26 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



Zealand. These, with Payta and Tumbez, in Peru, are the principal ports visited by ships. The 

 Galapagos Islands have some good harbors and are occasionally resorted to for the land turtles 

 or terrapin that are abundant th^re. On some islands wood can be obtained, and on the south 

 side of Chatham Island good water can be got with safety from November to May. 



In the North Pacific the principal ports visited for the transshipment of oil are San Fran- 

 cisco, Panama, HikvandJELonolulu. Tacames, in Ecuador, Acapulco, on the west coast of Mexico. 

 1 Yokohama, Hakadadi, Guam, one of the Ladrone Islands, Hong-Kong, and Manila have all been 

 visiting stations. There are also many other places occasionally visited by the whaling fleet. For 

 the convenience of the Arctic fleet a supply vessel is sent from San Francisco to meet the vessels 

 at Bering Strait or in the Arctic and receive what oil they may wish to send home and supply 

 them with fresh provisions. 



3. EARLY HISTORY OF BOAT-WHALING IN NEW ENGLAND. 



f!OAST OF MAINE. 



We find no records to indicate that shore- whaling was ever extensively practiced on the 

 coast of Maine, though drift whales may have been frequently cast ashore and cared for by the 

 shoremen. The following item, given by Hubbard in his history of New England, shows that 

 the people of Maine, in early times, were not versed in the handling of whales : " In 1668 a sperm 

 whale fifty-five feet long was taken at Winter Harbor, near Casco Bay. The like hath happened 

 in other places of the country, where, for want of skill to improve it, much gain hath slipped out 

 of the hands of the finders." 



MASSACHUSETTS NORTH OF CAPE COD. 



There is little in the early records to show what interest the people of Massachusetts, north 

 of Cape Cod, had in shore whaling. It is probable that at Salem and vicinity this business was 

 carried on in a small way during the eighteenth century. Mr. John Higginsou, in 1700, writes 

 that at Salem, " we have a considerable quantity of whale oil and bone for exportation.'" 

 writes again in 1706 to a friend in Ipswich as if he were concerned with others in boat whaling. 

 Drift whales were frequently found, and claimants notified to prove their rights before courts of 

 admiralty in accordance with the laws of the colony. Boston papers of December 12, 1707, mention 

 the capture by boats of a 40-foot whale near Noddle's Island. It is therefore inferred that whale 

 boats and implements for capture were kept in readiness in the vicinity of Boston. 



It is probable that, as in recent years, drift whales were taken at Cape Ann and other points 

 farther north along the coast of Massachusetts, though we find no record to show a definite 

 business done in boat whaling at places north of Cape Cod. 



BOAT WHALING AT CAPE COD. 



Starbuck has called attention to the fact that the abundance of whales was one of the main 

 arguments for the early settlement of Cape Cod by the English, and has quoted some interesting 

 accounts of the manner in which the aborigines hunted the whale two centuries and a hall' ago. 

 In Richard Mather's Journal of his voyage to Massachusetts, in 1635, he records seeing on the end 

 of the Bank of Newfoundland near to New England " mighty fishes rolling and tumbling in the 

 waters, twice as long and as big as an ox " and " mighty whales, spewing up water in the air, like 



FELT: Annals of Salem, II, p. 226. 



