io6 The Story of the New England Whalers 



should hear further from France. This letter had 

 so much influence that only two families went 

 away in the British ship. 



The publication of Jefferson's Report, however, 

 while the facts are as stated, has created a wrong 

 impression as to 'the condition of affairs on Nan- 

 tucket during that period. For, while only the 

 few left at the times mentioned, a considerable 

 number of whalers went to Nova Scotia later 

 and established themselves at a settlement on 

 Halifax Bay, which they named Dartmouth, a 

 fact that indicated the presence of a number of 

 Buzzard's Bay whalers in the community. Others 

 went to Milford Haven, England. A Catalogue 

 of Nantucket Whalers, issued by Hussey and Rob- 

 inson of Nantucket, in 1876, gives a list of 149 

 Nantucket captains who commanded British whale 

 ships "prior to 1812." It is certain that many 

 of the mates and harpooners, and some of the 

 seamen on these ships, were also Nantucket men; 

 for when Commodore Porter, in the American 

 frigate Essex, destroyed the British whale fishery 

 in the Pacific Ocean, he found several of the crews 

 so made up. The Nantucket captains of French 



