HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY. 39 



In compliance with the foregoing petition the Council passed this res- 

 olution (April 8, 1758) : " Inasmuch as the Inhabitants of Nantucket 

 most of whom are Quakers are by Law exempted from Impresses for 

 military Service. And their Livelihood intirely depends on the Whale 

 fishery — Advised that his Excels give permission for all whaling Ves- 

 sels belons to s d ll d to pursue their Voyages, taking only the Iuh ts of 

 s d Island in s d Vessells and that upon their taking any other persons 

 whatsoever with them they be subject to all the Penalties of the law in 

 like manner as if they had proceeded without Leave."* 



In 1761 the fishery of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Straits of 

 Bellisle was opened to our whalemen, and they speedily availed them- 

 selves of its wealth. This was the legitimate result of the conquest of 

 Canada and the cession of territory made by France to England at the 

 conclusion of the war, a result which the colonists had labored hard aud 

 spent lives and treasure unstintedly to attain, but of the benefit of 

 which they were destined to be defrauded. A duty was levied on all 

 oil aud bone carried to England from the colonies, and by another op- 

 pressive act of Parliament they were not allowed to find for this product 

 any other market. The discrimination between the plantations and 

 the mother country was made the more marked since at this time the 

 residents of Great Britain were allowed a bounty from which the pro- 

 vincials were debarred. Against these injustices the merchants of New 

 England, and those of London engaged in colonial trade, respectfully 

 petitioned. They represented that " in the Year 1761 The Province of 

 Massachusetts Bay, fitted out from Boston & other ports t Ten Vessels 

 of from Seventy to Ninety Tons Burden for this Purpose. That the 

 Success of these was such as to encourage the Sending out of fifty Ves- 

 sels in the Year 1762 for the same trade. That in the Year 1763 more 

 than Eighty Vessels were imploy'd in the same manner.! That they 



Banks, hoping to fill there. If, however, a vessel got home early from the north, they 

 frequently went on another voyage to the south and westward in the same yeaf. 



* Mass. Col. MSS., Maritime, vi, p. 371. Martha's Vineyard appears to be ignored 

 in the order. 



t As already explained, Boston was the port of entry for many of the Cape towns and 

 its own immediate vicinity. 



t According to the following doggerel there were seventy-five whaling captains sailing 



from Nantucket in 1763. 



Whale-List, by Thomas Worth, M. 1763. 



Out of Nantucket their's Whalemen seventy-five, 

 But two poor Worths among them doth survive : 

 Their is two Ramsdills & their's Woodbury's two, 

 Two Ways there is, chuse which one pleaseth you, 

 Folgers thirteen, & Barnards there are four 

 Bunkers their is three & Jenkinses no more, 

 Gardners their is seven, flusseys their are two, 

 Pinkhams their is five and a poor Delano, 

 Myricks there is three & Coffins there are six, 

 Swains their are four and one blue gaily Fitch. 

 One Chadwick, Cogshall, Coleman their's but one, 

 Brown, Baxter, two &, Paddacks there is three, 

 Wyer, Stanton, Starbuck, Moorse is four you see, 

 But if for a Voyage I was to choose a Stanton, 

 I would leave Sammy out & choose Ben Stratton. 

 And not forget that Bocott is alive, 

 And that long-crotch makes up the seventy -five. 

 This is answering to the list, you see, 

 Made up in seventeen hundred & sixty three. 



