150 The Story of the New England Whalers 



best-remembered statesman of the period lauded 

 the voyagers in his greatest speech. Captains 

 David Smith and Gamaliel Collins, of Truro, 

 Cape Cod, were the whalers who earned this 

 honor. Their voyage was made in 1774. A 

 voyage around the Horn was the next venture 

 forward. 



Among the notable merchants of London, 

 England, in 1787 or 1788, was Samuel Enderby, 

 who had been engaged in the whale fishery, and 

 in trade with America for many years. He was 

 especially interested in whale products, and in 

 the course of the year mentioned he fitted out the 

 ship Amelia, Captain James Shields, a Nantucket 

 man, for a voyage to the fishery on the coast of 

 Brazil. The mate of the ship was Archilaus 

 Hammond, also a Nantucket man. On reaching 

 the Brazil banks it was found that the season 

 was ended. The whales had migrated. To men 

 like Captain Shields, however, seeming misfortunes 

 do but furnish opportunity for distinction. Shields 

 had read the story of the explorations of Captain 

 Cook, R.N., made between 1768 and 1779. 

 Cook had seen many whales on the west coast of 



