Nantucket in the War of the Revolution 91 



while our histories of privateering make boast 

 of the number of ships captured from the enemy, 

 they omit mention of the number the enemy 

 took from us. By a return made in 1778 in Par- 

 liament it appears that while American cruisers 

 had taken 733 British ships, the British had 

 captured 904 American ships. 



It is a most interesting fact that whenever an 

 American ship was captured by British cruisers, 

 the crew were at once interrogated to learn where 

 each man hailed from. A list was then made 

 of all Nantucket men found on board, and these, 

 when they had arrived in England, were offered 

 good wages as well as liberty, provided they 

 would ship on British whalers. Naturally some 

 accepted the offer. When, however, not enough 

 whalers were thus secured, the obdurate Nantucket 

 men were fed on food of such poor quality and 

 so scant in quantity that they felt obliged to eat 

 snails and rats found in the prison to keep soul 

 and body together. In time, these methods 

 of persuasion having failed, the Nantucket men 

 were taken from prison and compelled to choose 

 whether they would go whaling or ship on a 



