[13] NOTES ON THE WHALE FISHERY. 217 



ichale. The ship was soon filled with oil aiul proceeded to Callao, PerUj, 

 to recruit, from whence she sailed for Loudon, speaking on the voyage 

 home, off* Trinidad, lat. 20°, the ship Hope, Thaddeus Swain, forty-six 

 days from Dunkirk, for Delago Bay, and arriving there in September, 

 1790. 



Mr. Hammond proceeded to Dunkirk, Frauce, and communicated to 

 William Eotch the particulars of his voyage. The ships Falkland and 

 Harmony were then equipped and read}' for a voyage to Delago Bay, 

 right whaling, but Mr. Hammond's storj" influenced Mr. Eotch so much 

 that he decided to send the shij^s to the Pacific Ocean in pursuit of 

 sperm whales. They were then taken into dock and coppered,* sailing 

 respectively on the 12th and 20th of November, 1790, for their new desti- 

 nation, returning with full cargoes of sperm oil on the 7th and 14th of 

 February, 1792 ; one having 1,200 and the other 1,600 barrels. Some 

 of these facts were doubtless communicated to our people at Nantucket 

 by Mr. Eotch, for in 1791 there were fitted out from here the Beaver, 

 Paul Worth, Washington, George Bunker, Hector, Thomas Brock, new 

 ships, and the Eebecca, Seth Folger, Warren, Eobert Meaday, Favorite, 

 and Obed Barnard, old shii)s, and all sailed for the Pacific Ocean. 



In order that some idea may be formed of the proportions to which 

 this great enterprise attained, attention is called to the following facts: 

 In 1850 there were engaged in the whale fishery upwards of seven hun- 

 dred ships, brigs, and schooners belonging to the United States, and in 

 1882, not one hundred are left. In 1843 167,000 barrels of sperm oil were 

 imported, and in 1847 313,000 barrels of whale oil. These were the 

 largest importations ever made. The greatest amount of sperm oil 

 ever taken by a ship on any voyage was 4,181 barrels, and of whale oil 

 7,000 barrels, the first amount being secured by ship William Hamil- 

 ton, of New Bedford, commanded by Capt. William Swain, of Nan- 

 tucket, and belonging to Isaac Howiand & Co. 



The writer cannot conclude this article without giving some of the 

 incidents connected with the fishery that was carried on from London, 

 through the influence of William Eotch, in his many shipments of sper- 

 maceti oil from Nantucket to the merchants of that city, Messrs. Samuel 

 Enderly, Thomas Dickerson, Barnard & Harrison, Chapman & Dicker- 

 son, and others, as appears from evidences in his possession. Shipments 

 were made to London as early as 1720, and numerous well laden ships 

 were sent from here between 1765 and 1800 ; at that date they obtained 

 all the oils they required by their own importations direct from the 

 South Seas. About this time a shij) sailed from London, in charge of 

 one of the Nantucket captains, for the east coast of the Cape of Good 

 Hope and Madagascar, on a sealing and whaling voyage. When the 



* Ships were coppered as a preventive agaiust the encroachment of worms, and 

 this was only done when the ships were sent into the Pacific on voyages of a year or 

 more. In the shorter voyages the bottoms of the ships were tallowed, tarred, or 

 painted. 



