THE WHALE FISHERY. 113 



were a little more than one hundred vessels engaged ; and in 1775 the number exceeded one 

 hundred and fifty, some of them large brigs. The employment of so great and such an increasing 

 capital may lead our readers to suppose, that a corresponding profit was realized, but a careful 

 examination of the circumstances under which the business was carried on will show the fallacy of 

 such a conclusion. Many branches of labor were conducted by those who were immediately 

 interested in the voyages. The young men, with few exceptions, were brought up to some trade 

 necessary to the business. The rope-maker, the cooper, the bhfcksmirh, the carpenter in fine, 

 the workmen were either the ship-owners or of their household ; so were often the officers and men 

 who navigated the vessels and killed the whales. While a ship was at sea, the owners at home 

 were busily employed in the manufacture of casks, iron work, cordage, blocks, and other articles 

 Cor the succeeding voyage. Thus the profits of the labor were, enjoyed by those interested in the 

 fishery, and voyages were rendered advantageous even when the oil obtained was barely sufficient 

 to pay the outfits, estimating the labor as a part thereof. This mode of conducting the business 

 was universal, and has continued to a very considerable extent to the present day [1835]. Experi- 

 ence taught the people how to take advantage of the different markets for their oil. Their sperma- 

 ceti oil was mostly sent to England in its unseparated state, the head matter being generally 

 mixed with the body oil, for in the early part of whaling it would bring no more when separated 

 than when mixed. The whale oil, which is the kind procured from the species called ' right whales,' 

 was shipped to Boston or elsewhere in the colonies, and there sold for country consumption, or 

 sent to the West Indies.'*" 



DEPREDATIONS BY PRIVATEERS AND PIRATES. " The seas continued to be infested with 

 French and Spanish privateers and pirates,t and whalemen, especially those frequenting the ocean 

 in the vicinity of the Western Islands, were, from the very nature of their employment, constantly 

 liable to depredations from these corsairs, whether legalized or lawless. In March, 1771, the sloop 

 Neptune, Captain Nixon, arrived in Newport from the Mole, bringing with him portions of the crews 

 of three Dartmouth whalemen, who had been taken on the south side of Hispaniola by a Spanish 

 guarda coasta. These vessels were commanded by Capts. Silas Butler, William Roberts, and 

 Itichard Welding. Another whaling vessel, belonging to Martha's Vineyard, commanded by 

 Ephraim Pease, was also taken at about the same time, but released in order to put on board of her 

 the remaining prisoners. At this time Pease had taken 200 barrels of oil, and the Dartmouth ves- 

 sels, which were carried into Saint Domingo, 100 barrels. These captures were made on the llth 

 of February .J 



" But it did not always happen that whalemen fell so easy a prey to predatory vessels. A 

 little strategy sometimes availed them when a forcible resistance would have been out of the ques- 



' * Bancroft s;i..vs (Hist. U. S., v, p. 263), in 1765 the colonists wore not allowed to export the chief products of their 

 industry, such as .sugar, tobacco, cotton, wool, indigo, ginger, dyeing-woods, whalebone, &c., to any place but Great 

 Britain not even to Ireland. Save in tlie matter of salt, wines, victuals, horses, and servants, Great Britain was 

 not only tlic soli-, market for the products of America, but the only storehouse' for its supplies. 



' This stringency must, however, have been somewhat relaxed as regards oil, for the Boston News-Letter of Septem- 

 ber s. 1TDH, gives the report from London, dated July 13, that the whale and cod fisheries of New England 'this 



ii promised to turn out extremely advantageous, many ships fully laden having already been sent to the Medi- 

 terranean markets.' The success of the Americans stems to have again aroused the jealousy of their English brethren, 

 for in this year an effort, was made in Parliament to revive the bounty to English whalemen, with the intent to weaken 

 the American iishery." 



" * The word ' pirate ' seems to have been in those days of a somewhat ambiguous signification, and was quite as 

 likely to mean a privateer as a corsair." 



' *The men who came home with Captain Nixon were, Oliver Price, Pardon Slocum, and Philip Harkins. (Boston 

 News-Letter.)" 



SKO. v, VOL. n 8 



