WHALING. 337 



even China, contributed in turn directly to the pros- 

 perity of our little isle. 



Matters continued to progress favorably, on the 

 whole, with our whalemen down to the commence- 

 ment of the Revolution. French and Spanish pri- 

 vateers had captured some of our vessels, and at one 

 time forced them to abandon the northern fishery; 

 but these troubles were of short duration, and of 

 little comparative importance as affecting the general 

 thrift. 



The Revolution found Nantucket with a fleet of 

 150 vessels with an aggregate burden of 15,000 tons, 

 manned by 2,025 men, and producing 30,000 barrels 

 of sperm and 4,000 barrels of whale oil. Her seamen 

 were familiar with the Atlantic Ocean from Davis Strait 

 to the coasts of Guinea and Brazil. The current of the 

 Gulf Stream was as familiar to them as the harbor of 

 their island home; and the first man to describe upon 

 a chart that now well-known body of water was, so far 

 as history informs us, Capt. Timothy Folger of Nan- 

 tucket. 



Every effort was made by the best friends of the 

 Colonies in England to avert war; and it was in the 

 debates in Parliament in 1775 upon the adoption of 

 severe measures towards the Colony of the Massachu- 

 setts Bay, that that speech of Burke's so familiar to 

 the people of Nantucket, in which he so warmly 

 eulogized those engaged in the fisheries, was deliv- 

 ered. 



During the Revolution, Nantucket was the only port 

 from which any attempt was made to carry on the 

 whale fishery, and from here the work was carried on 

 22 



