2 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



they pursued their prey through regions never before traversed by the 

 vessels of a civilized community. Holding their lives in their hands, as 

 it were, whether they harpooned the leviathan in the deep, or put into 

 some hitherto unknown port for supplies, no extreme of heat or cold 

 could daunt them, no thought of danger hold t"hetn in check. Their 

 lives have ever been one continual round of hair-breadth escapes, in 

 which the risk was alike shared by officers and men. No shirk could 

 find an opportunity to indulge his shirking, no coward a chance to dis- 

 play his cowardice, and in their hazardous life incompetents were 

 speedily weeded out. Many a tale of danger and toil and suffering, 

 startling, severe, and horrible, has illumined the pages of the history of 

 this pursuit, and scarce any, even the humblest of these hardy mariners, 

 but can, from his own experience, narrate truths stranger than fiction. 

 In many ports, among hundreds of islands, on many seas the flag of the 

 country from which they sailed was first displayed from the mast-head 

 of a whale ship. Pursuing their avocation wherever a chance presented, 

 the Americau flag was first unfurled in an English port from the deck 

 of one American whalemau, and the ports of the western coast of South 

 America first beheld the Stars and Stripes shown as the standard of 

 auother. It may be safely alleged that but for them the western 



try, so far as it related to our own country, and append to it, so far as was practicable, a 

 record of every voyage which has been performed. Of the magnitude of this labor 

 ouly those who have had similar experience can form any idea. Iu the one item of 

 marine reports.it comprehended the examination of newspapers covering a period of 

 one hundred and seventy years. The limited time allowed for the work performed is 

 not mentioned by the -writer in any spirit of self-laudation, but as a statement due to 

 himself for any possible errors of omission or commission that may have occurred. 



Fortunately in the collection of material for a work of an entirely different naturo 

 much had been gathered which had a bearing upon this subject, and much that was 

 absolutely necessary for use in this connection, and, fortunately, the kindness of many 

 friends lightened still more the labor. Wherever the writer has been in search of 

 material the utmost courtesy has been extended, and, with very rare exceptions, 

 whenever application has been made, books and documents have been freely placed at 

 his commaud. Especially is he under obligations to Charles Eldridge, esq., of Fair- 

 haven; Dennis Wood, esq., the proprietor of the Shipping-List; and R. C. Ingraham, esq., 

 of New Bedford ; the late William R. Sleight, esq., of Sag Harbor, N. Y. ; the late Hon. 

 Henry P. Haven, and Haven, Williams & Co., of New London, Conn. ; Benjamin F. Cook, 

 esq., of New York; Hon. Lorenzo Sabine, of Boston (who kindly placed all his papers on 

 the subject at the author's disposal) ; F. C. Sanford, J. S. Barney, and W. H. Macy, esqrs., 

 and Miss R. A. Gardner, of Nantucket ; Maj. S. B. Phinuey, of Barnstable; R. L. Pease, 

 esq., of Edgartown ; Capt. Silas Jones, of Falmouth ; Capt. S. W. Macy, of Newport, R. I. ; 

 B. Furnald, esq., custodian of historical records of New York (see numerous quotations, 

 the result mainly of his iudefatigable researches) ; and the collectors and assistants of 

 the ports of Boston and New Bedford. He also acknowledges courtesies from those 

 in charge of the libraries of the Massachusetts Historical, Boston Athenamni, and Amer- 

 ican Antiquarian Societies. 



If iu the search for facts the historical idols of others have been shattered, it may be 

 a source of satisfaction to them to learn that the writer has been equally iconoclastic 

 with many that he too has reverenced. 



ALEXANDER STARBUCK. 



Waltham, Mass., March 1, 1877. 



