HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY. 103 



Le replied, "I'll see you d d first." "If you don't," said the officer 



of the boat, " I'll shoot you." " Shoot and be d d," returned the im- 

 perturbable Young. The crew of the boat were now ordered to board 

 the Favorite ; and as the captain pulled the trigger to his gun and in- 

 eflectually endeavored to explode the charge, he saw the defenceless 

 condition in which he had been left, and realized that he had nothing to 

 do but to surrender. His inhuman captors, who were unable to appre- 

 ciate bravery, put him in irons in the topgallant forecastle, and robbed 

 him of his money, his watch, and even of his shirt-studs. 



Capt. F^benezer F. Nye, of the ship Abigail, of New Bedford, which 

 ship was also captured and burned in the Ochotsk Sea by the Shenan- 

 doah in June, manned two boats before his ship was in the privateer's 

 possession, and started for the rest of the fleet to warn them of the im- 

 pending danger. 



In all, the Shenandoah captured and burned thirty-four ships and 

 barks, and captured and bonded the Milo, the General Pike, and the 

 James Maury, of New Bedford, and the Nile, of New London. 



During the war for the maintenance of our national integrity, the sea- 

 port towns responded with the utmost alacrity to the calls for men and 

 for money. Our gallant whalemen hastened to defend the flag, and en- 

 listed in large numbers in the Navy as more congenial with their in- 

 clinations. A large portion of the officers in this branch of our service 

 had gathered their experience on the deck of a whaler, and tested their 

 courage in a whale-boat ; and it is safe to assert that no braver men 

 defended and no more experienced seamen navigated those castles of 

 oak and of iron that sustained in these later years the renown our Navy 

 won in the war of 1812.* 



The rebellion over, renewed activity took place in the whaling world. 

 Ships that had been laid up were rigged and sent away, and new ships 

 were again added to the fleet. The business was carried on with cau- 

 tion, for the inroads made upon the trade by the general use of coal-oils 

 were becoming matters of serious consideration. 



In the fall of 1871 came news of a terrible disaster to the Arctic fleet, 

 rivaling in its extent the depredations of the rebel cruiser. Off Point 

 Belcher thirty-four vessels lay crushed and mangled in the ice ; in Hono- 

 lulu were over twelve hundred seamen who by this catastrophe were 

 shipwrecked. 



Early in May the fleet arrived south of Cape Thaddeus, where they 

 found the ice closely packed, and the wind blowing strong from the 

 northeast.t This state of affairs continued during the most of the 



* A meetiug of the whaling-agents iu Payta was held, at which they olfered both 

 mouey and personal service in support of the Union. The whalemen were at this time 

 advised to cruise in companies. 



t Harper's Weekly, December 2, 1871. 



The following table, copied from the New Bedford Shipping List, will show the num- 

 ber of vessels in the North Pacific each year, and the rise and decline of the fishery in 



