SPERM FISHERY. 



187 



be estimated at 23,000 3,000 being allowed for the 

 value of the ship and stores, and 20,000 for that of 

 her cargo, of 250 tuns of oil,* at 80 per tun. 



The British and colonial sperm oil imported into this 

 country, is subject to a duty of one shilling per tun 

 a sum which suffices to bring a ship, thus freighted, 

 under the control of the customs, without materially 

 enhancing the price of her cargo. To the importation 

 of foreign oil, a duty attaches of 26. 12s. per tun. 



The subjoined account of the relative importations 

 of sperm oil by the British, colonial, (Australian,) and 

 foreign fisheries, during thirteen years, from 1820 to 

 1832, is extracted from a return delivered, in 1833, to 

 a committee of the House of Commons. 



* One hundred and sixty tuns of oil is deemed an average cargo. 

 The largest quantity ever brought to this country, as one cargo, was 

 330 tuns, by the Rochester, Captain Smith, in 1830. The largest 

 cargo of sperm oil ever taken to the United States, is said to have been 

 4,050 barrels, or rather more than 500 tuns. 



The result of the voyage of the Tuscan, from 1833 to 36, was a 

 cargo of 1,953 barrels, or 244 tuns of oil. Sperm Whales were seen, 

 during the voyage, on ninety distinct days, and seventy-eight whales 

 were killed and secured to the ship. 



