Whaling as a Business Enterprise 317 



own food between cruises. Moreover, in that era 

 of low wages 183 per vessel seemed vastly larger 

 than such a sum seems now. In 1730 twenty-five 

 vessels secured 3700 barrels of oil, and in 1745 

 the island shipped 10,000 barrels of oil to Boston 

 alone. Small as the average income of a ship may 

 seem, the business was growing. Further than 

 that, the vessels did not fare all alike. Some 

 came home "clean," without a barrel of oil, 

 while others saved large quantities in short 

 periods. Naturally, the good luck of the few 

 kept the many trying. 



Two interesting business facts are related of 

 the fishery in those early days. In 1706 one 

 Thomas Houghton secured from the New York 

 authorities a monopoly of the lean parts of whales, 

 which, in the usual course of the fishery, were left 

 at the water's edge to decay. He set forth in his 

 petition to the authorities that he intended to 

 carry the meat and bones to Boston, where he 

 was to treat the material by a secret process. 

 What the product was to be is not stated, but it 

 appears by inference that he was to make salt- 

 petre by burying the material in the soil, where, 



