Early Days on Nantucket 55 



Four years later they bought their first sloop. In 

 1712, the year that Hussey killed his first sperm 

 whale, five sloops were owned on the island. Two 

 years later the number was increased to nine, of 

 which six were in the deep-water whale fishery. 

 These sloops, in 1715, secured 600 barrels of oil 

 and 11,000 pounds of bone, which were sold for 

 1100. In 1730 Nantucket had twenty-five 

 whalers in commission and they brought home 

 oil and bone that sold for 3200. 



In the meantime the alongshore or open-boat 

 fishery had been growing; it was in 1726 that 

 the eighty-six whales already mentioned were 

 taken. 



A glance at the shipping in the coastwise and 

 over-sea trade of the colonies, in the early days, 

 will give one a better idea of the conditions under 

 which the whalers made progress. Ships were 

 built and fitted out at various points on the coast 

 by men who had little or no cash capital, but 

 an abundance of strength and enterprise. They 

 began with fishing smacks of the smallest size, 

 and the codfish they obtained with the smacks, 

 when exported, brought the iron, sails, ropes, etc., 



