CHAPTER III. 

 SHIPS, OUTFITS, Am MAMER OF TAKIKG THE WHALE. 



It is the general impression among those unacquainted, that a successful whal- 

 ing-voyage is inordinately remunerative; or rather, that a ''full ship" insures great 

 profit. This, however, does not always follow, for the success of the American 

 Whale-fishery is due, first, to the economical but efficient manner in which the 

 ships were fitted out for their long and tedious voyages ; secondly, the perseverance 

 and good management of the captains and chief officers, and, when the voyage ter- 

 minated, the disposition of the "catch" to the best advantage. 



There has been as great a revolution in the mode of killing whales during the 

 past twenty years, as there has been in the art of naval warfare ; were it not for 

 this, but few whalers would now be afloat; and the "well -'pointed" whale -ship of 

 the present day, in all her appliances, shows a corresponding improvement when 

 compared with the whaler of the seventeenth century. Relative to those olden- 

 time vessels, we quote the following from Macy's Histonj of Nantucket: "The ship 

 Beaver, of two hundred and forty tons, sailed from Nantucket on a whaling -voyage 

 to the Pacific Ocean, in the year 1791. The whole cost of said ship fitted for the 

 voyage, together with the cargo, amounted to $10,212. She carried seventeen men, 

 manning three boats of five men each, which left two, called ship -keepers, on board 

 the ship when the boats were out in pursuit of whales. The principal part of her 

 cargo, when fitted for sea, consisted of four hundred barrels iron - hooped casks ( the 

 remainder, about fourteen hundred barrels, were wooden -hooped), forty barrels salt 

 provisions, three and a half tons of bread, thirty bushels of beans and peas, one 

 thousand pounds of rice, forty gallons of molasses, and twenty -four barrels of flour. 

 All the additional provisions during the voyage were two hundred pounds of bread. 

 The ship was seventeen months out, and was the first belonging to the island that 

 returned from the Pacific Ocean.'' The ships of the present time which engage in 

 whaling are from three hundred to five hundred tons, and when ready for a three 

 years' voyage, their estimated value may be set down as ranging from $30,000 to 

 ),000. The variety and quantity of articles which go to make up the entire 



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