166 



ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



and the whalers at the same period were yearly voyaging to greater distances from home. 

 Indeed, Starbuck tells us that already by 1732, New Englanders were whaling in Davis Straits. 



In 1720, the people of Nantucket ventured to send a small shipment of oil to London, and 

 this was soon followed by more, so that ere long commenced an important traffic. The original 

 bill of lading of this first shipment dated at Boston, the 7th of April, 1720, is quoted by Star- 

 buck (1878, p. 20):- 



" Shipped by the grace of God, in good order and well conditioned, by Paul Starbuck, 

 in the good ship called the Hanover, whereof is master under God for the present voyage, William 

 Chadder and now riding in the harbour of Boston, and by God's grace bound for London; to 

 say: six barrels of traine oyle, being on the proper account & risque of Nathaniel Starbuck, 

 of Nantucket, and goes consigned to Richard Partridge merchant in London. Being marked 

 & numbered as in the margin & to be delivered in like good order & well conditioned at the 

 aforesaid port of London (The dangers of the sea only excepted) unto Richard Partridge afore- 

 said or to his assignees, He or they paying Freight for said goods, at the rate of fifty shillings 

 per tonn, with primage & average accustomed. 



"In witness whereof the said Master or Purser of said Ship hath affirmed to two Bills of 

 Lading all of this Tener and date, one of which two Bills being Accomplished, the other to 

 stand void. 



"And so God send the Good Ship to her desired Port in safety, Amen! 



"Articles & contents unknown to 



(Signed) William Chadder." 



The Nantucket Indians who from the first had been treated with consideration, were 

 largely employed in this early whaling. Macy l tells us that nearly every boat was manned 

 in part, many almost entirely, by them, so that, as at Cape Cod, they soon became experienced 

 whalemen. After killing the whale, they towed it ashore, for the Right Whale usually floats 

 when dead, and the blubber was then stripped off by the aid of a sort of windlass called a 

 'crab.' The blubber was carried in carts to the try houses which then were near the dwellings 

 of the settlers. Of the numbers of whales taken in the Nantucket waters in these years almost 

 nothing is recorded. Macy says that the greatest number ever killed and brought to shore in 

 a single day was eleven, and the greatest number killed in any year was in 1726 when no less 

 than eighty-six were captured. These figures will serve to indicate the abundance of Right 

 Whales on the coast in those times. 



In addition to boat whaling from the shore stations, it is certain that at an early date, 

 larger vessels were sent out to pursue the Right Whale in the offshore waters at no great distance 

 from port. It was one of these vessels, that about 1712, while cruising for Right Whales near 

 shore, was blown by a strong northerly wind some distance from land. A school of Sperm 



1 Macy, O. History of Nantucket, 1835, p. 30. 



