THE AMERICAN WHALE-FISHERY. 
205 
the reeking fat from the vessel to the "try -houses." This was the custom with 
all the whalers of those times.* 
About 1770, other vessels of larger tonnage were added to the whaling squad- 
ron,! which extended their voyages, like the Nantucket- men, across the Atlantic. 
Among them were the New Bedford brigs Patience and A r o Duty on Tea. In September, 
1791, the ship Rebecca, owned by those veteran merchants, Joseph Russell & Sons and 
Cornelius Howland, was among the first, if not the first, of American whalers which 
doubled Cape Horn and obtained a full cargo in the Pacific. The chronicler states: 
"Although the Rebecca was only one hundred and seventy -five tons, she was consid- 
ered a very large vessel, and was visited as an object of wonder." Thus began the 
commercial enterprise at New Bedford — or, as the town was first named, Bedford — 
which has since become, and still is, the whaling metropolis of the world. Between 
the years 1771 and 1775, Massachusetts alone employed annually, in the northern 
whale-fishery, one hundred and eighty -three vessels, tonnaging thirteen thousand 
eight hundred and twenty tons ; and one hundred and twenty - one vessels, with an 
aggregate burden of fourteen thousand and twenty tons, were engaged in the south- 
ern fishery,| and many places along the sea- board of New England, as well as towns 
*The plate facing this page, representing a 
whaling -scene of 1763, was copied by permission 
from the celebrated painting by "William H. Wall. 
The author of the History of New Bedford de- 
scribes it in his work, from which we extract 
the following : ' ' Upon the shore lies keeled over 
on her side one of the small vessels then em- 
ployed for whaling; the model of the craft, a 
sloop, indicates a primitive idea of naval archi- 
tecture. By the side of this sloop, but other- 
wise concealed from view, is seen the sail of 
another vessel, with the union -jack of old En- 
gland drooping from the mast-head. The river 
lies peacefully outstretched, with a view of Palm- 
er's Island and the shore along by the ' Smok- 
ing Rocks,' and Naushon in the distance. Where 
now stand our wharves and warehouses, the pri- 
meval forest trees are seen extending their roots 
to the water's edge. In the foreground of the 
picture, and that which will be to most its chief 
interest, is seen a group of the early inhabitants 
of New Bedford, busily employed. Under an 
old shed is seen the try -pot, with its attend- 
ants ; and also the jaw of a whale thrown upon 
the roof;" and between the shed and the sloop 
may be seen the ox -teams, hitched to a sort of 
sled (in lieu of the ordinary wheeled cart), on 
which the whale -fat is transported in casks to 
the try -works. "More conspicuous, and nearer 
the beholder, stands one man in a red shirt 
with a patch on the breast, pouring oil from a 
long -handled dipper into a wooden -hooped bar- 
rel; another handling over the blubber; and 
still more prominent, a fine -looking fellow is 
coopering a barrel, in conference with an In- 
dian, who, with his baskets and moccasins for 
sale or barter, is seated upon a broken mast. 
Farther on, seated upon the frame of a grind- 
stone, and giving directions to a colored man, 
who is holding his master's horse by the bridle, 
is seen, in his broad -brimmed hat and Friendly 
coat, the founder of New Bedford and father of 
her whale-fishery, Joseph Russell." 
f History of New Bedford, p. 59. 
J See Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. iii, p. 
366. 
