

NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE. 161 



proprietors enlarged the reservation by adding about two acres at the West end, doubtless that 

 the whalemen might have a convenient place to fill water. Upon this reservation a house or 

 houses were erected, in which the whalemen lived, and a watch was kept up to notify the crews 

 when the whales appeared. . . .The boats were sometimes manned by the native Indians, who 

 \\eie remarkably well adapted for the business. Mr. Jonathan Howes, a grandson of the first 

 Thomas, derived sufficient profit in one fortunate season's whaling, with a company of these 

 Indians, to pay for a large two-story house which he built, and which was standing" till about 

 istii.' 



According to Justin Winsor, 2 "schooners, sloops and perhaps larger vessels were engaged 

 M the whale fishery from Duxbury as early as the beginning of the last [i. e., eighteenth] century, 

 and for some years quite a number of the inhabitants were thus employed. Their resort was 

 at first along the shore and between the capes [Cape Ann and Cape Cod]; but by the close of 

 the first quarter of the century they had extended their grounds" even to the coast of Newfound- 

 land and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where they probably found also the Arctic Bowhead. 

 \Yinsor further mentions an old account book of Mr. Joshua Soule of Duxbury, with the memo- 

 randum: "Whale vieg [voyage] begun, elisha cob sayled from hear March y c 4, from Ply- 

 mouth y 7, 1729." The extent of this cruise may well have been outside of New England 

 \\aters, but apparently was begun in Massachusetts Bay, at the time when Right Whales 

 were on the coast. 



In 1725, Paul Dudley of Boston, communicated to the Royal Society an account of the 

 hales of New England with notes on their habits and capture. This was published in the 

 ilosophical Transactions of that year. He says (I quote the 1734 Abridgment): "I would 

 .ke notice of the Boats oure Whale-men use in going from the Shoar after the Whale, They 

 are made of Cedar Clapboards, and so very light, that two Men can conveniently carry them, 

 and yet they are twenty Feet long, and carry six Men, viz. the Harponeer in the Fore-part of 

 the Boat, four Oar-men, and the Steersman. These Boats run very swift, and by reason of 

 their Lightness can be brought on and off, and so kept out of Danger. The Whale is some- 

 times killed with a single Stroke, and yet at other Times she will hold the Whale-men in Play, 



half a Day together, with their Lances, and sometimes will get away after they have been 

 lanced and spouted Blood, with Irons in them, and Drugs fastened to them, which are thick 

 Hoards about fourteen Inches square. Our People formerly used to kill the Whale near the 

 Shore; but now they go off to sea in Sloops and Whale boats." 3 It is evident that the small 



Is employed for taking whales at sea, simply stripped the blubber and whalebone and cast 

 the body adrift, for this same writer remarks: "The Carcases of Whales in the Sea, serve for 



1 Swift, F. C. History of Old Yarmouth, Mass., 1884, p. 113. 



'' Winsor, J. History of Duxbury, Mass., 1849, p. 350. 



3 Dudley, P. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, Abridged, 1734, vol. 7, pt. 3, p. 427. 



