228 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



coast including before the revolution, Cape Cod 

 towns of Wellfleet, Barnstable, and Falmouth; 

 Boston and Lynn ; the Rhode Island towns of New- 

 port, Providence, Warren, and Tivertpn; New 

 London (Connecticut) ; Williamsburg (Virginia) ; 

 Martha's Vineyard, and New Bedford (then Dart- 

 mouth), all fitting out vessels for the whaling. 



At the time of the outbreak of the Revolution 

 whaling had become firmly established in what were 

 then the American colonies. At New Bedford whal- 

 ing probably commenced about 1755. Ten years 

 later there were four sloops employed, and in 1775 

 eighty vessels with a tonnage of six thousand five 

 hundred. 



In 1755 the colonial whalemen were restricted by 

 an embargo placed on the Banks' fishermen, and this 

 was continued in 1757 when the Nantucket whalers 

 were given permission to resume their whaling 

 voyages. The Gulf of St Lawrence and Straits of 

 Belle Isle were opened to the colonial fishermen in 

 1761. By 1762 Nantucket alone had seventy-eight 

 vessel^ engaged in whaling. About this time the 

 British Parliament laid a duty on all whale products 

 exported to England from the colonies with a view 

 to assist the British whalers in their struggles against 

 the supremacy of the Dutch. 



British whalers were also granted a bounty in 

 which the colonists did not share. Shortly after the 

 colonists were forbidden to send their exports to any 

 other markets so they were practically compelled to 

 pay the English duties. Both the colonial and 



