SPERM FISHERY. 185 



powerful nation, it became essential that England should, 

 as far as possible, provide from her own resources, 

 those commodities for which she had hitherto depended 

 upon her revolted colony. Consequently, it was in 

 1775, that ships were first sent out from the ports of 

 Great Britain for the Sperm Whale Fishery. In that 

 year they were ten in number, equipped by the unaided 

 efforts of our merchants, and chiefly by the enter- 

 prising and highly-respected firm of Messrs. Enderby. 

 In 1776, this infant trade was encouraged by a govern- 

 ment bounty, graduated from 500/. to 100/., and the 

 number of ships engaged in the fishery, progressively 

 increased until the year 1791> when it attained its 

 maximum. 



The commencement of the Sperm Fishery by England 

 found our seamen but indifferently acquainted with this 

 peculiar mode of whaling; and for some years it was 

 necessary to appoint an American commander and har- 

 pooner to each ship, until competent officers could be 

 reared from our own service. At the same early date, 

 the fishing was chiefly prosecuted on the coasts of 

 South Greenland and Ireland, off the Western Islands, 

 on the coast of Africa, on the Brazil Bank, off the 

 Falkland Islands, and in Strait le Maire. 



In the year 1788, Messrs. Enderby 's ship, the Emilia, 

 rounded Cape Horn, and first carried the Sperm Whale 

 Fishery into the Pacific Ocean. She made a short and 

 successful voyage, and opened a wide and fruitful field 

 for future exertions. 



As our whalers became better acquainted with the 

 Pacific Ocean, many valuable resorts of the Cachalot 

 were discovered by their enterprising researches. In 

 the year 1819, the British whale-ship Syren first oc- 

 cupied, as a cruising ground, the more distant and un- 



