HISTORY OP THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY. 41 



in that branch of industry 5 had fostered it by bounties ; had relaxed 

 even the act of navigation, so as to invite even the Dutch to engage in 

 it from British ports in British shipping. But it was all in vain. Gren- 

 ville gave up the unsuccessful attempt, and sought a rival for Holland 

 in British America, which had hitherto lain under the double discourage- 

 ment of being excluded from the benefit of a bounty,* and of having 

 the products of its whale-fishing taxed unequally. He now adopted the 

 plan of gradually giving up the bounty to the British whale-fishery, 

 which would be a saving of £30,000 a year to the treasury, and of re- 

 lieving the American fishery from the inequality of the discriminating 

 duty, except the old subsidy, which was scarcely 1 per cent. This is 

 the most liberal act of Grenville's administration, of which the merit is 

 not diminished by the fact that the American whale-fishery was super- 

 seding the English under every discouragement. It required liberality 

 to accept this result as inevitable, and to favor it. It was done, too, 

 with a distinct conviction that ' the American whale-fishery, freed from 

 its burden, would soon totally overpower the British.' So this valuable 

 branch of trade, which produced annually three thousand pounds, and 

 which would give employment to many shipwrights and other artificers, 

 and to three thousand seamen, was resigned to America." 



With the people of Nantucket every foreign war meant a diminution 

 of their whaling-fleet, for there is scarcely any risk that whalemen have 

 not and will not run in pursuit of their prey. During the years 1755 

 and 175G, six of their vessels had been lost at sea and six more were 

 taken by the French and burned, together with their cargoes, while the 

 crews were carried away into captivity. In 1760 another vessel was 

 captured by a French privateer of 12 guns and released after the 

 commander of the privateer had put on board of her the crew of a 

 sloop they had previously taken nearly full of oil and burned. The 



captain of the sloop, Luce, had sailed with three others who 



were expected on the coast. The day after Luce was taken, the privateer 

 engaged a Bermudian letter of marque and was beaten. During this en- 

 gagement several whalemen in the vicinity made their escape. In the 

 same month (June) another privateer of 14 guns took several whal- 

 ing-vessels, one of which was ransomed for $400, all the prisoners put 

 on board of her, and she landed them at Newport.! In 1762 another 

 Nantucket sloop was taken by a privateer from the French West Indies, 

 under one Mous. Palanqua, while she was cruising in the vicinity of the 

 Leeward Islands. 



At Martha's Vineyard whaling did not seem to thrive so well as at 

 the sister island of Nantucket. The very situation of Nantucket seemed 

 favorable for the development of this and kindred pursuits ; in fact, the 

 situatiou made them necessities. While the Vineyard was quite fertile 

 and of considerable extent, Nantucket was comparatively sterile and cir- 



* The bounty of 1748 bad evidently been legislated out of existence, 

 t These vessels were from several whaling ports. 



