HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY. 51 



was the actual average import at Nantucket)* and we have as the result 

 of the season's fishing 21,000 barrels, worth, at £18 per ton, the ruling 

 price, £47,200, or about $236,000. 



" Between the years 1770 and 1775," says Macy,t ** the whaling busi- 

 ness increased to an extent hitherto unparalleled. In 1770 there were 

 a little more than oue hundred vessels engaged ; and in 1775 the num- 

 ber exceeded one hundred and fifty, some of them large brigs. The 

 employment of so great and such an increasing capital may lead our 

 readers to suppose that a corresponding profit was realized, but a care- 

 ful examination of the circumstances under which the business was 

 carried on will show the fallacy of such a conclusion. Many branches 

 of labor were conducted by th ose who were immediately interested in 

 the voyages.$ The young men, with few exceptions, were brought up 

 to some trade necessary to the business. The rope-maker, the cooper, 

 the blacksmith, the carpenter — in fine, the workmen were either tbe 

 ship-owners or of their household ; so were often the officers and men who 

 navigated the vessels and killed the whales. While a ship was at sea, 

 the owners at home were busily employed in the manufactory of casks, 

 iron-work, cordage, blocks, and other articles for the succeeding voyage. 

 Thus the profits of the labor were enjoyed by those interested in the 

 fishery, and voyages were reudered advantageous even when the oil ob- 



exteut of their lives. Iu the melee the boarding lieutenant was killed. But three of 

 the men, none of whom, says the News-Letter, were Americans, allowed themselves to 

 become intoxicated, and all were captured. 



* Macy's Nantucket, p. 233. 



t Ibid., p. 68. In the spring of 1770 three whalemen fitted out from Middletown, 

 Conn. They returned in October of the same year, having met with very poor suc- 

 cess. 



t The almost universal method of settling the voyages of American whalemen was 

 by "lays," each officer and man being shipped to receive a certain proportion of the 

 earnings as his pay. In this way each one was directly interested in the general result. 

 For instance, in settling the voyage of the ship Lion, of Nantucket, in 1807, the ac- 

 count as stated in the Coll. of the Mass. Hist. Soc, ii ser., iii vol., p. 19, is thus : 



Dr. 



To amount of charge $362 75 



To sundry accounts, clearing ship, 

 &c, (no charge against captain, 

 mate, and boy) 43 38 



The share of the captain, -&. .. $2, 072 13 



Mate,^ f 1,381 41 



Second mate, 3V 1,008 06 



2 ends men, ■£$ each 1,554 10 



5 ends men, tV each 2, 486 55 



Cooper, gV 621 64 



Cr. 



By 37,358 gallons body oil.... $19,766 14 



By 1 6,868 gallons head matter . 17, 849 73 



By 150^ gallons black oil 45 15 



37,661 02 



Boy,^ $310 82 



5 blacks, ^V each 2,331 14 



1 black, ^ on 400 barrels 108 36 



1 black, y\ r 414 42 



lblack,^ 438 80 



1 black, -y 1 ,; on all but 400 bar- 

 rels 318 10 



Remainder, (coming to owners,) $24,252.74. 



Of the interest which those of Nantucket at home had in the success of the ship, Davis 

 6ays,and with much of truth: "The cooper, while employed in making the casks, took care 



