APPENDIX. 131 



miles from the coast. Before the revolutionary- 

 war, this small island had sixty-five ships, of four 

 thousand eight hundred and seventy-five tons, an- 

 nually employed in the northern, and eighty-five 

 ships, of ten thousand two hundred tons, in the 

 southern fishery. From 1787 to 1789, it had 

 only eighteen ships, of one thousand three hun- 

 dred and fifty tons, in the northern, and eighteen 

 ships, of two thousand seven hundred tons, in the 

 southern fishery. For many years past, this fishery 

 has been carried on from this island, and from 

 New Bedford, a large commercial and flourish- 

 ing town on the coast, in its neighbourhood, and 

 has employed from fifteen thousand to eighteen 

 thousand tons of shipping, principally in the 

 Southern Seas. Although Great Britain has, at 

 various times, given large bounties to her ships 

 employed in this fishery, yet the whalemen of 

 Nantucket and New-Bedford, unprotected and un- 

 supported by any thing but their own industry 

 and enterprise, have generally been able to meet 

 their competitors in a foreign market. The value 

 of spermaceti and common whale oil, whale bone, 

 and spermaceti candles, exported since 1802, has 

 been as follows : — 



