THE WHALE FI8HEET. 95 



vessels, measuring 13,820 tons. Many of these cruised in Davis Strait, while the remainder pur- 

 sued the fishery in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, about the Straits of Belle Isle, and in other northern 

 waters. After the war the business was greatly reduced in extent, and the northern fleet num- 

 bered ouly ninety-one vessels, very few of which went as far north as Davis Strait. There was at 

 this time, however, a great increase in the northern fisheries from British and French ports, many 

 of these foreign vessels being commanded and in some cases manned by American whalemen who 

 had settled in England, where they might take ad vantage -ff 4he bounty system. 



The war of 1812 to 1815 between the United States and England had a very depressing influ- 

 ence on the American whale-fishery ; after the war it revived, but the northern cruising grounds 

 were abandoned for the more profitable southern fields that were less exposed to danger and 

 yielded an abundance of sperm and whale oil. 



BEVTVAL OP THE FISHERY IN 1846. It was not until the year 1846 that Davis Strait was 

 again visited by our whalemen. In that year the ship McLennan, under Captain Slate, sailed from 

 New London on the 8th of April, and returned September 17 with about 140 barrels of oil. Part 

 of the officers and crews of the vessel were Englishmen experienced in the fishery in those waters. 

 Although the first voyage was not as successful as could be desired, yet the McLennan was again 

 fitted in the spring of 1847, and sailed March 5, returning October 5 with 1,111 barrels of oil and 

 l.">,0()0 pounds of bone, besides 845 seal-skins obtained off the Newfoundland coast at the beginning 

 of the season. In 1849, 1850, and 1851 other voyages were made, and in 1852 the vessel was lost in 

 the Davis Strait, while on her sixth voyage to those waters. The product of her several voyages 

 was about 3,500 barrels of whale oil and 51,000 pounds bone, besides a few thousand seal-skins 

 and some barrels of seal oil. 



Capt. S. O. Buddington, who sailed on the McClennan on her voyages in 1850 and 1851, gives 

 the following account of those and subsequent voyages in which he participated : " On the 7th of 

 March, 1850, I sailed on the McClennan from New London bound for Davis Strait. We were 

 fitted for sealing as well as whaling. When we arrived on the coast of Newfoundland we saw 

 seals on the ice some 40 miles from land. In cruising along the coast as far as the Straits of Belle 

 Isle, we captured about seven hundred seals, saving the skins and blubber. About the middle of 

 May we quitted sealing and went whaling off Discoe, Greenland, and in Baffin's Bay. We got 

 five wbales that season, and arrived home October 22. The next year I sailed again in the same 

 vessel, leaving New London February 8. While sealing during the spring along Newfoundland 

 and south of Davis Strait we got about eleven hundred seals and two whales. We did not 

 go as far north as Discoe this year, but whaled in Cumberland Inlet, where we got a few whales, 

 and at the close of the season the vessel left for home, arriving at New London, October 28, with 

 258 barrels of oil, 4,900 pounds of bone, 1,100 seal-skins, and some seal oil. The entire crew of 

 the McClennan did not return home in her, but myself with a gang of twelve men were left to 

 siieud the winter in the inlet, for the purpose of trading with the natives and capturing what 

 whales and seals we could. We built the frame of a hut from spare stuff left by the vessel, and 

 covered it with seal-skins. Here we spent the cold winter, occasionally securing a seal and pur- 

 chasing articles of the natives in exchange for knives, powder, &c. We were the first whalemen 

 that ever spent a winter in this region. At the opening of spring we found whales in considerable 

 abundance, and with the aid of the natives secured during the spring and summer months sixteen 

 small whales that yielded considerable blubber, and about 16,000 pounds of bone. 



" The McClennan left home in the spring of 1852, but never reached the inlet. It is thought 

 she was lost near the entrance to Davis Strait. After waiting long enough to be satisfied that 

 our vessel would not return to take us home, we shipped our oil, skins, and bone on an English 



