356 The Story of the New England Whalers 



Americas has never been written. In Starbuck's 

 list of the sailings of whalers from different Amer- 

 ican ports it is said that the bark Margaret Scott, 

 Captain Oliver S. Cleaveland, belonging to Rod- 

 ney French, of New Bedford, and the Fame, 

 Captain Mitchell, belonging to William Tate, 

 of New London, were diverted to the slave-trade, 

 the former on a voyage begun September 16, 

 1857, and the other during a voyage begun on 

 June 1 8, 1844. Of the circumstances, nothing is 

 told. The New Bedford Mercury, in speaking of 

 the Stone Fleet that was fitted out to block the 

 port of Charleston, South Carolina, during the 

 Civil War, says: 



"Among the craft purchased was the Margaret Scott, 

 a vessel which had been seized a short time previously 

 by a United States marshal on the grounds that she 

 had been fitting for a voyage in slave-trading. Her 

 commander and owners were found guilty of the charge, 

 and the Scott was sold at auction, and acquired for the 

 Stone Fleet." 



The whaler Herald, Captain Samuel Barker, 

 that belonged to Charles P. Williams, of Stoning- 

 ton, Connecticut, is mentioned by Starbuck as 

 follows : 



