Early Days on Nantucket 51 



to give universal satisfaction. Some who were 

 stronger and more skilful than others thought 

 themselves entitled to shares that should be in 

 proportion to the work they did; and, being 

 stronger and more skilful, they took the larger 

 shares to which they thought themselves entitled, 

 and the original associations of all on equal terms 

 developed into a system of partnerships. 



The socialistic community had separated into 

 groups of partners in Hussey's time (1712). 

 Working as partners the men of Nantucket cut 

 trees in the forest, whip-sawed the logs into lumber, 

 and with the lumber built boats. Iron (Spain 

 made the best in the world then) was secured in 

 exchange for oil, and the blacksmith forged the 

 iron into nails for the boats, and into harpoons 

 and lances. The lines or warps were also 

 purchased with oil. 



In the meantime some Nantucket men had 

 invested in sloops fit for use on the open sea, fit, 

 that is, when manned by such sailors as Nan- 

 tucket now boasted. The first vessel larger than 

 a rowboat owned on the island was the sloop 

 Mary, of twenty-five tons, built in Boston in 1694 



