HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY. 



153 



edge to enable them to carry on the business there. In that year one of 

 the most enterprising men of the island obtained the desired informa- 

 tion and established a manufactory there, acquiring in the pursuit a 

 large property. Others experimented and succeeded, and the business 

 finally became one of very considerable importance. In 1792 ten such 

 factories were in existence on the island.* 



Probably the first candle-house in New Bedford was built very nearly 

 cotemporaneou sly with that in Nantucket. According to Ricketson,t 

 Joseph Russell erected the first one, previously to the Revolution, near the 

 corner of Center and Front streets, employing one Captain Chaffee, who 

 had engaged in the manufacture of spermaceti in Lisbon, to take charge 

 of the establishment, at the extravagant salary (for the times) of $500. 

 This building was destroyed by the British in their raid in September, 

 1778. 



Among the exports of the colonies, including Newfoundland, Bahama, 

 and Bermudas, in 1770 were sperm candles to the extent of 379,012 

 pounds, distributed as follows: To Great Britain, 4,805 pounds ; to Ire- 

 land, 450 pounds; to the south of Europe, 14,167 pounds; to the West 

 Indies, 351,625 pounds; and to Africa, 7,905 pounds. The total value 

 of this branch of exports for that year was £23,688 4s. 6d., sterling. 



The following table from Pitkin's Statistics^ will show the exports of 

 sperm candles from the United States from 1791 to 1815 : 

 Year. Pounds. ] Year. Pounds. 



1791 182,400 



1792 157,520 



1793 235, 600 



1794 214,960 



1795 240^720 



1796 221,903 



1797 §130,438 



1798 144, 149 



1799 ... 240,301 



1800 - 181,321 



1801 290, 666 



1802 135, 627 



1803 238, 034 



1804 127, 602 



1805 180, 535 



1806 294, 789 



1807 172,132 



1808 45,130 



1809 214,444 



1810 187,190 



1811 257, 094 



1812 157,596 



1813 26, 522 



1814 21,154 



*The New Bedford Medley has, under date of Nantucket, November 30, 1792, v an item 

 to the following effect : " This day was cut from the loom the first piece of sail-cloth 

 manufactured at the new duck factory. It employs more hands than the five ropo- 

 walks and ten sperm-candle works, ' which number there is here.' " The papers iu Jan- 

 uary, 1793, reported canvas as being manufactured at Salem, Boston, and Nantucket, 

 and another factory being about to be started at Newport, R. I. In the Mass. Col. 

 MSS., Manufactures, pp. 295-6-7, are papers relating to the encouragement to be given 

 by the general court to the manufacture of duck as carried on by John Powell of Bos- 

 ton (in 1727), and affidavits of captains of vessels the sails of which were made from 

 canvas of Powell's make. 



tHist. New Bedford, p. 77. • t Tables of Exports, Pitkin. 



§ The falling off of exports occurs chiefly in those years when European wars or 

 national troubles make shippers cautious. Iu 1797 Hudson, N. Y., possessed one or 

 more sperm-candle factories. 



