228 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



The proceeds of these 48 whales were: 



29,925 gallons of oil at 40 cents #11,970.00 



8,750 Ibs. whalebone from 35 whales at 15 cents 1,312.50 



one whale sold for exhibit at Boston 350.00 



one whale sold for exhibit at New York 405.00 



$14,037.50 



A report ! from Gloucester, Massachusetts, under date of May 13, 1880, refers again to 

 the numbers of whales in the near shore waters at this time. Four dead ones had been towed 

 into the harbor that had doubtless been shot and lost by the Provincetown fishermen. Three 

 were towed into Boston, one to Newburyport, one to Cape Porpoise, one to Portland, one to 

 Mt. Desert; two drifted ashore at Scituate, two at Barnstable, one at Brewster, one at Orleans, 

 two at Wellfleet, one on the back of Cape Cod, and one was stripped of its blubber at sea (A. 

 Howard Clark, 1887). 



"When the first whales were killed it was supposed the whalebone in their mouths was 

 worthless. It was not saved. Subsequently some was saved and sold at 15 cents per pound. 

 The average quantity of bone in each whale is about 250 pounds 



"In the spring of 1881 the whales came into the bay again, but not in so large numbers. 

 Fifteen were killed which furnished 300 barrels of oil. . . .No whales have come in of late." 



In a letter from Mr. J. Henry Blake, dated September 8, 1881, accompanying some bones 

 of a foetal Finback in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, he states that fifty-one whales were 

 killed that spring by the Provincetown whalers. The female from which the foetus was taken, 

 was about sixty-five feet long, very fat, and yielded thirty-two barrels of oil, an unusual amount. 



It will be seen that the average yield of oil per whale from these Finbacks was in both lots, 

 almost exactly 20 barrels. 



The annals of whaling at Provincetown indicate a lull in the industry for about four years 

 succeeding 1881. In 1885, however, Finbacks appeared in numbers on the coast, and in this 

 and the following year, many were captured. A report 2 from Gloucester, Mass., under date of 

 March 8, 1885, says that the fishermen had "never seen whales so numerous on the eastern 

 shore as at present. The steamer Fannie Sprague, of Booth Bay, formerly used in the porgy 

 fishery, which has been fitted out as a whaler, shot six whales last week. Two of them were 

 safely towed to Booth Bay, but the other four, which sunk, are buoyed." The success of the 

 Fannie Sprague and the abundance of whales this year, encouraged others to venture in their 

 pursuit. Accordingly we learn that "during the past two months [March and (?) April, 1885] 

 four steamers have been engaged in this work, viz. Fannie Sprague, Mabel Bird, Hurricane, 



1 Clark, A. Howard. Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., 1884, vol. 4, p. 404. 



2 Martin, S. J. Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., 1885, vol. 5, p. 207. 



