HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY. 35 



we find in the News Letter of September 3, 1722, an advertisement of a 

 court of admiralty to be held to adjudicate on a drift-whale found float- 

 ing near Brewster's, and towed ashore in August. It was much wasted 

 and decayed, and in cutting it up a ball was found, indicating that it 

 had been attacked by some party, and the advertisement notifies the 

 public that "If any Persons can try any Claim to said Whale so as to 

 make out a property," they should appear at the said court at Boston 

 on the last Wednesday in the month.* On the 5th of December, 1723, 

 "Mr. Peter Butler, of Boston," advertises for sale, "lately Imported from 

 London, extraordinary good Whale Warps at 16$. a Pound, which are 

 made of the finest Hemp, either by the Quoile or less Quantity." t In 

 1730 Samuel Torrey, currier, on Water street, Boston, advertises "Good 

 Blubber by the Barrell or Tun, full Bound." 



In 1731 the Rhode Island assembly passed an act for the encourage- 

 ment of the whale and cod fisheries, giving " a bounty of five shillings 

 for every barrel of whale oil, one penny a pound for bone, and five 

 shilliugs a quintal for codfish, caught by Rhode Island vessels and 

 brought into this colony * * * to be paid from the interest accruing 

 upon a new bank, or issue bills of credit to the amount of sixty thou- 

 sand pounds."^ The whale-fishery had, according to Arnold, § long been 

 carried on in a small way within that colony, and whales had frequented 

 Narragansett Bay and often been taken with boats. This bounty gave 

 something of a stimulus to the business, and these colonists too began 

 to " whale out into the deep," and in 1733 the first regularly equipped 

 whaleman of which Rhode Island has any record arrived in Newport 

 from her voyage, having on board 114 barrels of oil and 200 pounds of 

 bone. This sloop was the Pelican, of Newport, Benjamin Thurston, 

 owner, and she received the bounty according to the law. || 



By the inhabitants of Martha's Viueyard, in 1702-'3, there appear to 

 have been several whales killed. The following entry occurs under that 

 date in the court records : " The marks of the whales killed by John 

 Butler and Thomas Lothrop. One whale lanced near or over the shoul- 

 der blade, near the left shoulder blade only ; another killed with an 

 iron forward in the left side, marked W; and upon the right side 

 marked with a pocket-knife T. L. ; and the other had an iron hole over 



* Whalebone is quoted in the News- Letter of April 18, 1723, as bringing from 3s. to 

 3s. 6d. in Philadelphia. 



t B. News-Letter. 



t Arnold's Hist, of Rhode Island, ii, p. 103. 



§ Ibid., p. 110. In point of fact deep-sea whaling had been pursued from Rhode 

 Island some years prior to the time mentioned by Arnold. The News-Letter for May 

 23, 1723, records the entry of a vessel, commanded by William Bennett, from whaling, 

 which brought the largest sperm whale ever seen, up to that time, in those parts. It 

 produced 18 barrels of head matter and from 40 to 50 barrels of oil, and one-third 

 more head would have been saved had not the weather been stormy. " This spring," 

 the account says, " our Vessels have brought in eight Whales into this port" (New- 

 port). 



|| Arnold's R. I., ii, p. 110. 



