90 The Story of the New England Whalers 



to war, once they were afloat in an armed ship. 

 Many Nantucket men shipped in the patriot 

 navy. Buell's John Paul Jones says that twenty- 

 five Nantucket men were on the Ranger when 

 she left Portsmouth. The privateers, however, 

 were favored most of all. There is abundant 

 reason for saying that out of the 1700 men who 

 had manned Nantucket whalers before the war, 

 some hundreds shipped on the privateers. They 

 took kindly to a calling in which there was such 

 a strong element of chance. The hope of good 

 luck was strong within them, and not without 

 reason. For in the preceding war with France 

 one Providence, Rhode Island, privateer, Captain 

 Abraham Whipple, had captured no less than 

 twenty-three prizes valued at a million of dollars. 

 The Nantucket men firmly believed and often 

 said, "What man has done man can do." 



In due time the British cruisers began to gather 

 in the ill-armed, under-manned, venturesome pri- 

 vateers. Some were captured by armed British 

 merchantmen, for dozens of the Yankee pri- 

 vateers went to sea when armed with only one 

 cannon, and a four-pounder at that. In fact, 



