APPENDIX B 



1. The Beginnings of American Sealing — Trade with China 



Soon after Captain James Cook returned (1775) to Britain with news of the seals at 

 South Georgia, a number of expeditions were planned by the British but were abandoned 

 because of the war. In 1785, however, two vessels were fitted out at London ". . . under the 

 liberty of the British East India Company, but by private adventure," William Rotch wrote 

 from England to Nantucket. They intended to sail "to that part of America where Captain 

 Cook had obtained the skins, (I believe it was near California but cannot fully recollect) 

 that they fetched so high a price in China; some of his officers are going in the ships . . . 

 Skins are a very fine, delicate quality. ... I intend to inform myself better in this respect 

 & let you know." 



William Rotch had read Cook's journals and found the furs were sea otters, valued in 

 China "at the enormous price of $100 per skin," and were obtained in "North Latitude 

 56° on the northwest coast of America." Rotch's brother, Francis Rotch, had been to the 

 Falkland Islands and seen the quantity of seals there. He proposed getting some of the skins 

 and trading for them. 



An authority on the sealing trade, A. Howard Clark, unwittingly was the originator 

 of an error which several historians have since perpetuated. As part of his report, he in- 

 cluded a portion of the journal of the ship Neptune of New Haven, which sailed on a seal- 

 ing voyage in 1796. On board the ship was a young supercargo, Ebenezer Townsend, son 

 of the owner, who wrote of his anchorage in the Falklands thus : 



"States Harbor derives its name from a ship of that name which lay here two years 

 to obtain sea-elephant oil and hair-seal skins. She was a very large ship, toward 1000 

 tons, from Boston, fitted from there soon after the Revolutionary War, and the first 

 ship that we know of that took any fur-seal skins. She was owned by Lady Haley, 

 living in Boston. They took about 13,000 fur-seal skins as an experiment, which were 

 sold in New York at about half a dollar each, their value not being known. They 

 were afterwards taken to Calcutta, and sold there as sea-otters. From Calcutta, they 

 were taken to Canton by Captain Metcalf of New York, who started from the United 

 States about the same time that Captain Kendricks sailed from Boston. In Canton 

 these skins were sold at about $5.00 each." 



Writers following Clark began stating that "Lady Haley, a Boston woman," fitted out 

 the ship States for a sealing cruise to the Falklands in 1783 — "the first such cruise from 

 America." Actually, the "Boston woman" was in reality Madame Hayley, of London, who 

 came from London to this country with Francis Rotch. The States was a Rotch ship. After 

 reaching Boston with Mrs. Hayley and Francis Rotch the ship went to Nantucket, and 

 from there she sailed under Captain Benjamin Hussey to the Falklands late in 1784. The 

 ship took whales and then skins of seals, known to be numerous at the Falklands. 



The first cargo of sealskins must have reached Nantucket early in 1786, for the cargo 

 of thirteen thousand skins, sold at fifty cents each to New York — a $6,500 shipment — 

 eventually was put on board the brig Eleanora, Captain Metcalf, and reached the Canton 

 market, where they were sold for $65,000. One historian states "they were originally mis- 

 taken for sea-otter skins." This is hardly creditable, as neither Captain Hussey nor Captain 

 Metcalf can be accused of ignorance, especially in view of the Rotches' knowledge and 

 the experience of the whalemen at the Falklands. The voyages of the States and Eleanora 

 inaugurated the Canton fur trade for the sealers. 



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