THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERIES 225 



Indians were employed, each boat's crew being 

 composed partly of aborigines. 



As already related, in 1712 one of the whalemen 

 was blown out to sea where he captured a Sperm 

 Whale, the first of the species taken by American 

 whalers. This led eventually to a great develop- 

 ment of the whaling industry. The people of Nan- 

 tucket immediately began to build whaling sloops of 

 about thirty tons burden to whale in deep water. 

 These vessels were fitted out for cruises of six weeks' 

 duration, the blubber being stripped off, stored 

 aboard in hogsheads and brought back to the trying 

 out works on shore. By 1715 Nantucket had six 

 sloops engaged in this fishery; by 1730 

 twenty vessels of from thirty to fifty 

 About this time schooners were introcpced, and the 

 size increased up to seventy tons. Tfce shore fishery 

 now reached its maximum development, the whales 

 near the coast becoming gradually scarcer and 

 scarcer owing to over-fishing. 



The introduction of sperm oil, so superior to all 

 other oils, was a great stimulus to the development 

 of the industry. With the addition of larger vessels 

 to the fleet longer voyages were made and more 

 distant areas visited. At first it was the custom of 

 the whalers to go to the southward where they fished 

 until July. Then they returned, refitted, and 

 finished the season to the eastward of the Grand 

 Banks. Davis Strait was visited by American 

 whalemen in 1732, and in 1737 the Boston News 

 Letter records the voyages of several vessels to that 



p 



