214 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [10] 



Falinoutli commenced with a uew ship built in 1821, called the Poca- 

 hontas, 300 tons. She sailed for the Pacific in charge of F. B. Chase, of 

 Nantucket, and filled with sperm-oil. A fine fleet of live-oak ships was 

 built after this success, consisting of the Uncas, Hobomok, B. Gosnold, 

 Commodore ISTorris, &c. Some of these ships were upwards of 400 tons 

 and capable of carrying from 3,G00 to 4,000 barrels of oil, commanded 

 by other Nantucket men. Some of them are still engaged in whaling 

 from other ports, for now not a ship sails from this port. The same 

 story can be told of Wareham, Mattapoisett, Sippican, and other small 

 places, not a ship belonging now to either of these ports. 



Cape Cod is pretty well sustained by her bold Provincetown whale- 

 fishermen. They have a small fleet of schooners, whose cruising ground 

 is chiefly in the Atlantic Ocean, and they have done well in sustaining 

 so large a fleet, considering the many trials they have met and over- 

 come so nobly, both on the sea and on the land. The oil wells of Penn- 

 sylvania, war, bad voyages, Alabamas, disasters at sea — all have had 

 their effect on the whale fishery in this and in all other places that 

 have been engaged in this business since the disastrous days of the 

 *' California fever." 



In 1830 Gloucester took the whaling fever, and the old Mount Wal- 

 laston was purchased of Mr. Crufts, a Eussian merchant of Boston. 

 The ship Louis was also purchased, and the commands of the two ships 

 were given to Nantucket men. The venture proving unsuccessful, the 

 ships were sold to New Bedford and Salem. Mr. Crufts at the same 

 time sold his ship, with the apostolic name of St. Peter, to New Bedford. 

 This gentleman was the contemporary of William Gray, the princely 

 ship owner, better known as Billy Gray, and Benjamin Willis. 



Although Mr. Gray's name has been mentioned in this article as be- 

 ing connected with the whale fishery in Boston, in the year 1820, it 

 seems that about this time he offered all his ships then at sea, and to 

 purchase more, if a certain enterprising citizen of Nantucket, personally 

 known to him, would come to Boston, take charge of the fleet, and fit 

 the ships for whalers. Believing that it would be the death-blow to the 

 whaling interests of his native town, the citizen of Nantucket declined 

 the proffered temptation. 



Reading the annals of the Nantucket whale fishery, and looking back 

 at the events that have occurred in connection with this gigantic busi- 

 ness during the one hundred and seventy-five years of its history, 

 calls up many well remembered scenes and traditions. Many and thrill- 

 ing are the stories that can '6e told of incidents w hich have occuired 

 under the frozen mountains of Disco and Greenland, on the burning 

 coast of Africa and on Brazil, and on the more savage coasts of the 

 Falkland Islands and Patagonia. And what a terrible loss of life and 

 property has there been in the fearful encounters of our hardy seamen 

 w'ith that monster of the deep, the sperm whale. Of all the different 

 species of whales, the spermaceti is the most savage when aroused. 



