NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE. 155 



they were all drowned." ^ Again, in 1716, we learn that Mr. Jonathan Howes, who seems 

 to have been prominent in the whaling enterprise at Yarmouth, "was killed by a whale which 

 he attacked in a boat." ^ 



Starbuck^ further quotes a petition to the General Court, on file at the Boston State 

 House in which Dinah Coffin, of Nantucket, prays to be allowed to marry again, inasmuch as, 

 two years before, "her Husband, Elisha Coffin did on the Twenty Seventh Day of April Annoq 

 Dom: 1722 Sail from sd Island of Nantucket in a sloop: on a whaling trip intending to return 

 in a month or six weeks at most, And Instantly a hard & dismall Storm followed ; which in all 

 probability Swallowed him and those with him up: for they were never heard of." The Boston 

 News-Letter of February 12, 1730 (quoted by Starbuck, 1878, p. 31) contains the record of a 

 similar mishap near Chatham: "There has been a remarkable Providence in the awful death 

 of some of my neighbors; On the day commonly called New Year's Day a whaleboat's Crew 

 (which Consists of a Stersman, an Harpineer, and Four Oarmen) coming home from a Place 

 called Hog's-Back, where they had been on a Whaling design, the Boat was overset, and all 

 the Men lost, on a reaf of Sand that lies out against Billingsgate. When the Boat was found 

 bottom upward, and the Stern post broken off, there were two Chests found in it, which were 

 wedged so fast under the Thwards that the water had not washed them out; in which were 

 found the Pocket books of two of the Men, by which it plainly appears what Boat it was; but 

 none of the Bodies are, as yet found, that I can hear of; tho' they found an iron Pot, which they 

 had with them, upon the reaf, and discovered the Whaling Irons at the bottom of the Water, 

 where it is about 8 feet deep. 



"P. S. — Before I had done writing I had News that two of their Bodies were found." 



Of interest further in showing how the whale fishery at Cape Cod offered employment 

 for men all about the Bay, is a brief item in the History of the Town of Hingham, Mass. (1893, 

 vol. 3, p. 53), concerning John Marble, a native of that place, who died in April, 1738, as the 

 record says, "suddenly at Cape Cod a whaling, leaving three small children." 



An anecdote of early whaling, with less serious outcome, is told by Zaccheus Macy '' in 

 his account of Nantucket. "It happened once, when there were about thirty boats about six 

 miles from the shore, that the wind came round to the northward, and blew with great violence, 

 attended with snow. The men all rowed hard, biit made but little headway. In one of the 

 boats were four Indians and two white men. An old Indian in the head of the boat, perceiving 

 that the crew began to be disheartened, spake out loud in his own tongue . . . . ' Pull ahead with 

 courage; do not be disheartened; we shall not be lost now; there are too many Englishmen 



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



2 Swift, F. C. History of Old Yarmouth, Mass., 1884, p. 136. 



' Starbuck, A. Rept. U. S. Coram. Fi.sh and Fislieries, 1878, p. 23, footnote. 



<Coll. Ma,ss. Hist. Soc, 1810, ser. 1, vol. 3, p. 157. 



