HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY. 65 



and Davis Straits, and at the same time tbat tbe duties on oil, blubber, 

 and bone, imported from Newfoundland, sbould be taken off. It was 

 found that the restraining bill worked serious damage to the people of 

 Newfoundland, and also to the fisheries from the British islands to tbat 

 coast, as, in order to prevent absolute famine there, it was necessary 

 that several ships should return light from that vicinity in order to 

 carr3 T cargoes of provisions from Ireland to the sufferers there.* 



The English fishery, even under the encouragement given, did not, 

 however, answer the expectations or hopes of its friends. It was not so 

 easily transferred as had been imagined. A few more vessels sailed 

 from Great Britain, employing, of course, a few more men, but tbe extra 

 supply was a mere trifle in comparison to the deficiency that the 

 restraining bill had caused. 



The colonies, in turn, passed a bill cutting off supplies to the English 

 fleet from the plantations, t a course entirely unforeseen by the sage 

 adherents of the British bill. As a natural consequence, the fishery, 

 which promised so well on paper, and upon which the majority in Par- 

 liament had founded so many hopes, failed to yield them the solace for 

 the evil done to America that they so fondly anticipated. Many ships, 

 instead of bearing to England supplies, only returned there for provis- 

 ions to relieve the distress they found on the coast, both on the sea and 

 the land. Indeed, it was estimated that the colonial restraining act 

 caused a loss to England in the fishery in these parts alone of fully half 

 a million of pounds sterling. J To add to the calamities caused by man, 

 the very elements seemed combined against them, for a terrible storm 

 arose, and the center of its fury was tbe shores and banks of Newfound- 

 land. " This awful wreck of nature," says a chronicler of the time, 

 " was as singular in its circumstances as fatal in its effects. The sea is 

 said to have risen 30 feet almost instantaneously. Above seven hun- 

 dred boats, with their people, perished, and several ships, with their 

 crews. Nor was the mischief much less on the laud, the waves over- 

 passing all mounds, and sweeping everything before them. The shores 

 presented a shocking spectacle for some time after, and the fishing-nets 

 were hauled up loaded with human bodies." § These misfortunes the 

 opposers of the bill attributed to the vengeance of an indignant Provi- 

 dence. 



But Parliament went further than this, and added to the atrocity of 

 this measure another none the less barbarous. It was decreed that all 

 those prisoners who should be taken on board of American vessels 

 should be compelled, without distinction of rank, to serve as common 



* Annual Reg., 1776, p. 131. 



t The "Restraining" bill. 



t Eng. Annual Reg., 1776, p. 49. 



v^ English Annual Reg., 1776, p. 43. There was also much distress at the Barbadoes. 

 It was thought at one time to draw supplies for beleaguered Boston from these islands, 

 but cut off as they were from supplies from the colonies, with 80,000 blacks and 20,000 

 whites to feed, the project was deemed in the highest degree dangerous. 

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