6 THE WHALE FISHERY. 



her adventurous whale fishery, both in the 

 North and South Atlantic Oceans, began to 

 command the admiration of the world, and 

 was eulogized by the highest eloquence of the 

 British Parliament. From the year 1771 to 

 1775, Massachusetts alone employed in it, an- 

 nually, three hundred and four vessels, of an 

 aggregate burden of twenty-seven' thousand 

 eight hundred and forty- six tons. The quan- 

 tity of oil brought into Nantucket yearly, at 

 the time of the breaking out of the Eevolu- 

 tionary war, was thirty thousand barrels, 



Stimulated by their success, both France 

 and Great Britain now entered anew into this 

 lucrative enterprise ; Louis XVI. himself fitting 

 out six ships from Dunkirk on his own account, 

 in 1784, which were furnished with experienced 

 harpooners and able seamen from Nantucket. 

 In 1790, France had about forty ships em- 

 ployed in the fishery, but the wars consequent 

 upon the French Revolution at once swept 

 them all off, and the whaling fleet of Holland 

 also; as did the War for Independence likewise 

 suspend this lucrative branch of the commerce 



