154 WHALING 



could not be found to go in them — that nobody could carry on 

 the business but the Nantucketites and New Bedfordites. In 

 fact, it has been supposed that none but these people could 

 make a harpoon or whale warp, or even catch whales, but we 

 hope to undeceive them in a few years. Our ships have more 

 than their complement of men and enough could be obtained 

 to navigate a dozen whale ships. By some misunderstanding 

 between the Agent and Captain of the Mount Wollaston, more 

 than her complement of officers were shipped, but the difficulty 

 was readily obviated by the willingness manifested by one of 

 our townsmen to relinquish the voyage in favour of an officer 

 who had come from some distance, and at considerable ex- 

 pense. — The voyage was a short one for our friend, but al- 

 though he caught no fish, he received a liberal share of the 

 oil-money for his unforeseen disappointment, and we cheerfully 

 recommend Mr. Moses Burnham to the notice of those who 

 are already, or may be engaged in whaling, as a faithful and 

 capable seaman." 



Gloucester had caught the whaling fever — whether from the 

 leading articles by the editor of the Telegraph, or from the ad- 

 vertisements offering cash for blubber by the barrel, or from the 

 general enthusiasm for the business, which was sweeping down 

 the coast, it now makes little difference — and the ships Mount 

 Wollaston and L^wis put to sea on January 11th and January 

 26th, respectively. 



The Mount Wollaston sailed on a second whaHng voyage 

 out of Gloucester in June, 1834, and the Gloucester schooner 

 Flying Arrow made a whaling voyage in 1853 and 1854, but 

 there Gloucester's whaling ended. In the past ninety years the 

 business of fishing for such small fry as mackerel and ''tomy- 

 cods" has continued to prosper, but the business of hunting 

 great whales has come virtually to an end. 



The modest whaling business carried on out of Lynn, Massa- 

 chusetts, was most active during the years when Wiscasset 

 was a whaling town. In 1831 a single vessel went whaling out 

 of Lynn, but the next year the merchants and business men 

 of the town organized a whaling company which sent out a 



