30 WHALE FISHERY OF NEW ENGLAND 



Under the name of the "Charles Phelps" she whaled from Stonington, 

 Conn., for a number of years and finally was purchased for the Stone 

 Fleet. She was found to be in such good condition that the govern- 

 ment decided not to sink her, and she returned to New Bedford and was 

 sold; and it was this same vessel that took part in the rescue of the 

 twelve hundred and nineteen shipwrecked people ten years later. In 

 1893 she was fitted out as if for a whaling voyage and towed by way of 

 the St. Lawrence River to Chicago, where she was exhibited at the 

 Fair, and now lies rotting on the sands of the lake at South Chicago. 

 No other whaler ever had so interesting and varied a history. 



The year after this Arctic disaster found the fleet again in the Arctic, 

 and the "Minerva," one of the ships left at Point Belcher, was dis- 

 covered and found to be in good condition; the others had sunk. One 

 lone person was found who had remained on board his ship for the 

 whole year, and his sufferings had been fearful. The natives had 

 stolen all the whalebone and oil from the sinking vessels, and when 

 some of the same shipwrecked captains arrived the next year the 

 Esquimaux tried to sell them back their own property, and one native 

 was using one of the chronometer cases as a dinner pot in which to boil 

 his blubber. The "Minerva" was manned and sailed to New Bedford 

 and continued in the whaling industry. 



New Bedford ships suffered severely during the Rebellion, but later 

 new ones were added to the fleet and business again prospered. Lack 

 of space prevents enumerating the achievements of American whalers 

 during the Civil War. Captain William P. Randall, however, will go 

 down in history as a hero of this war; he was brought up on a whale- 

 ship and later served in the navy. 



Captain Frederick Fish, father of Frederick P. Fish and Charles H. 

 Fish, of Boston, was one of the best known and most respected of the 

 whaling captains sailing out of New Bedford. He commanded the 

 "Montreal" and the "Columbus" when only twenty-two years old, 

 made nine voyages round the world, and was one of the most successful 

 whalers of his day. Once when near the Sandwich Islands his vessel 

 happened to anchor very close to an English ship, and Captain Fish 

 noticed that every evening at sunset the English commander, while at 

 anchor, set all sails and then furled them again in order to show how 

 quickly this work could be performed. After a few evenings Captain 

 Fish ordered his crew to do the same, and the time consumed was so 

 much less that the next evening the Englishman decided he did not 

 care to go through the performance; in fact, he never tried to show off 

 again in that port. 



There is also another amusing story told about Captain Fish. His 

 ship at one port took on a great many chickens, which were used for 

 food, and finally one of the crew rebelled and informed the captain that 

 he had eaten enough hen. He was immediately ordered out on a yard- 

 arm and was made to crow like a rooster for such a long time that when 

 he was again allowed on deck, he had a most excellent appetite for an- 

 other chicken dinner. Captain Fish delighted in telling of the time 



