THE AMERICAN WHALE-FISHERY. 
209 
The breaking- out of the Revolutionary War paralyzed the whaling commerce, 
which nearly proved ruinous to all those who were embarked in it. Nantucket, at 
that time, had one hundred and fifty vessels. But on the return of peace it was 
resumed, and but few years elapsed before it was again pursued with great vigor. 
The first whale -ship that ventured into the Pacific was sent by the Nantucket 
colony of whaling -men from England, in 1787,* and the first officer of the vessel, 
Archelus Hammond, struck the first Sperm Whale known to have been captured in 
that ocean. 
In the year 1789, a gentleman from Cape Cod, who had returned from service 
in the East India Company, having seen Sperm Whales near Madagascar, communi- 
cated the fact to some of the Nantucket whalemen, who, profiting by the knowl- 
edge, in due time dispatched ships to that coast, which proved to be a rich whaling- 
ground. From 1787 to 1789, inclusive, the American Wbale -fishery was prosecuted 
from the ports, and to the extent set forth in the following statement:")* 
Ports from which the equipments 
were made. 
Northern 
Fishery, 
vessels. 
Tonnage. 
Southern 
Fishery, 
vessels. 
Tonnage. 
Sfaraen 
employed. 
Barrels of 
Sperm Oil 
taken. 
Barrels of 
Whale Oil 
taken. 
Nantucket 
18 
12 
45 
1 
2 
6 
7 
1,350 
720 
2,700 
60 
120 
450 
420 
18 
4 
5 
2 
1 
1 
2,700 
400 
750 
350 
100 
90 
487 
212 
650 
28 
13 
39 
78 
104 
3,800 
2,700 
100 
220 
360 
800 
8,260 
1,920 
1,750 
1,200 
Wellfleet, and other ports 
at Cape Cod 
Dartmouth and N. Bedford 
Cape Ann 
Plymouth , 
Martba's Vineyard 
Dorchester and Wareham. . 
Total 
91 
5,820 
31 
4,390 
1,611 
7,980 
13,130 
In 1791, J six whale- ships were fitted out at Nantucket for the Pacific — the 
first that ever sailed from the United States for those distant grounds. Their 
ardor will seldom permit them ; perhaps she is 
asleep ; in that case he balances high the har- 
poon, trying in this important moment to collect 
all the energy of which he is capable. He 
launches it forth — she is struck: from her first 
* Proceedings American Antiquarian Society, 
No. 57, p. 28-29. 
Marine Mammals. — 27. 
movement, they judge of her temper, as well as 
of their future success. Sometimes, in the im- 
mediate impulse of rage, she will attack the 
boat, and demolish it with one stroke of her 
tail ; in an instant the frail vehicle disappears, 
f Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. iii, p. 370. 
% Proc. American Antiquarian Society, p. 29. 
