VIIl.-NOTES UPOxN THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WHALE 



FISHERY. 



By F. C. Sanford. 



It is not my i^urpose to go back to the time when whaling was first 

 carried on by the Bis(;ayaus, or speak particularly of a later period 

 when England and Holland were engaged in the business, 1598-1611. 

 At this time the Dutch sent one hundred and thirty-three whalers to 

 Spitzbergeu, and up to 1782 had captured thirty-three thousand Green- 

 land whales, whose money value was computed at $100,000,000. These 

 notes have reference to a still later period, relating more especially to 

 the business as carried on in our own country, commencing, perhaps, 

 with the time of John Smith (of Pocahontas memory), when whales 

 were captured along the coast of Maine, the undertaking being attended 

 with great difficulty. Of these voyages there is comparatively little 

 known. In 1670, William Hamilton succeeded in taking the first sperm- 

 aceti whale off Nantucket, and from that time for nearly two hundred 

 years Nantucket successfully pursued the business. It had increased 

 to such dimensions in this and other towns in the State that, in a little 

 over a hundred years, about 1775, Mr. Jeiferson made an elaborate 

 report to Congress upon the whale fishery of Massachusetts, and com- 

 mended it as an enterprise worthy of the fostering care of the Gov- 

 ernment as a nucleus for American seamen alone. See " Pitkin's Re- 

 ports." 



That our people carried on regularly the business of whaling from 

 the shore in boats as early as 1670, is shown by the following extract 

 from the town records : 



"At a town meeting of the trustees, 1693, it was agreed that the 

 pines and undivided wood on Coatue be divided to every man his pro- 

 portion as soon as it can be with convenience, and until or before that 

 be done, no man shall cut or carry away off the land the said wood, on 

 l)enalty of five shillings for every load cut or carried away. Nevertheless, 

 any freeholder may cut timber for whale-boats, or the like, anything on 

 this order to the contrary notwithstanding." 



I find, also, by a letter signed by Nathaniel Coffin, son of James, 

 dated June 16, 1699, at Saint Johns, N. F., on board one of our vessels, 

 that they were on a whaling expedition, and had put in there for re- 

 cruits, which shows that the making of comparatively long voyages 

 was commenced at a much earlier period than is generally supi>08ed. 

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