HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY. 149 



losses, and financial ruin for many a merchant. Thus, of the 81 whalers 

 expected to arrive in 1837, 53 made paying voyages, 8 made saving ones, 

 11 lost money, and 9 involved their owners in severe losses. A mutiny 

 among the crew of the Clifford Wayue, of Fairhaven, necessitating her 

 return to port, occasioned a loss of $10,000 to those who invested in her. 



The brig Emeliue, of New Bedford, Captain Wood, sailed from port 

 on the 11th of July, 1841. The captain was killed by a whale in July, 

 1842, and in September, 1843, the brig returned, bringing home ouly 10 

 barrels of oil as the result of a 20 months' cruise. 



The Benjamin Rush, of Warren, Captain Munroe, sailed in October, 

 1852, for the Pacific Ocean. On the coast of Japan the captain and his 

 boat's crew were lost by a whale. This, combined with the extremely 

 poor success that had attended the vessel, had so discouraging an effect 

 upon the crew that it was considered useless to prolong the voyage, 

 and she returned to port under charge of the cooper in 1853, having ob- 

 tained but 50 barrels of sperm-oil and 40 of whale. On her voyage she 

 had circumnavigated the globe, and during the entire period sighted 

 land but twice, the Cape de Verde Islands, outward-bound, and Trini- 

 dad on the passage home. 



Of the 68 whalers expected to arrive in New Bedford and Fairhaven 

 in 1858, 44 were calculated as making losing voyages, and the same 

 proportion would apply to other ports. The estimated loss to owners 

 uuring this year was at least $1,000,000. 



The net loss on 12 whaling schooners of the Provincetown fleet, which 

 arrived in 1870, was $36,000. 



These are cases taken somewhat at random. Almost every year wit- 

 nessed some misfortune, saw some persons impoverished by an unsuc- 

 cessful termination of the venture in which their little all was invested. 



Among the pursuits which grew out of the prosecution of the sperm- 

 whale fishery was the manufacture of candles, which was at one time 

 an important industry both home and commercial. 



"The first manufactory of sperm candles in this country/' says Macy,* 

 "was established in Rhode Island, a little previous to 1750, by Benjamin 

 Crabb, an Englishman. His candle-house was burnt in 1750 or 1751." 

 In 1750 the general court of Massachusetts granted to Benjamin Crabb, 

 of Rehobotb, the sole right to make sperm caudles in that colony for a 

 term of years, on the ground that he and no other person had a knowl- 

 edge of the art and he agreeing to iustruct five of the inhabitants tbere- 

 in.t In 1753 Obadiah Brown built caudle-works at Tockwotten, now 



*Macy's Hist. Nant., p. 69. Mr. Macy must, for reasons enumerated in the succeed 

 ing note, be slightly in error in this date. 



tMass. Col. MSS., Manufactures, p. 369. The memorial does not seem to be on file. 

 The documents relating to it are as follows : 

 "Anno Regni Regis Georgii Secundi Vicessimo quarto: An Act for Granting 



unto Benjamin Crabb the Sole priviledge of making Candles of Coarse Sperma Cceti Oijlc: 



"Whereas Benjamin Crabb of Rehoboth in the County of Bristol has Represented 



