320 The Story of the New England Whalers 



because she was overhauled by a pirate that 

 robbed her crew of all the clothing they had. In 

 1818 Philadelphia tried whaling with indifferent 

 success. A year later New York City sent out 

 two. Perth Amboy tried the fishery in 1824; 

 Edenton, North Carolina, in 1831; Poughkeepsie, 

 in 1832; while Gloucester, Massachusetts, the 

 home of the cod-fishery, turned to whaling in 

 1 833. The next year Newburgh, New York, joined 

 the whaling fleet, and Portland and Wiscasset, 

 Maine, came in during the same year. If one 

 may judge by the names of the captains of these 

 outport ships, the business was started in them 

 by migrants from old Nantucket and New Bed- 

 ford, just as ship-building was undertaken on 

 the Ohio River by migrants from Massachusetts. 

 For the outport captains were usually Coffins, 

 or Starbucks, or Husseys, or Paddocks, or others 

 with names familiar on the island. 



The increase in the number of whaling ports 

 (there were 32 all told in 1835) was indicative 

 of the growth of the fishery. Prices were gradu- 

 ally increasing, while the enterprising shipmasters 

 were going farther afield and discovering new 



