HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY. 77 



pendence, and the withdrawal from the. thirteen States of all British 

 troops ; the Mississippi as a western, and the Canadian line as it was 

 prior to the Quebec act of 1774, for a northern boundary ; and a free- 

 dom in the fishery off Newfoundland and elsewhere as it had been en- 

 joyed prior to the commencement of hostilities. In vain Great Britain 

 sought to evade the latter clause ; the United States tenaciously, as in 

 a vice, held her to it, and she yielded. 



E.— FROM 1784 TO 1816. 



But the announcement of peace came to a people whose commerce 

 was sadly devastated. Save such of the interest as had been preserved 

 by what Mr. Jefferson termed the Nantucketois, the business of whaling 

 was practically ruined and required rebuilding. To Nantucket the war 

 had, despite its holy necessity and its glorious conclusion, been a heavy 

 burden. Of the little over 150 vessels owned there in 1775, 134 had 

 fallen into the hands of the English and 15 more were lost by ship- 

 wreck; many of the young men had perished through the rigors of 

 war;* in about 800 families on the island there were 202 widows and 

 342 orphan children ; the direct money loss far exceeded $1,000,000 in 

 times when a man's pay was G7 cents per day; one merchant alone lost 

 over $G0,000.t And as it was with Nantucket, so it was in a degree with 

 «J1 the whaling ports.! With an energy characteristically American, 

 r.ney sought, on the return of peace, to retrieve their losses. Scarcely 

 ^ad the echo of the hostile guns died away, scarcely had the joyful 

 news of peace reached their ports, when the whalemen began to equip 

 anew for their fishery. The Bedford, just returned to Nantucket from 

 a voyage, was immediately loaded with oil and dispatched to London, 

 arriving in the Downs on the 3d of February. Her appearance w r as 

 thus chronicled by an English magazine of that day : " The ship Bed- 

 ford, Captain Mooers,§ belonging to the Massachusetts, arrived in the 

 Downs the 3d of February, passed Gravesend the 4th, & was reported 

 at the Custom-House the 6th instant. She was not allowed regular 

 entry until some consultation had taken place between the commission- 

 ers of the customs & the lords of council, on account of the many 

 acts of parliament yet in force against the rebels in America. She is 

 loaded with 487 butts of whale oil ; is American built ;|| manned wholly 



*It is estimated that no less than 1,200 seamen, mostly whalemen, were captured by 

 the English or perished at their hands during the Revolution, £rom Nantucket alone! 



t William Rotch, esq. 



t Warren, R. I., suffered a loss of 12 vessels (about 1,1C0 tons), of which at least two 

 were whalemen. (Hist, of Warren, p. 101.) 



§ Capt. William Mooers, who sailed for many years in the employ of Messrs. Rotch 

 & Co. It is related that one of the crew of the vessel first showing the American flag 

 in the Thames was hump-backed. One day a British sailor meeting him clipped his 

 haud upon the American's shoulder, saying, " Hilloa, Jack, what have you gat here ?" 

 " Bunker Hill and be d d to you," replied the Yankee, " will you mount V' 



il The Bedford was built in 11Gb, by Ichabod Thomas, at North River. She was built 

 a briir. 



