32 A History of the American Whale Fishery. 
as it did from the sister island of Nantucket, perhaps 
because the former, being larger and more fertile, did not 
force the inhabitants to look to the sea for a livelihood. 
In 1775, when Nantucket had a fleet of 150 vessels, 
aggregating 15,000 tons, Martha’s Vineyard had but 
_ twelve vessels with a total burden of 720 tons.* 
New Bedford (then Dartmouth) was almost the last 
place to appear as a whaling port before the outbreak 
of the Revolution. The exact date of its beginning is 
not known, though it was probably just prior to 1760. 
In that year, says Starbuck,“ in the deed of a tract of 
land located within the present town of Fairhaven there 
was a clause reading, “‘always excepting and reserv- 
ing . . . that part of the same where the Try house 
and Oyl shed now stands.’’ How old these buildings were 
is not known. Inthe history of New Bedford,* Joseph 
Russell, the founder of the town, is also said to have been 
the pioneer in the whale fishery from that place. “It is 
well authenticated,” says the account, “‘that Joseph Rus- 
sell had pursued the business as early as 1755.’’ The town 
was then known as Dartmouth, and from just what part 
of it these vessels were fitted is uncertain. In 1755 the 
land now covered by the city of New Bedford was still 
forest. Not a single house marked the place where less 
than a century later was destined to stand the greatest 
whaling port the world has ever known, the city which, 
in the full glory of whaling prosperity, would send out 
more vessels than all other American ports combined. 
In 1765 four sloops from New Bedford were engaged 
in the whale fishery,“ and ten years later the town of 
Dartmouth was credited with eighty vessels with a 
tonnage of 6,500 tons,” thus bringing this locality, in the 
“ Starbuck, p. 41. 
“Starbuck, p. 43. 
“6 Ricketson: History of New Bedford, p. 58. 
“6 Starbuck, p. 43. 
“ Starbuck, p. 57, note. 
