[3] NOTES ON THE WHALE FISHERY. 207 



of the JSTantucket commanders were engaged for these important enter- 

 prises. The voyages were usually crowned with success. From small 

 beginnings Sag Harbor became a great center for whaling, and she main- 

 tained a successful fleet, both in the sperm and right whale fishery, until 

 the " gold fever" developed itself in 1848. 



Among the enterprising merchants of this port at the end of Long 

 Island were to be found the Howells, Slates, Mulfords, Huntingtons, 

 Posts, Deeriugs, and Sherrys, and its noble race of shipmasters was 

 second to none on the continent. In September, 1800, some merchants 

 of Norwich and New London sent the twenty-gun ship Oneida, Captain 

 Hubbell, to the coast of Chili on a sealing expedition, building and 

 sending out immediately the ship Miantonomoh to the South Pacific 

 Ocean, in charge of Valentine Swain, of Nantucket, on a whaling and 

 sealing voyage. After securing cargoes the ships were to proceed to 

 Canton, dispose of the oil and skins and take for the returned voyage 

 to the € nited States teas, silks, and nankeens. In 1802 the Miantonomoh 

 was captured and condemned by the Spaniards at Valparaiso. Nan- 

 tucket lost one other ships about the same time, which was engaged in 

 whaling and sealing, as the former had been. She was named the Trial, 

 and was commanded by Thomas Coffin, the father of the late lamented 

 Lucre tia Mott. Nothing was ever recovered from them. We had many 

 others in the same employment. Lady Adams, Brothers, Favorite, Mars, 

 Minerva, &c. The latter ship was commanded by Mayo Folger,* who 

 was afterwards master of theTojjaz, which belonged to himself and others 

 in Boston. On one of his voyages in the Topaz, September, 1808, he 

 discovered Pitcairn's Island, where he found the survivors of the Muti- 

 neers of the Bounty. This was the first knowledge the world had of 

 the fate of these men since Bligh was set adrift in mid ocean eighteen 

 years before. Upon Cai)tain Folger's arrival in Valparaiso he commu- 

 nicated the news to the British admiral, who immediately dispatched a 

 swift vessel to England with the facts. It created intense excitement 

 iit the tiiae. 



But to return to New London. In 1805 they bought and sent the ship 

 Dauphin, Capt. Laban Williams, to Brazil Banks, and obtained a small 

 voyage. This may be considered the commencement of whaling here, 

 New London. Then they purchased the ship Leonidas, and both ships, 

 she and the Dauphin, were fitted and sailed in August, 1806, the former 

 commanded by Alexander Douglass, and the latter by Captain Will- 

 iams. In 1807 both arrived with full cargoes of whale oil, one having 

 about 700 barrels and tJbe other 1,050. The ship Lydia was then pur- 

 chased and the command given to Captain Douglass. The Dauphin 

 was given to Joshua Sayer, of Nantucket, and the Leonidas to William 



* It might not be out of place in this connection to mention the fact tliat Capt, Mayo 

 Folger was brother of the above-mentioned Oapt. Thomas Coffin's wife, -who was, of 

 course, the mother of Lucretia Motit. Captain Folger was postmaster at Masaalon, 

 Ohio, and died there in 1828. 



