84 The Story of the New England Whalers 



for each ship, and in the aggregate 4059 men 

 were employed. The right whales gave ten 

 pounds of bone for each barrel of oil. One- 

 fourth of the oil of the sperm whales came from 

 the head. This sold for $150 a ton, or $18.75 

 a barrel. Plain sperm oil sold for $100 a ton 

 and right whale oil, which was darker and of 

 a rank odor, brought $50. Whalebone sold 

 for 15 cents a pound. The number of ships 

 in the whale business that were owned outside 

 of Massachusetts in the year 1775 was between 

 50 and 60. Rhode Island and Connecticut 

 owned most of them. The average size of a 

 whaler of those days was 90 tons. They would 

 be called small smacks in these days, but they 

 braved the fiercest hurricanes of the seas, and 

 those that were well handled often paid for them- 

 selves in the first voyage, leaving all subsequent 

 catches as clear gains. 



