XII 

 WHALING AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 



THE counting-house hero of the American 

 whale fishery was a man who deliberate- 

 ly took his life in his hand in the hope 

 of making a large profit, and succeeded. His name 

 was Captain W. T. Walker, of New Bedford. 



In 1847 Captain William C. Brownell, of New 

 Bedford, bought an old ship named the Envoy, 

 intending to break her up for the metal in her 

 hull. In her career the Envoy had always been a 

 lucky ship. She was built in the booming year 

 of 1833 for Amherst Everett, of Providence, and 

 she was registered at 392 tons, the size of the 

 ordinary Pacific whaler of her day. She sailed 

 from home December 26, in the year she was 

 built, under Captain J. C. Clark, and she re- 

 turned four years later January I, 1838 

 with 2100 barrels of sperm oil, worth $57,887. 

 And that is to say, her first cruise paid for the 

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