210 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [6] 



casset, Me., have in the years mentioned, say from 1820 to 1850, turned 

 many of their old East Indiamen, China, cotton, and pepper ships, and 

 European packets into whalers. Some have been successful, but as a 

 general thing the business has declined, the ships have been sold and 

 finally brought up in some far-away port, mostly San Francisco — there 

 to be broken up, and their iron and copper used as a circulating medium, 

 perhaps, in the inner waters of the Chinese Empire. 



Nantucket has made its honorable mark in every sea where a vessel 

 could go in pursuit of wealth. A nobler record cannot be shown, and 

 here it must rest, I fear, forever. 



In 1785 Mr. William Rotch went to London, and there waited four 

 months upon George UI and William Pitt and his council, subject to 

 the call of Pitt at any time. Lord Hawkesbury at length gave him a 

 hearing, but would not listen to Botch's proposition to bring twenty 

 ships from America with all their material for whaling and enter them 

 free of duty. Mr. Rotch, tired of waiting, and, getting no satisfaction 

 from Hawkesbury, left England on the ship Maria for Dunkirk, France. 

 On his arrival in Paris he was granted an early interview by the French 

 minister, who agreed to admit his ships ; and, in fact, agreed to all Mr. 

 Rotch demanded, and the business was soon in successful operation. 

 His ships were dispatched to the Pacific, coast of Africa, and Falkland 

 Islands. On the 1st of February, 1792, the ship Falkland, Capt. Obed 

 Paddock, arrived at Dunkirk filled with sperm oil. A week later the 

 Harmony, Capt. David Starbuck, arrived with a full cargo from Peru. 

 These ships* were among the first that obtained sperm-oil in the Pacific 

 Ocean, and that, too, just under the peaks of the Andes (1789-'92). 

 What would Burke have said to that achievement, doubling the stormy 

 cape, and so down to Peru, in the most temperate climate man has yet 

 known? The Harmony was afterwards (1790) sunk by a whale on 

 Brazil Banks, which leaped on board in the night. The crew were all 

 saved, being taken on board the ship Leo, of Nantucket. Abel Rawson 

 was in command of the Harmony at the time. This Captain Rawson 

 kept the Staten Island Light, New York, as late as 1826. 



So soon as the British ministry heard that Mr. Rotch and his son 

 Benjamin had left London for France, Lord Hawkesbury sent a courier 

 with dispatches to recall him. On his return to London Mr. Rotch met 

 Mr. Pitt and Lord Hawkesbury, who agreed to allow him to bring thirty 

 ships from America, but Rotch informed him that it was too late, as he 

 had agreed to go to France. The ministry, being dissatisfied with 

 Hawkesbury, desired that Mr. Rotch should give them a detailed ac- 

 count in writing of the whole circumstances, in order that when Parlia- 

 ment met the matter might be laid before them. Mr. Rotch refused, as 

 he did not wish to be instrumental in creating or aiding an opposition 



* These two ships rendezroused at Callao, Pern, together with the ship Columbia^ 

 of Boston, Captain Gray, who had, in this his second voyage, in 1792, just discovered 

 the Columbia River on the northwest coast. 



