42 The Story of the New England Whalers 



Sachims the tenth of May, 1660." As the record 

 very clearly shows, not one of the Nantucket 

 settlers was a whaler. All were frontier home 

 makers such men as those who crossed the 

 Alleghanies a hundred years later to create the 

 civilization that now distinguishes the Ohio Valley. 

 Neither were they sailors, for the records show 

 that they offered special inducements to one 

 "William North, Salier," to come to the island 

 and there "imploy himself or Bee Imployed on 

 the sea . . . and not to leave the island for three 

 yeares time." 



These settlers must have seen the red whalers 

 at work, but it had no particular influence upon 

 them, for it was not until a whale placed itself in 

 a natural trap within their reach that they made 

 any effort to go whaling. According to the 

 tradition a "scragg" whale (a right whale having 

 a number of small humps on its back) came into 

 the harbor and remained there three days. Its 

 prolonged stay "excited the curiosity of the 

 people," according to Macy, the island's chief 

 historian, "and led them to devise measures to 

 prevent its return" to the open sea. "They 



