54 The Story of the New England Whalers 



Consider, too, how the partnership plan of fit- 

 ting out the whalers affected the whole industry. 

 The coopers made casks in which the blubber was 

 stowed until it could be brought back to the try 

 pots that were yet located on shore. The boat- 

 builders, blacksmiths, and coopers every one 

 that furnished anything to the whaling outfit 

 became an owner or stockholder in the new en- 

 terprise, and received a share of the proceeds 

 in proportion to what he had supplied. In like 

 manner the men who tried out the oil were share- 

 holders. It was therefore inevitable that each 

 man should do his work as well as he could; he 

 was working for himself. 



The frontier home makers who subdued the 

 wilds of the nation have been justly lauded for 

 their enterprise, courage, and fortitude. The 

 men of Nantucket not only did all that was done 

 by home makers elsewhere, but while they sub- 

 dued the land they also accumulated capital for 

 and established a new industry which prospered 

 in a way that yet excites astonishment. 



It was in 1690 that the islanders hired Ichabod 

 Paddock to teach them the arts of the whaler. 



