66 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



sailors on British ships of war. This proposed measure was received 

 with great indignation by those gentlemen in Parliament whom parti- 

 san asperity had not blinded to every feeling of justice to or compassion 

 for the colonies. The clause in the bill which contained this provision 

 was u marked by every possible stigma," and was described by the 

 Lords, in their protest, as "a refinement in tyranny" which, "in a sentence 

 worse than death, obliges the unhappy men icho shall be made captives in this 

 predatory war to bear arms against their families, kindred, friends, and 

 country ; and after being plundered tliemselves, to become accomplices in 

 plundering their brethren? * And, by the articles of war, these very 

 men were liable to be shot for desertion. 



By the action of this measure large numbers of Nantucket whaling 

 captains with their crews and a few from other ports were captured by 

 the English, and given their choice either to enter the service of the 

 King in a man-of-war or sail from an English port in the same pursuit to 

 which they had become accustomed.t In September (13th,) 1779, John 

 Adams, writing from Braintreef to the council of Massachusetts, says: 

 " May it please your Honours : § While I resided at Paris 1 had an 

 opportunity of procuring from Loudon exact Information concerning the 

 British WhaleFishery on the Coast of Brazil, which I beg Leave to com- 

 municate to your Honours, that if any advantage can be made of it the 

 opportunity may not be lost. 



"The English, the last year and the year before, carried on, this Fishery 

 to very great advantage, off of the Kiver Plate, in South America in the 

 Latitude Thirty five south and from thence to Forty, just on the edge of 

 soundings, off and on, about the Longitude sixty five, from London. 

 They had seventeen vessells in this Fishery, which all sailed from Lou- 

 don, in the Months of September and October. All the officers and Men 

 are Americans. 



4i The Names of the Captains are, Aaron Sheffield of Newport, , 



Goldsmith || and Richard Holmes from Long Island, John Chadwick, 

 Francis May,fl Reuben May,** John Meader, Jonathan Meader, Elisha 



* Annual Reg., 1776, p. 118. 



t To his captors Capt. Nathan Coffin, of Nantucket, nobly said, "Hang me, if you will, 

 to the yard-arm of your sbip, but do not ask me to be a traitor to my country." — (Ban- 

 croft, ix, p. 313.) 



t Adams, vii, p. 63. This is almost identical with the letter in Mass. Col. MSS., 

 Resolves, vi, p. 216. 



§ In 1778 the commissioners (Franklin and Adams) in France wrote to the President 

 of Congress in nearly the same words, urging the destruction of the English whale- 

 fisbcry on the coast of Brazil and the release of the Americans there, who were prac- 

 tically prisoners of war, compelled to aid in supporting the enemy. In the letter of tho 



commissioners, dated Passy, , 1778, Messrs. Franklin and Adams write that tbreo 



whalemen have been taken by French men-of-war and carried into L'Orient. The 

 crews of these whaling-vessels are Americans. (Works of John Adams, vii, p. 63.) 



U William Goldsmith, who sailed from Nantucket for London with a cargo of oil in 

 April, 1775. 



H Francis Macy. 



** Reuben Macy. 



