IN THE DOLDRUMS 93 



munity cut a channel through the bar nor would it abate the 

 necessity of paying custom-house expenses twice when the ves- 

 sels were forced to visit other ports to discharge cargoes. So, 

 although the Islanders even resorted to a floating dock in an 

 effort to carry their vessels into harbour, the bar defeated 

 them conclusively after a losing fight of nearly three quarters 

 of a century. 



As for the lively times in the whaling industry, which fol- 

 lowed when France began to buy our whale products, they came 

 to a sudden end when the French Revolution broke out. There 

 was no profit in shipping oil and bone to France, and the activi- 

 ties of the whaling fleet served only to flood the home market 

 and drive down the prices, until bone that had brought a dollar 

 a pound would bring only ten cents a pound, and oil would not 

 bring enough to pay the cost of getting it. Add to this the 

 danger of losing whaling vessels to French privateers during our 

 brief naval war with France in the last two years of the century, 

 together with insurance rates so high that even a ''full ship'' 

 must lose money, and it is a matter for small wonder that our 

 whaling again nearly ceased. 



Nearly fifty years later, although the Government arranged 

 with France a settlement of our claims for losses sustained at 

 this time, some of the old Nantucket families that had lost 

 virtually all their property by the raids of French privateers 

 were left in actual poverty. Of the ship Joanna, Captain 

 Alpheas Coffin, which was lost, with 2,000 barrels of oil on 

 board, to a French privateer, one of the owners, one of the crew, 

 and the children of master and mate, were living in poverty in 

 1846. The vessel and her cargo were valued at $40,000. Of 

 the ship Minerva, Captain Fitch, which was lost with 1,500 

 barrels of oil on board, one of the owners, the master, and one 

 of the crew were living in comparative poverty, though her cargo 

 had been worth $30,000. The ship Active, Captain Carder, 

 worth, with her cargo of 300 barrels of oil on board, $50,000, 

 was another example — the survivors and heirs of those who had 

 owned and sailed her were left virtually penniless. One of those 

 Nantucketers who lost vessels to privateers died in the alms- 



