Adventures of the Explorers 153 



the Pacific. At the Sandwich Islands he found 

 the Rambler, Captain Benjamin Worth, of Nan- 

 tucket; the Syren, Captain Benjamin Coffin 

 (a Nantucket man), belonging to London (En- 

 derby and Sons) ; the Cyrus, Captain Elisha Folger, 

 and the Balena, Captain Edmund Gardner, both 

 of New Bedford. While all these ships were 

 lying in port the merchant ship O'Cane, under 

 Captain Winship, a Brighton, Massachusetts, 

 man, came in from Canton. Captain Winship had 

 passed the coasts of the mysterious Japanese 

 islands, and had seen so many whales that he 

 talked with enthusiasm about them to these 

 whalers; and thereupon the whalers made sail 

 for that far-away region. It was a long race, and 

 for a prize that might excite the ambition of 

 any yachtsman. The Syren and the Maro arrived 

 first and together. The Syren saved her first whale 

 on the loth of May; the Maro got her first on 

 June i. Both ships were full to the hatches 

 within three months after reaching the grounds. 

 The Maro returned after a voyage of 29 months 

 with 2425 barrels of sperm oil. 



In 1828 four Nantucket ships went to the east 



