70 The Story of the New England Whalers 



it has twice the capacity of Captain Myrick's 

 snow. 



In 1720 a small quantity of oil was shipped from 

 Nantucket for sale in London. It brought a 

 better price than the Boston buyers could afford 

 to pay, and the cordage, canvas, iron, etc., which 

 were purchased with it, were much cheaper than 

 the same goods in Boston. This led, by slow de- 

 grees, to the establishment of regular direct trade 

 relations with London. During the wars that 

 afflicted the seas between the years 1740 and 1762 

 the American whalers were much troubled by the 

 cruisers and privateers of the enemy, and by 

 pirates also; but when they heard the reverbera- 

 tions of the guns at Quebec, they made haste to go 

 whaling in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and while 

 commissioners were considering terms of peace 

 in Paris, in 1762, seventy-eight whalers cleared 

 from American ports, of which more than half 

 were from Nantucket. The year of 1766 saw 

 118 vessels, measuring 75 tons each on the aver- 

 age, clear from Nantucket alone. They brought 

 home 11,969 barrels of oil valued at $129,983. 

 In 1770 the Nantucket fleet numbered 125 ships 



