230 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



A. B. Nickerson fell in with a school of about ten Finbacks off Cape Cod, and succeeded in 

 killing a large one which sank at once. In the following year a Finback Whale that had been 

 shot about the first of May (1890), was found floating near Egg Rock, Swampscott, and was 

 towed into Deer Cove, Lynn. These reports are doubtless but an echo of the activity of the 

 little steam- whaler, for Mr. Blake, in response to my inquiries, sends me a note from Mr. M. C. 

 Atwood, of Provincetown, in which he says, "John Rosenthal told me that the highest number 

 of whales that the steamer killed in any one year was fifty-two and other people killed about 

 the same number during the same year, which is quite a slaughter. That was in 1887, he thinks. 

 I remember the year well. At one time Job Cook had at his place on Long Point, fourteen 

 whales. But they are gone now [1903] and it is a rare thing to see one." 



The Nantucket Journal for October 4, 1894, makes mention of a school of whales about 

 the Cape at that time, at least one of which was killed. In the previous month, Septem- 

 ber 12, 1894, Captain "Ed. Walter" Smith of Provincetown, had killed a large Finback off the 

 "Gully." ^ But the following year seems to have yielded a greater harvest. A clipping from 

 the Provincetown Beacon in early May, 1895, states that on April 12th, of that year, the first 

 Finback of the season was shot by Captain E. W. Smith and eighteen days later a "young 

 whale" was killed by the Truro trapmen. Captain Fuller in the Vigilant, next killed one 

 which was sold to Boston parties for embalming and exhibition. Captain Nickerson in the 

 Angelina B. Nickerson killed five about the first week of May. The same week Captain 

 Joshua Nickerson shot a "very large whale", Captain Fuller and Captain "Ves" Ellis each 

 shot one — all Finbacks. Eleven whales in all was thus the total catch up to about the 

 10th of May of 1895. The Nantucket Journal " also refers to the large Finback caught by 

 Captain Nickerson, and adds that between April 12th and May 16th, he had captured and 

 towed to his oilworks at Herring Cove, Provincetown, no less than eight whales. 



The season of 1896 was likewise a prosperous one for the local whalers. A clipping dated 

 Provincetown, April 23, 1896, reads: "Steamer A. B. Nickerson, Captain Nickerson, has 

 killed four whales, two of which were Humpbacks, and has landed them at the oilworks in 

 Herring Cove .... A good-sized school of whales is reported around the Cape, following up 

 the herring school, and the fleet of small steamers here is on the warpath after them." Other 

 whales were undoubtedly taken during the remainder of the summer, l)ut how many does not 

 appear. According to the Boston Journal for October 5, 1896, a Finback, sLxty-five feet 

 in length, drifted ashore at Nantasket Beach, and had probably been shot by the whalers 

 shortly before. 



The year 1896 practically closes the Finback whaling in our waters, and the A. B. Nick- 

 erson has gone in search of other quarry. The tryworks have fallen into disuse and though 



' Boston Daily Globe, Apl. 3, 1895. 



= Nantucket Journal, vol. 17, no. 33, May 10, 1895. 



