THE WHALE F1SHEEY. 



matic address and persuasion had been, unable to obtain, were secured in a much shorter time 

 and probably far more efficaciously by force of arms, and Lima yielded to muskets and cannon 

 the respect she had been unwilling to concede to the seal of the Department of State. Her dep- 

 redations on American commerce did not, however, entirely cease until the advent of Captain 

 Porter in those waters.* Soon after this the United States Government, realizing the defenseless 

 condition of our commerce in the Pacific, dispatched Porter to that locality to protect our interests 

 Up to the time of the capture of his vessel he had not only done all in his power in this direction, 

 but had effectually destroyed the English whale fishery in those seas, and so turned the tables 

 upon the enemy who had sent out his whale ships well armed and manned to perform the same 

 kindly office toward our whalemen.f 



"Up to the latter part of the year 1813 the people of Hantucket had fished unmolested both 

 for codfish and for humpback whales on the shoals at the eastward of the island, and by this 

 means eked out a livelihood which was beginning to be quite precarious, but this resort was now 

 taken from them. An English privateer, during the fall, appeared among the fleet, capturing 

 one Nantucket vessel and driving away the remainder. In this dilemma a town meeting was 

 assembled and a petition prepared and forwarded to Congress representing the situation there, 

 and praying that some arrangement might be entered into ' whereby the fisheries may be prose- 

 cuted, without being subject to losses by war.' But no adequate relief was afforded, and the 

 people found the history of their sufferings during the Involution repeating itself with a distress- 

 ing pertinacity and fidelity, and they bade fair to perish of starvation and cold. They eventually 

 succeeded in obtaining permission to import provisions, but attempts to get leave to sail on whaling 

 voyages, coupled with immunity from capture, were unsuccessful. 



"The return of peace effected for them the protection that all negotiations had failed to secure. 

 Early in February, 1815, news came to Nantucket that the war was over, and immediately all 

 was hurry and bustle. The wharves, lately so deserted, teemed with life; the ships, lately dis- 

 mantled, put on their new dress ; the faces of the people, lately so disconsolate, were radiant with 

 hope. In May two ships fitted and sailed on their voyages ; by the last of June this number was 

 increased to nine ; by the 1st of August eighteen had gone, and by the 31st of December over 

 thirty ships, brigs, schooners, and sloops were pursuing the leviathans in the North .and South 



*The Walker, of New Bedford, was captured by an English armed whale ship, but recaptured by Porter. The 

 Barclay, of New Bedford, also was captured by the Peruvians, anil recaptured by Porter." 



" t So far as operations in the Pacific were concerned, the English wont out to shear but ' returned shorn.' Wherever 

 our sailors went ashore in foreign ports and met English i melee was a frequent occurrence. An amusing 



instance, it. related of the oliirer of a whaling vessel incurring the, displeasure of an English naval officer in one of the 

 South American Pacific ports by his zeal in behalf of his country. A challenge was the result. The American being 

 the challenged party, hail, of course, the right to a choice of weapons, and being most familiar with the harpoon, 

 chose that. They met according to the. preliminaries and took their positions. For a moment the English officer 

 stood before the poised harpoon of our whaleman, then gave in, and the proposed combat was deferred." 



" November -M, ItiU. Macy, 177. In an official report Captain Porter gives the following lisL of his captures, 

 chiefly vessels, as he says, engaged in the British sperm-whale lish. 



Tuna. Men. Guus . 

 Moutezuma 270 21 2 



Polic y - J 175 26 10 



Georgiana 280 25 6 



Greenwich 388 25 10 



Atlantic 355 24 8 



Rose 220 21 8 



Hector 270 25 11 



Catharine 270 29 8 



Seringapatam 357 31 14 



Charltou 274 21 10 



New Zealauder '_ 259 23 8 



Sir A. Hammond 301 31 12" 



