Samuel Mulford, Alongshore Whaler 17 



hope you will give all due encouragement" to the 

 whalers. 



Before Washington was born, Samuel Mulford, 

 the alongshore whaler of Southampton, set the 

 pace to which the patriot hosts at Lexington 

 were to march. Decision on the main point for 

 which Mulford contended was avoided. That 

 was left for later arbitrament. But Hunter was 

 compelled to reply, "I have remitted the five per- 

 cent on Whale Fishing." By means of the mental 

 qualities that he had cultivated when "out upon 

 the seas" with "six men in a Small Boat to take 

 and kill Whales," Mulford triumphed over one 

 of the ablest of the royal governors of New York. 



This account of Samuel Mulford has little of 

 whaling in it, but it seems well worth telling here, 

 first of all, because one of the most important 

 features of the American whale fishery is found 

 in its influence upon the men who were engaged 

 in it, and, through them, upon the whole people. 



