174 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



176$. 



The fleet from Nantucket consisted of 125 vessels, of an average of 

 75 tons, returning with 15,431) barrels of oil, worth $1G7,667.54.* (In 

 addition to these a large number of vessels sailed from Boston, Cape 

 Cod, Dartmouth, Providence, Warren, Newport, and other ports.) One 

 sloop sailed from New York in April. The names of the captains of 

 vessels in the northern fishery, so far as can be ascertained, are as fol- 

 lows : Joseph Tripp, Benjamin Jenney, Salathiel Eldridge, Isaiah El- 

 dridge, and Fortunatus Sherman, of Dartmouth ; Phineas Fish and Na- 

 thaniel Allen, of Falmouth ; White, of Cape Cod ; Dillingham 



and Peter Welding, of Boston ; and Louis Taber, Gamaliel Spooner, 

 Thomas Paine, Jeguthau Hammoud, Benjamin Young, John Howland, 



Daniel Ilussey, ^ye, Meader, Nathaniel Delano, Ephraim 



Delano, William Russell, Elisha Cushman, Christopher Hopkins, David 

 Snow, Elijah Crocker, John Akin, Daniel Ricketson, John Howland, 

 Seth Folger, Abishai Folger, Shubael Weeks, Alexander Gardner, 



Butler, Luce, Batty, Clarke, John Clasby, 



Anthony, George Smith, Solomon Hatch, and Benjamin Barnard. 



1169. 



One hundred and nineteen vessels engaged in whaling from Nan- 

 tucket, producing 19,140 barrels of oil, valued at $462,998.00. The 

 names of the captains commanding in the northern fleet, so far as can 



be ascertained, are Isaiah Eldridge, Delano, Joseph Tripp, James 



Coffin, Melatiah Pease, Lemuel Jenkins, Benjamin Dillingham, Fortu- 

 natus Sherman, and Thomas Marshall, of Dartmouth ; Joseph Coleman, 

 Nathaniel Coleman, Seth Coleman, William Long, Benjamin Chase, 

 Jonathan Coffin, Solomon Folger, Benjamin Jenkins, John Woodbury, 

 Matthew Barnard, and Joseph Gardner, of Nantucket; Edmund Conk- 

 ling, Joseph Coukling, and John Squires, Long Island ; Richard Whel- 

 den, Ruins Fish, Barachian Bassett, and Shubael Weeks, Falmouth ; 

 Samuel Whippey, New York ; Gilbert Nash and Thomas White, Bos- 

 ton ; Silas Snow and Joshua Harding, Cape Cod; and Benjamin Strat- 

 tou, of Sandwich. In addition to the foregoing, Captains Butler, Wass, 

 Strange, Sears, Pease, Coffin, Norton, Edmonds, Wheldou, and Daggett 

 sailed from Providence, most of them sailing to the southward ; Captain 

 Grinuell sailed from Warren ; and Capt. William Reade made a voyage 

 in sloop Hampton, from Newport to the Western Islands grounds, ob- 

 taining 130 barrels of oil.t 



177©. 



Nantucket sent 125 vessels, of an average of 93 tons each, to both the 

 northern and southern whaling-grounds; the produce being 14,331 bar- 

 rels of oil, valued at $358,200. Probably fully as many more sailed from 



* The Boston News-Letter, in its dispatches lioin New York, under date of April 20, 

 1768, sjys, "it is understood that the people of the island of Nantucket alone took oil 

 and bone last season to the value of £70,000." 



t Captain Strange took 200 barrels. Probably the total yield exclusive of Nantucke 

 would exceed 6,000 barrels. 



