168 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



I.— RETURNS OF WHALING-VESSELS, SAILING FROM AMER- 

 ICAN PORTS, SINCE THE YEAR 1715. 



1715. 



Six sloops sailed from Nantucket of from 30 to 40 tons burden each, 

 returning with cargoes amounting to GOO barrels of oil and 11,000 

 pounds of bone, and valued at £1,100 sterling. This number was proba- 

 bly for some years pretty constant,* 



1722. 



In 1722, the sloop , of Nantucket, Elisha Coffin master, was 



lost at sea with all on board. 



1723. 



Among tbe vessels sailing this year was one from Rhode Island, com- 

 manded by William Bennett, and a sloop from Nantucket, commanded 

 by Nathan Skiff. Bennett brought into Rhode Island the largest sperm 

 whale ever seen in Rhode Island up to that date (May, 1723). He 

 obtained from it 18 barrels of head matter and from 40 to 50 barrels ot 

 body oil, and reported that he might have obtained one-third more from 

 the head if the weather had been favorable. The account concludes : 

 "This spring our vessels have brought eight whales into this port.'M 

 The sloop reported from Nantucket was captured by the pirate Low, 

 her captain killed, two Indians carried away, and the balance of the 

 crew sent adrift in the two boats with no sustenance save water. They 

 arrived safely in Nantucket, however. £ 



1730. 



Tweuty -five vessels, from 38 to 50 tons burden each, sailed from Nan- 

 tucket and obtained 3,700 barrels of oil, valued at £7 per ton, £3,200. 



1731. 



Among the vessels sailing this year was a sloop from Nantucket, of 

 which Thomas Hathaway was commander, and which was lost with all 

 on board. The sloop Pelican, of Newport, Benjamin Thurston, owner, 

 made a voyage, returning with 114 barrels oil, 200 pounds bone. 



1732. 



A vessel, commanded by a Captain Atkins, made a whaling-voyage 

 to Davis's Straits, going as far as GG° north. This was probably the first 

 voyage to this locality from the Colonies. 



* It must bo remembered that these lists, up to tbe year 1815, are entirely made up 

 from newspaper reports and sundry scraps of information gathered here and there. 

 1 Boston News-Letter, 

 i Ibid. 



