NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE. ' 153 



s whale killers that killed or wounded s whale shall presently repaire to some prudent person 

 whome the Court shall appoint, and there give in the wounds of s whale, the time & place 

 when & where kUled or wounded; and s person so appointed shall presently comitt it to 

 record, and his record shall be allowed good testimony in law. 



"2. That all whales brought or cast on shore shall be viewed by the person so appointed, 

 or his deputy, before they are cut or any way defaced after come or brought on shore, and 

 s viewer shall take a particular record of the wounds of s whale, & time & place when & 

 where brought on shore; & his record shall be good testimony in law, and s viewer shall 

 take care for securing s fish for the owner." This same court order further provides that 

 any person finding a 'drift' whale "on the stream, a mile from the shore, not appearing to 

 be killed by any man," may secure it to his own use, not omitting, however, to pay "an hogs- 

 head of oyle to y*" county for every such whale." ^ 



Thus was established the office of Whale-viewer, whose duty it was to examine all whales 

 that came ashore within his jurisdiction and to record not only the marks and wounds of these, 

 but those as well of whales that were reported harpooned at sea and escaped, according as the 

 pursuers gave their testimony. By this means it was hoped to identify lost whales, should 

 they subsequently die of their wounds and be cast on shore. 8uch whales would then be made 

 over to their rightful owners, if satisfactory proof could be shown through the record of marks 

 and wounds, for otherwise they became the spoil of the finder or other person appointed for 

 their disposal. That practically all the 'drift' whales were such as had Ijeen previously wounded 

 is in itself eminently probable, and is further shown by contemporary evidence, for Weeden ^ 

 tells us that "as early as 1681, Andros reported that very few whales were driven on shore, 

 unless proved to have been struck by the fishermen." 



Following its order of November 6, 1690, the General Court appointed "to view and 

 inspect whales," Mr. Skiff of Sandwich, and Captain Lothrop 6f Barnstable.^ In the same year, 

 "John Wadsworth was appointed to view whales, that may be cast ashore in the town" of 

 Duxbury.'' 



It is plain from these occasional fragments, that many whales were annually killed on 

 the Massachusetts coast, and that a great number were struck and lost, only to die of their 

 wounds and later drift to land. 



The reason for so large a number of lost whales is not evident: whether through insufficient 

 strength of warp and iron, or through lack of skill on the part of the many men employed, 

 an alternative perhaps, hardly to be thought of. Perchance it may have been that the harpoon 

 line was not always managed entirely from the whale boat, but was fastened to drags and thrown 



' Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, 1856, vol. 6, p. 2.52. 



2 Weeden, W. B. Economic and Social History of New England, 1890, vol. 1, p. 435. 



« Freeman, F. History of Cape Cod, 1862, vol. 1, p. 323. 



' Winsor, J. History of Duxbury, Mass., 1849, p. 86. 



