90 KEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH A.ND FISHERIES. 



rivals, and iu January, 1789, this arraDgement received its legal ratili- 

 catiou.* 



The revival of the business in the United States, and the growing 

 scarcity of whales iu the waters heretofore mostly frequented, made the 

 equipping of larger vessels a necessity, and from the sloops and schoon- 

 ers which formerly composed the greater portion of the whaliug fleet 

 an advance was made to brigs and ships, and the field still farther ex- 

 tended. f The sperm-whale being of the most value, the eftort to encom- 

 pass his capture was greater ; and he was pursued, as he fled from his 

 old haunts, till the Pacific Ocean was attained.l At ISTantucket the 

 number of vessels soon increased to such an extent that it became 

 necessary to go abroad for men to man them, and some Indians and a 

 large number of negroes were brought from the mainland to aid in filling 

 the crew-lists. Tips and downs the business had then, as it ever has 

 since. A presumed prosperity induced competition, the markets became 

 glutted, and oil w^as sold at less than the cost of production. The price 

 of whalebone became reduced to 10 cents per pound and less, instead 

 of commanding a dollar as it did prior to the Revolution. The disturb 

 ances between England and France, and the internal commotions to 

 which the latter country was subjected, effectually annulled the effect 

 of the French arret of 1789. So disastrously did these things affect 

 whaliug that the quarrels of France and England forced many Nantucket 

 men to sell their vessels, others to dismantle and lay theirs up, while 

 a few still held on, some making a little profit, the majority suffering a 

 severe loss. 



* Jetfeisou, ii, 539. Whea the Arret of 29th December, 17b7, was drawu up, the 

 first draught was so uiade as to exclude aU Earojican oils, but at the very uioment of 

 passing it, they struck out the word "European," so that our oils became involved. 

 "This, I believe," says he, " was the effect of a single person iu the miuistry." 



t Sag Harbor re-entered the business in 1785; New Bedford in 1787 or 1786. (See 

 Returns of the Fleets.) 



t Iu the Pacific the Americans had been preceded by the Amelia, Captain Shields, 

 an English htted ship, manned by the Nantucket colony of whalemen; and sailing for 

 that ocean from London iu 1787, her first mate, Archelus Hammond, killing the first 

 sperm whale known to have been taken in that ocean. 



In Jeflerson's Report he enumerates three qualities of oil: 1, the sperm; 2, that from 

 the ordinary right whales ; 3, that from the right whales on the Brazil Banks, which 

 was darker iu color and of a more ofitensive odor when burned than from No. 2. 



In 1791 six ships sailed for the Pacific fishery from Nantucket and one from New Bed- 

 ford. In the mean time ships from Dunkirk, among them the Falkland, Can- 

 ton, and the Harmony, had already performed their voyages, and in February, 1792, 

 arrived at Duukirk with full cargoes. It was the custom in those days to nearly fill 

 with sperm, then return to the Atlantic Ocean and complete their load on the coast of 

 Patagonia or on Brazil Banks, commanders preferring to round Cape Horn wnth a 

 snugly loaded ship. The brig Sea Horse, Captain Mayo, which arrived at Cape Ann. 

 October 4, 1789, from a whaling voyage to Woolwich Bay, reported a very singular 

 sinking of a point of land there, in sight of quite a large fleet both English and Ameri. 

 can. the water havii^g a depth of six fathoms where just before was apparently solid. 

 land. 



