North America runs more nearly west to 

 east than north to south, and it hangs far out over the "top" of the At- 

 lantic oceans if we look at a map directed at the North Pole. Nantucket 

 Island thus faces due south and directly toward the great island of 

 Hispaniola, with Bermuda slightly to the left. Straight ahead and not far 

 offshore, the Gulf Stream runs from right to left in a concentrated flow. 



Sperm whales are warm-water and tropical animals, and since it was in 

 their pursuit that the Nantucketers first earnestly went to sea, they natu- 

 rally set straight out to the south from their shores. This led them, by 

 easy and progressive stages, first to the ocean off the Carolinian coasts, 

 thence right into the Caribbean, half left to the northern coast of South 

 America, and, skirting this, to the narrow neck between the North and 

 South Atlantics. The hop from there to the west coast of Africa was 

 predicated by following the whales, but was complicated by the south- 

 east trade winds which tended always to force them back up north 

 towards Europe. Moreover, it was by taking this easy course homeward 

 that they stumbled upon the great Canary Islands, Morocco, Western 

 Islands, and Western Grounds, and this explains why the two last were 

 so called by them for, on this home passage, they saw the Atlantic from 

 the same point of view as a European going west. 



The Nantucketers also turned half right when they got into the South 

 Atlantic and fished off Brazil, but the hunting was never good there and 

 southeast trade winds kept blowing them back. The Carroll Ground off 

 West Africa was so fertile a field that many ships made the hard run 

 there first in the season and then used the trades to return home in a 

 westerly direction via the famous Twelve-Forty Ground. 



For identification of Central Atlantic whaling grounds, shown on the 

 accompanying map by diagonal shading, see endpaper maps. 



