88 The Story of the New England Whalers 



having a great navy were able to blockade the 

 American coast and raid the American ports as 

 well as scour the high seas. They burned ships 

 at the wharf (fourteen at the first dash), and 

 storehouses upon the land at Nantucket. The 

 people of the little island were at the mercy of 

 the invader, but they fitted out such vessels as 

 escaped the invader and went to sea again and 

 again in pursuit of whales until the fleet was almost 

 entirely wiped out. 



A number of the inhabitants migrated to the 

 mainland, most of them naturally settling in 

 ports of the mainland. Some of those who 

 remained, preferring their island home to any 

 other as long as they could live upon it, went afloat 

 in rowboats to search for whales in the early 

 fashion. Others manned blockade-running boats 

 (the enemy did not occupy the island all of the 

 time, but had cruisers near it much of the time) 

 and carried on a traffic with and between the 

 ports of the mainland. One reads in the histories 

 of many venturesome deeds done by whale-boat 

 men during the Revolution. 



Meantime, to quote the words of Weeden, 



