94 The Story of the New England Whalers 



In time the British, occupying Newport and 

 New York, sent out privateers that broke up the 

 despised cod and mackerel fishing of the Nan- 

 tucket men, and drove the West India traders 

 into narrow waters. In this desperate situation, 

 in fact, to avert actual starvation, an effort was 

 made to secure from the British authorities per- 

 mits to go whaling. Timothy Folger and William 

 Rotch were sent as envoys from the island to New 

 York to negotiate for permits to set afloat twenty 

 open boats for alongshore fishing, four deep- 

 water whale ships, and ten small coasters to serve 

 as packets for carrying food and fuel from the 

 mainland. In 1781 Admiral Digby, commanding 

 at New York, being moved by the statements of 

 these envoys, issued permits for twenty-four whale 

 ships to go to sea. 1 



1 The following is a copy of one of the permits taken from 

 Starbuck : 



"L.S. By Robert Digby, Esquire, Rear Admiral of the Red, 

 and commander-in-chief, &c., &c. 



"Permission is hereby given to the brig Dolphin, burthen 

 sixty tons, Walter Folger, owner, navigated by Gilbert Folger 

 as master and the twelve seamen named in the margin, to leave 

 the island of Nantucket and to proceed on a whaling voyage, 

 to commence the first of January, 1782, and end the last 



