TO 
THOMAS STURGE, ESQ. 
OF 
NEWINGTON-BUTTS. 
SlR, 
I feel prompted both by duty and inclination to dedicate 
to you this work on the Natural and Commercial History of the 
Sperm Whale* Having acquired most of the information con- 
tained in this Volume during my engagement in your ships, 
I could not allow the present opportunity to escape without 
expressing the satisfaction I have felt at witnessing your kind- 
ness towards the seamen and others engaged in your service 
in the South-Sea Fishery* 
Your care for their comfort and welfare has been constantly 
shewn in the attention you have paid to the proper fitting out 
of your ships, so as to render the voyage — which is necessarily 
long — less irksome and comfortless to those brave men who 
go out to capture the “ giant of the deep;” while the excellent 
advice and more solid assistance which you have rendered to 
their wives and families, when their natural protectors have 
been “far o’er the sea,” have formed a striking contrast to the 
conduct of some other ship-owners, possessed of the same 
means, but with less disposition to solace those who are so 
often left friendless and unfortunate. 
But irrespectively of these considerations, your character 
may be estimated by the incessant efforts you have made to 
