70 HISTORY AND METHODS OP THE FISHERIES. 



oil, which was brought into the port of London in safety and triumph, showing a success unprec- 

 edented in the annals of whaling, and which astonished and stimulated to exertion all those 

 engaged in the trade throughout Europe and America. The success which attended this expedi- 

 tion not only rewarded the seamen and others who composed the crew, but the spirited owner 

 who had sent them out also must have felt the solid and weighty considerations which he no 

 doubt received in return for the great and successful enterprise to which he had given origin. 

 After the return of the Syren the Japan fishery was speedily established, and remains to this day 

 [1839] the principal one in both Pacifies ; and although it has been so much resorted to by ships 

 of different nations ever since, which have carried off immense quantities of sperm oil, yet such is 

 the boundless space of ocean throughout which it exists, that the whales scarcely appear to be 

 reduced in number. But they are more difficult to get near than they were some years back, on 

 account of the frequent harassing they have met with from boats and ships, so that they have 

 now become well aware of the reckless nature of their pursuers, and they evince great caution and 

 instinctive cunning in avoiding them." * 



SPERM WHALING IN THE INDIAN OCEAN. "In 1828," says Scammon, "four ships were sent 

 from Nantucket to cruise for sperm whales off the coast of Zanzibar, around the Seychelle Islands, 

 and about the mouth of the Red Sea; and one of the number, with the very appropriate name of Co- 

 luuibus, through the skill and energy of the captain, sailed up the Red Sea in quest of the objects 

 of pursuit." t The Seychelle Islands had been visited by the English whaler Swan, a vessel of 150 

 tons, in 1823, for the purpose of searching for sperm whales, and the captain had been directed to 

 prosecute the fishery, if possible, at the entrance of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. The expedition 

 did not prove as successful as was anticipated, though the effect of opening up the new fields was 

 of great subsequent advantage, "for although," says Beale, " the Swan did not return until the 27th 

 of April, 1825, and had only procured 40 tons of sperm oil during all the time of her absence, yet her 

 want of entire success was not owing to the absence of whales at the places to which they were 

 sent, for the crew saw immense numbers, but from a series of misfortunes which befel them, and 

 which rendered them incapable of prosecuting the fishery with all the energy and entire devotion 

 which it requires to bring about a successful termination. The ships which resorted to the Sey- 

 chelles after the return of the Swan had good reason to be well satisfied with the success which 

 attended their efforts, not only from the number of whales which they found there, but from its 

 being so much nearer home than the Japan fishery, by which much time was saved in the outward 

 and homeward passages." $ 



CONDITION OP THE FISHERY, 1837 TO 1880. In the year 1837 the sperm-whale fishery was at 

 its highest point of prosperity. The production of the American fleet that year was 5,329,138 

 gallons of sperm oil, valued at $4,396,538.85. Most of the fleet at this period were scattered over 

 the various grounds in the North and South Pacific Oceans, and in the Japan Sea, and cargoes of 

 over 3,000 barrels were not uncommon on a three years' cruise. " Most of our whale ships," says 

 Macy, in 1835, in his History of Nantucket, "go into the Pacific by the way of Cape Horn ; some by 

 the eastern route south of New Holland and Van Dieman's Land ; others after cruising awhile in 

 the Indian Ocean, in the neighborhood of Madagascar and mouth of the Red Sea, pursue their way 

 into the Pacific Ocean through the Straits of Timor, between New Guinea on the south and the 

 Pelew Islands on the north, touching at the Ladrone Islands, and then onward to the Japan coast. 

 They there meet ships which sailed from home about the same time with themselves and came by 

 the way of Cape Horn. Others, too, meet at the same place that came by the route south of New 



*BEALK: op. cit., p. 149. t SCAMMON: op. cit., p. 212. t BEALE: op. cit., p. 152. 



