THE AMERICAN WHALE-FISHERY. 



205 



the reeking fat from the vessel to the "try- houses." This was the custom with 

 all the whalers of those times.* 



About 1770, other vessels of larger tonnage were added to the whaling squad- 

 ron, f which extended their voyages, like the Nantucket -men, across the Atlantic. 

 Among them were the New Bedford brigs Patience and JSfo Duty on Tea. In September, 

 1791, the ship Rebecca, owned by those veteran merchants, Joseph Russell & Sons and 

 Cornelius Howland, was among the first, if not the first, of American whalers which 

 doubled Cape Horn and obtained a full cargo in the Pacific. The chronicler states: 

 "Although ih.Q Mebecca WAS only one hundred and sevent}^ - five tons, she was consid- 

 ered a very large vessel, and was visited as an object of wonder." Thus began the 

 commercial enterprise at New Bedford — or, as the town was first named, Bedford — 

 which has since become, and still is, the whaling metropolis of the world. Between 

 the years 1771 and 1775, Massachusetts alone employed annually, in the northern 

 whale-fishery, one hundred and eighty -three vessels, tonnaging thirteen thousand 

 eight hundred and twenty tons; and one hundred and twenty -one vessels, with an 

 aggregate burden of fourteen thousand and twenty tons, were engaged in the south- 

 ern fishery,! ^^^^ many places along the sea -board of New England, as well as towns 



* The plate facing this page, representing a 

 ■whaling -scene of 1763, was copied by j)erniission 

 from the celebrated painting by "William H. Wall. 

 The author of the History of Neiv Bedford de- 

 scribes it in his work, from which we extract 

 the following: "Upon the shore lies keeled over 

 on her side one of the small vessels then em- 

 ployed for whaling ; the model of the craft, a 

 sloop, indicates a primitive idea of naval archi- 

 tecture. By the side of this sloop, but other- 

 wise concealed from view, is seen the sail of 

 another vessel, with the union -jack of old En- 

 gland drooping from the mast-head. The river 

 lies peacefully outstretched, with a view of Palm- 

 er's Island and the shore along by the ' Smok- 

 ing Rocks,' and Naushon in the distance. Where 

 now stand our wharves and warehouses, the pri- 

 meval forest trees are seen extending their roots 

 to the water's edge. In the foreground of the 

 picture, and that which will be to most its chief 

 interest, is seen a group of the early inhabitants 

 of New Bedford, busily emploj^ed. Under an 

 old shed is seen the try -pot, with its attend- 



ants ; and also the jaw of a whale thrown upon 

 the roof;" and between the shed and the sloop 

 may be seen the ox -teams, hitched to a sort of 

 sled (in lieu of the ordinary wheeled cart), on 

 which the whale -fat is transi^orted in casks to 

 the try-works. "More conspicuous, and nearer 

 the beholder, stands one man in a red shirt 

 with a patch on the breast, pouring oil from a 

 long -handled dipper into a wooden -hooped bar- 

 rel ; another handling over the blubber ; and 

 still more prominent, a fine -looking fellow is 

 coopering a barrel, in conference with an In- 

 dian, who, with his baskets and moccasins for 

 sale or barter, is seated upon a broken mast. 

 Farther on, seated upon the frame of a grind- 

 stone, and giving directions to a colored man, 

 who is holding his master's horse by the bridle, 

 is seen, in his broad -brimmed hat and Friendly 

 coat, the founder of New Bedford and father of 

 her whale-fishery, Joseph Russell." 



f Eistory of New Bedford, p. 59. 



t See Hunt's 3Ierchants' Magazine, vol. - iii, p. 

 366. 



