IV 



IN THE DOLDRUMS 



A LTHOUGH, for the time being, the American Revolution 

 /~\ virtually made an end of whaling out of American ports, 

 circumstances at the end of the war were so favourable for re- 

 building the industry that the whaling towns were vastly en- 

 couraged. 



On February 3, 1783, the ship Bedford, owned by William 

 Rotch of Nantucket and flying the Stars and Stripes, arrived 

 at the Downs with a cargo of four hundred and eighty-seven 

 butts of whale oil. On the same day she passed Gravesend, 

 and three days later she was reported at the custom house. 

 "This," an old historian says, ''is the first vessel which has 

 displayed the thirteen rebellious stripes of America in any Brit- 

 ish port." 



So many acts of Parliament against the American ''rebels" 

 were still in force that the Commissioners of Customs consulted 

 the Lords of Council before they would admit a whaler built, 

 manned, and owned by Americans. But they did admit her, 

 and both she and the Industry, another Nantucket vessel which 

 arrived shortly, sold their oil for a good price. 



Meanwhile, the vessels that put to sea on whaling voyages 

 found that whales were more plentiful. The years of war, when 

 whaling virtually ceased, had enabled them to regain something 

 of their former numbers, and they showed signs of returning to 

 the New England coast, whence the activities of whalemen be- 

 fore the Revolution had been driving them. Above all, they 

 were less wary than in the old days when the life of the more 

 fortunate whale had been one long succession of hairbreadth 

 escapes from the irons of eager boat-steerers. 



With brightest hopes for the future, then, the old whaling 



87 



