THE WHALE FISHU1IY. 69 



to the requirements of tin- adventurers, became famous places of resort for American whale ships. 

 The principal ones were Talcalmano and Valparaiso, in Chili, and Payta, Callao, and Tumbez, in 

 Peru. At these places usually could be obtained any needed recruits, and the picturesque scenery, 

 blended with those sunny climes, together with the charms of the beautiful women, made their 

 periodical visits to the coast peculiarly attractive, and wrought an entire temporary change from 

 the life on 'blue water.' The abrupt and lofty group of islands, the Galapagos, which extend into 

 both latitudes from the equator, and the little island of Cocos, situated in the rainy region on the 

 border of Panama Bay, were frequently visited, and bec.anie_more familiar to the whalemen, in 

 many instances, than their Atlantic homes. Every rugged mountain .and verdant valley of the 

 former were traversed in hunting the galapago, or 'elephant terrapin,' which furnished them with 

 ample supply of the most delicious megl, and the latter was resorted to for fresh water, which i 

 was dipped from cascades flowing out of their natural reservoir beyond the. wooded bluffs. And 

 upon the rocks about the beach of Chatham Bay, rudely chiseled, are the records of those pioneer 

 whale fishers, with the dates of the visits of transient vessels, from the pigmy shallops of Drake's 

 time to the magnificent national ships of the present century."* 



SPERM WHALING AT NEW ZEALAND AND THE OFFSHOBE GROUND. The sperm-whale 

 fishery at New Zealand began about the year 1802, and in 1803, according to Beale, " many vessels 

 were plowing the China Seas, about the Molucca Islands, in search of the sperm whale."t In 

 isixf Capt. George Gardner, in the ship Globe, of Nantncket, discovered the famous "offshore 

 ground" that, was soon visited by scores of sperm whalers. In speaking of this discovery Scammon 

 says : " The love of adventure tempted the whalers to turn their prows even from the sunny shores 

 of Peru, and, with flowing sheets, they coursed over the Pacific until, in latitude 5 to 10 south 

 and longitude 105 to 125 west, the objects of pursuit were found in countless numbers, whose 

 huge forms blackened the waves and whose spontings clouded the air as far as the eye could dis- 

 cern." 



THE JAPAN GROUND. The next important sperm-whale ground to be discovered was the 

 Japan Ground. The honor of opening this profitable whaling ground is claimed by both Ameri- 

 cans and Englishmen. According to Starbuck, "having received word from Captain Winship, 

 of Brighton, .Mass., who had friends at Nantucket, that on a recent voyage from China to the 

 Sandwich Islands lie- had seen large numbers of sperm whales on that coast, Capt. Joseph Allen, 

 iu the ship Mars, was dispatched there." The Mars sailed from Nantucket October 26, 1819, arriv- 

 ing home March 10, 1822, with 2,425 barrels of sperm oil, and within two or three years a fleet of 

 thirty sail of vessels were cruising on the new ground. By 1835 there were cruising in the North 

 Paeih'c, between the coasts of New Albion ou the east and the Japan Islands on the west, near a 

 hundred ships.|| one-third English, and the others Americans. 



The first English whaling vessel to visit the new field was the ship Syren, of 500 tons burden, i 

 commanded by Capt. Frederick Coffin, of Nantucket, and carrying a crew of thirty-six seamen. 

 "The Syren," says Beale, '-sailed from England on the 3d of August, 1819, and arrived off the 

 coast of Japan on the 5th of April, 1820, where she fell in with immense numbers of the sperma- 

 ceti whale, which her crew gave chase to with excellent success; for they returned to their native 

 land on the 21st of April, 1822, after an absence of about two years and eight months, during 

 which time they had by their industry, courage, and perseverance, gathered from the confines of 

 the North Pacific Ocean no less than the enormous quantity of 34G tons [2, 70S barrels] of sperm 



" SCAMMON '. op. cit., pp. 210, 211. t BKAI.E : op. cil., p. I'W. 



{Proceedings American Antiquarian Society, No. .">?. p. 29. {Report TJ. S. Fish Commission, 1875-'?6, p. 9G. 



|| MACY : Hist. Nantucket, p. 224. 



