A Long Period of Depression in 



impossible to follow their calling at home, they 

 went to England and secured employment, even 

 though the British authorities were then treating 

 the American people with a degree of injustice 

 not yet forgotten. Because the British had a 

 strong navy and knew how to use it, the British 

 whale fishery flourished while the American whale 

 fishery was depressed beyond measure. 



And yet during the long period between the 

 War of the Revolution and the end of the War 

 of 1812, those who, like the people of Nantucket, 

 could build, and fit out, and man their own ships 

 with their own labor and resources without 

 borrowing capital had a fair chance to make 

 a living, and a few of the more enterprising, 

 skilful, and fortunate could and did do something 

 more. 1 The business as a whole, however, was 

 of very little consequence as compared with what 

 it had been in the good times before the Revolution. 



Between 1789 and 1815 one notable advance 

 was made by the American whalers : they increased 

 the size of their ships up to 300 tons. The greater 



1 The following account of a voyage made by the ship Lion 

 of Nantucket shows how owners made money when every- 



