CHAPTER VII 



THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERIES 



Importance of whales to the early colonists Gradual extension 

 of the fishery Firmly established in 1775 Set-back caused 

 by the Revolution Gradual recovery Checked again by the 

 war of 1812 Subsequent rapid expansion Mid-nineteenth 

 century American whaling fleet the largest ever know 

 Gradual decline of the industry, and the reasons for it. 



THE American whale fisheries, at one time t\ 

 greatest in the world, originated, like that of tl i 

 Basques, as a coastal and inshore fishery. Captai 

 John Smith in 1614 found whales so plentiful alon 

 the coast of New England that he turned from tl> 

 original object of his voyage in order to pursue ther 

 Richard Mather, who went to the Massachusetts Ba 

 colony in 1635, saw " mighty whales spewing up 

 water in the air like the smoke of a chimney, of such 

 incredible bigness that I will never wonder that th 

 body of Jonah could be in the belly of a whale." 



The earliest references in the history of the Masse 

 chusetts Bay colony refer exclusively to drift whale j 

 which had been cast ashore, and it is uncertain whe i 

 the inhabitants first took part in the capture of these 

 cetacea at sea. It is certain, however, from contem- 



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