FISHERMAN'S LUCK 151 



parture from the usual brief and immoral course of such love 

 affairs, of which there were many although marriages were few, 

 got him into difficulties with owners or crew, that forced him to 

 enter upon island life regardless of his own desires. 



In 1832, in the Maine fishing village of Wiscasset, a paper 

 named the Wiscasset Intelligencer twice drew the attention of 

 its readers to the profits earned by whaling in the Pacific, 

 Among its readers were a number of men and women who had 

 money to invest and were shrewd enough to recognize oppor- 

 tunity. They organized a ''whale company'' — typical of its 

 kind and its period — which met at three o'clock in the after- 

 noon of August 14, 1833, in ''John Brook's compting room." 

 So far as I am aware, no record remains of those transactions, 

 but we know that the affairs of the newly formed company 

 progressed, for on November 1, 1833, the members were noti- 

 fied that they were assessed fifty per cent, of their subscriptions 

 and the assessment book of the town for 1834 contains a list 

 of twenty shareholders in the corporation, which was organized 

 under a special charter, granted by the Maine legislature and 

 approved February 22, 1834, as "The Wiscasset Whale Fishing 

 Company." 



Meanwhile, in October, a vessel named Wiscasset was 

 launched in the neighbouring town of Bristol. Three mem- 

 bers of the Wiscasset company bought her just as she lay after 

 leaving the ways, and brought her under jury rig to Wiscasset, 

 where there was a holiday in honour of her coming. She 

 berthed at what had been known until then as Parsons' Wharf; 

 on that day, November 29, 1833, they changed the name to 

 "Whaleship Wharf," and as "Whaleship Wharf" it has been 

 known ever since. 



The company, at a meeting held on March 18, 1834, voted to 

 buy the ship from the three members who had secured her, and 

 appointed a committee of four to fit her out. As agent, one 

 Jonathan Parsons advertised for twenty seamen and green 

 hands and a blacksmith for her maiden voyage, and in May 

 she sailed under the command of Captain Richard Macy of 

 Nantucket. 



