INTRODUCTION xix 



' The shipowners of Nantucket, attracted by 

 the facilities the French government offered, 

 established themselves and their families in 

 Dunkirk and despatched their ships to many 

 seas. The success attending these ventures was 

 such that French shipowners commenced at 

 last to follow their example. 



' In 1790 we had forty whalers at sea. This 

 certainly was not a great number, but it augured 

 very favourably for the future of the French 

 whaling industry. 



' The destruction of our navy, however, at 

 the beginning of the Revolution, left our little 

 whaling fleet defenceless against the attacks 

 of English privateers, who destroyed it com- 

 pletely, and until the Restoration whale fishing 

 was wholly neglected in France/ l 



Our whaling industry has never completely 

 recovered from this disaster. Although towards 

 1850 certain privileges were granted, French 

 whalers, hampered by the all too strict laws of our 

 maritime code, have never become numerous. 

 They have, in fact, never exceeded thirty, while 

 the Americans possessed six hundred and 

 fifty whalers and vaingloriously boasted that, 

 ranged at equal distances in a circle around 



1 La Chasse et le Peche aux animax marines, par Henri 

 Jouan (Gernier-Baillers). 



