WHALE FISHERY OF NEW ENGLAND 19 



garden in Nantucket. He woke up the skipper one morning off Cape 

 Horn, and showed him the lead, which had been smeared with this dirt, 

 whereupon, to quote the words of James Thomas Fields, 



"The skipper stormed and tore his hair, 



Hauled on his boots and roared to Marden: 

 'Nan tucket's sunk, and here we are 



Right over old Marm Hackett's garden!'" . 



Another Nantucket captain always took to sea medicine bottles, 

 each numbered and indexed to suit different complaints. Once his 

 mate was ill, and, looking up the bottle to administer in his case, found 

 that No. 13 contained the cure for his patient. Unfortunately, this 

 bottle had all been used, so, after careful deliberation, he mixed the 

 contents of bottles 6 and 7, which he gave the mate, who promptly 

 died. 



Early history tells us that Thomas Macy purchased the island for 

 thirty pounds and two beaver hats, "One for myself and one for my 

 wife," and to him therefore belongs the honor of the settlement of Nan- 

 tucket; he had been driven away from Massachusetts for sheltering 

 Quakers, which was at that time against the law, and with his friend 

 Edward Starbuck fled to the island and established a colony composed 

 of such well-known families as the Coffins, Husseys, Swaynes, Gardners, 

 Chases, Folgers, and Starbucks. These men were not whalers, but they 

 watched the Indians and learned much from them, and later on em- 

 ployed Ichabod Paddock to come over from Cape Cod and instruct 

 them further. 



The character of the island and its situation far out in the ocean, its 

 poor soil, and the number of whales along its shores, all proved an in- 

 ducement to the Nantucketers to follow the sea as a calling. At first, 

 there were so many whales that they did not find it necessary to go 

 beyond the coast; so, under the guidance of Paddock, lookouts were 

 erected along the South shore, and each man patrolled a certain amount 

 of territory. Each one took his share of whales killed, and business 

 flourished, f This method of whaling continued until 1712, when Chris- 

 topher Hussey, while cruising along the coast, was blown out to sea. 

 He ran across a sperm whale, which he finally killed and brought home. 

 This year was epoch making, as this was the first sperm whale known 

 to have been taken by Americans. The oil from this species of whale 

 being superior to that of all others, the Nantucketers now (1715) 

 decided to change their methods and to whale in the "deep." As the 

 vessels steadily increased in size with greater and greater cargo-carry- 

 ing capacity, voyages necessarily became longer, extending even to 

 periods of four or five years. In fact, a voyage lasting but two years 

 was considered unusually short. The point of view of most whalers 

 regarding a two-year voyage is shown by the captain who, when 

 boarding his ship, was reminded by a friend that he had not said 

 "Good-by" to his wife, 



