Chapter I: Part 1

Transcriber’s Notes:

Italic text is marked _thus_.

The spelling, punctuation and hyphenation are as the original, except for apparent typographical errors, which have been corrected.

WHALE FISHERY OF
NEW ENGLAND

AN ACCOUNT,
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND SOME INTERESTING AND AMUSING
ANECDOTES, OF THE RISE AND FALL OF AN INDUSTRY
WHICH HAS MADE NEW ENGLAND FAMOUS
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

PRINTED FOR THE
STATE STREET TRUST COMPANY
BOSTON, MASS.

COPYRIGHTED 1915
BY THE
STATE STREET TRUST COMPANY

The vignette on the title-page is reproduced from a print of the
ship “Maria” of New Bedford, which in 1853 was the oldest whaleship
owned in the United States. Her registry was dated 1782. She was
built in Pembroke, now called Hanson, for a privateer during the
Revolutionary War, and was bought in the year 1783 by William Rotch
of Nantucket, afterwards of New Bedford. At one time she was owned
by Samuel Rodman, and also by the Russells. In construction she was
the typical whaleship of her time. It is said that she earned for
her owners $250,000 and made twenty-five voyages, bringing back a
full cargo each time. The tailpiece is from a very old print which
represents whaling in the seventeenth century.

_Compiled, arranged and printed
under the direction of the
Walton Advertising and Printing Company
Boston, Mass._

FOREWORD

The people of New England have long been interested in all matters pertaining to the sea, and members of many of her best-known families have commanded its merchant ships and whalers.

The State Street Trust Company has always endeavored to encourage an interest in historical matters, and it is hoped that this pamphlet, the ninth of the series, which deals with one of our earliest industries, will be interesting to the Company’s depositors and also to the general public. It is sent to you with the compliments of the Company, which for over twenty years has tried to serve the interests of its depositors.

For valuable assistance in the preparation of this pamphlet the Trust Company desires to acknowledge its indebtedness to Dr. Benjamin Sharp and Sidney Chase, residents of Nantucket (the latter being a descendant of the Starbucks, Coffins and Husseys), to Z. W. Pease, Frank Wood and George H. Tripp, all of New Bedford (Mr. Tripp being the librarian of the Free Public Library), Llewellyn Howland, Frederick P. Fish, Charles H. Taylor, Jr., Roy C. Andrews and Madison Grant of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, D. A. deMenocal, J. E. Lodge and Kojiro Tornita of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and George F. Lord, secretary of the Boston Stock Exchange. Assistance has also been rendered by the officers of the Trust Company.

The following books have been used as references and contain valuable information and many interesting anecdotes:—

“The Story of New England Whalers,” by John R. Spears.

“History of the American Whale Fishery,” by Alexander Starbuck.

“A History of the American Whale Fishery,” by Walter S. Tower.

“Moby Dick, or the White Whale,” by Herman Melville.

“Whaling Ventures and Adventures,” by George H. Tripp.

“Whaling and Fishing,” by Charles Nordhoff.

“Miriam Coffin,” by Col. Joseph C. Hart.

“The Gam,” by Capt. Charles Henry Robbins.

“Eighteen Months on a Greenland Whaler,” by Joseph P. Faulkner.

“Arctic Whaleman and Whaling,” by Rev. Lewis Holmes.

“Cruise of the Cachalot,” by Frank T. Bullen.

“History of Nantucket,” by Edward K. Godfrey.

“History of Nantucket,” by Obed Macy.

“History of Nantucket,” by Douglas-Lithgow.

“The Glacier’s Gift” (Nantucket), by Eva C. G. Folger.

“History of New Bedford,” by Daniel Ricketson.

“The Perils and Romance of Whaling,” by G. Kobbé.

“The Whale and its Captors,” by Rev. Henry T. Cheever.

“Incidents of a Whaling Voyage,” by Olmstead.

“Nimrod of the Sea,” by Captain Davis.

“Hunting the Biggest of all Big Game,” by Roy C. Andrews.

“Four Years Aboard a Whaleship,” by William B. Whitecar, Jr.

“Etchings of a Whaling Cruise,” by J. Ross Browne.

“Bark Kathleen, sunk by a Whale,” by Capt. T. H. Jenkins.

“Peter the Whaler,” by William H. G. Kingston.

“The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States,” by
George Brown Goode, prepared for the United States Tenth Census.

CONTENTS

PAGE

THE WHALE 7

ANCIENT HISTORY OF WHALING 8

EARLY NEW ENGLAND WHALING 13

NANTUCKET 16

NEW BEDFORD 23

OTHER NEW ENGLAND WHALING PORTS 33

ABOARD A “BLUBBER HUNTER” 35

WHALING IMPLEMENTS AND WHALEBOATS 37

DIFFERENT SPECIES OF WHALES AND THEIR PRODUCTS 41

METHODS OF CAPTURE AND “TRYING OUT” 45

THE PERILS OF WHALING 51

THE “CATALPA” EXPEDITION 58

DECLINE OF WHALING AND THE CAUSES 60

WHALING OF TO-DAY 62

The illustrations used in this brochure are from rare prints in the
possession of the Dartmouth Historical Society and the Free Public
Library of New Bedford, H. S. Hutchinson & Co., Charles H. Taylor,
Jr., Roy C. Andrews of the American Museum of Natural History of
New York, Doubleday, Page & Co., and others.

* * * * *

“Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of the English enterprise, ever carried this most perilous mode of hardy industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent People; a People who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone, of manhood.”—_From a speech by Edmund Burke before Parliament in 1775._

THE WHALE

“Oh, the rare old Whale, ’mid storm and gale,
In his ocean home will be
A giant in might where might is right,
And King of the boundless sea.”

_From “Moby Dick.”_

No animal in prehistoric or historic times has ever exceeded the whale, in either size or strength, which explains perhaps its survival from ancient times. Few people have any idea of the relative size of the whale compared with other animals. A large specimen weighs about ninety tons, or thirty times as much as an elephant, which beside a whale appears about as large as a dog compared to an elephant. It is equivalent in bulk to one hundred oxen, and outweighs a village of one thousand people. If cut into steaks and eaten, as in Japan, it would supply a meal to an army of one hundred and twenty thousand men.

Whales have often exceeded one hundred feet in length, and George Brown Goode, in his report on the United States Fisheries, mentions a finback having been killed that was one hundred and twenty feet long. A whale’s head is sometimes thirty-five feet in circumference, weighs thirty tons, and has jaws twenty feet long, which open thirty feet wide to a mouth that is as large as a room twenty feet long, fifteen feet high, nine feet wide at the bottom, and two feet wide at the top. A score of Jonahs standing upright would not have been unduly crowded in such a chamber.

The heart of a whale is the size of a hogshead. The main blood artery is a foot in diameter, and ten to fifteen gallons of blood pour out at every pulsation. The tongue of a right whale is equal in weight to ten oxen, while the eye of all whales is hardly as large as a cow’s, and is placed so far back that it has in direction but a limited range of vision. The ear is so small that it is difficult to insert a knitting needle, and the brain is only about ten inches square. The head, or “case,” contains about five hundred barrels, of ten gallons each, of the richest kind of oil, called spermaceti.

One of these giants, when first struck by a harpoon, can go as fast as a steam yacht, twenty or twenty-five miles an hour, but it soon slows down to its usual speed of about twelve miles, developing about one hundred and forty-five horse-power.

Mr. Roy C. Andrews, of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, was on a whaler ninety feet long, which struck a finback whale, and he says that for seven hours the whale towed the vessel, with engines going at full speed astern, almost as though it had been a rowboat.

The whale’s young are about twelve feet long at birth, and can swim as soon as they are born. So faithfully does the cow whale watch over her offspring when they are together that she will rarely move when attacked for fear of leaving the young whale unprotected, or of hurting it if she thrashes round to escape capture. It is believed that whales sometimes live to attain the age of eight hundred years. They sleep at the bottom of the ocean, which fact shows that they do not inhale air when asleep, like the warm-blooded animals, and to help them in breathing below the surface they have a large reservoir of blood to assist circulation. This spot is known to whalemen as the “life” of the whale. When “sounding” to a great depth it is estimated that the whale bears on its back the weight of twenty battleships. The strength and power of a whale are described as almost unbelievable.

ANCIENT HISTORY OF WHALING

Every one knows the story of Jonah; how he was thrown overboard to appease the gods, and how a “big fish” swallowed him and carried him ashore. It will always be a mooted question whether or not the big fish was a whale. If it were a whale, it is doubtful whether Jonah got any further than its mouth, on account of the smallness of a whale’s throat. It may be well to explain that a whale does not belong to the fish family, but is a mammal, and therefore, perhaps, this great fish mentioned wasn’t a whale.

This “fishing on a gigantic scale,” as it has been often termed, is of very ancient origin and dates back to 890 A.D., when a Norwegian, called Octhere, skirted the coast of Norway for whales.

The Biscayans, who in the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries became famous on account of their whale fishery, were the first people to prosecute this industry as a regular commercial pursuit. In this connection the French are also mentioned about 1261, using the whale for food. Also the Icelanders are believed to have whaled some time during the twelfth century. The first reference to English whaling appears during the fourteenth century, and by statutory law the whale was declared “a royal fish.” Another curious law was that the King, as Honorary Harpooner, received the head, and the Queen the tail of all whales captured along the English coast, which is very much like halving an apple, there is so little left.

The Norwegians were the earliest whalers of which we have any records.]

In 1612 the Dutch became the leaders and were still very active about 1680, employing two hundred and sixty ships and fourteen thousand seamen, and during the last part of the seventeenth century they furnished nearly all Europe with oil. To them is attributed the improvements in the harpoon, the line, and the lance, and to their early prominence in the industry we owe the very name “whale,” a derivation from the Dutch and German word “wallen,” meaning to roll or wallow. They established a whaling settlement at Spitzbergen, only eleven degrees from the North Pole, where they boiled the oil; in fact, during the early days of whaling all nations “tried out” their oil on land. The Dutch continued to be the leaders until about 1770, when the English superseded them owing to the royal bounties.

EARLY NEW ENGLAND WHALING

The history of American whaling really begins with the settlement of the New England Colonies. When the “Mayflower” anchored inside of Cape Cod, the Pilgrims saw whales playing about the ship, and this was their chief reason for settling there. It afterwards proved that the products of the whale formed an important source of income to the settlers on Massachusetts Bay.

The subject of drift, or dead whales which were washed ashore, first attracted the colonists, and there are numerous references to them on record. It was the invariable rule for the government to get one-third, the town one-third, and the owner one-third, and in 1662 it was voted that a portion of every whale should be given to the church. The whale fishery increased steadily, so that in 1664 Secretary Randolph could truthfully write to England, “The new Plymouth colony made great profit by whale killing.” The success of the settlers on Cape Cod and elsewhere encouraged Salem to consider ways and means of whaling; for as early as 1688 one James Loper, of Salem, petitioned the Colonial authorities for a patent for making oil, and four years later some Salem whalers complained that Easthamptonites had stolen whales that bore Salem harpoons. As early as 1647 whaling had become a recognized industry in Hartford, Conn., but for some reason did not prosper.

The first white people to explore our New England coasts discovered that the Indians were ahead of them in the pursuit of the whale. The Red Men in canoes attacked these beasts with stone-headed arrows and spears which were attached to short lines. Usually wooden floats were tied to the line, which impeded the progress of the animal, and by frequent thrusts these early hunters actually worried the life out of the whale.

Waymouth’s Journal of his voyage to America in 1605 gives the first description of the Indian method of whaling in canoes on the New England coast from November to April, when spouters generally abounded there. “One especial thing is their manner of killing the whale” runs the quaint description “which they call a powdawe; and will describe his form; how he bloweth up the water; and that he is twelve fathoms long: that they go in company of their king with a multitude of their boats; and strike him with a bone made in fashion of a harping iron fastened to a rope, which they make great and strong of the bark of trees, which they veer out after him; then all their boats come about him as he riseth above water, with their arrows they shoot him to death; when they have killed him and dragged him to shore, they call all their chief lords together, and sing a song of joy; and those chief lords, whom they call sagamores, divide the spoil and give to every man a share, which pieces so distributed, they hang up about their houses for provisions; and when they boil them they blow off the fat and put to their pease, maize and other pulse which they eat.”

The Esquimaux at this time were very much more advanced than the Indians, and showed their ingenuity by inventing the “toggle” harpoon, which is in use to this day, and which was improved upon in 1848 by a Negro in New Bedford called Lewis Temple, who made his fortune turning out irons. This harpoon was arranged to sink very easily into the blubber, but when pulled out the end turned at right angles to the shank, thus preventing the harpoon from withdrawing.

Boston is mentioned only occasionally in connection with the Whale Fishery. During 1707 the Boston papers state that a whale forty feet long entered the harbour and was killed near Noddle’s Island, and another interesting record is in a letter written in 1724 by the Hon. Paul Dudley, who mentions that he has just received a note from a Mr. Atkins of Boston, who was one of the first to go fishing for sperm whales. There were many whaleships recorded in the Boston records, although fitting out and sailing from other neighboring ports.

NANTUCKET

A large part of the romance of whaling centres around the island of Nantucket and its hardy seamen. It was from here that the Red Men first sallied out in canoes to chase the whale; from here the small sloops first set out laden with cobblestones, as the story goes, to throw at the whales to see if they were near enough to risk a harpoon. These daring Nantucketers were, in 1791, the first to sail to the Pacific, and later on in 1820 to the coast of Japan, and finally they made their ships known in every harbour of the world. Thirty islands and reefs in the Pacific are named after Nantucket captains and merchants.

There is an amusing legend concerning the origin of the island. A giant was said to be in the habit of sleeping on Cape Cod, because its peculiar shape fitted him when he curled himself up. One night he became very restless and thrashed his feet around so much that he got his moccasins filled with sand. In the morning he took off first one moccasin and then the other, flinging their contents across the sea, thus forming the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

From the time of the settlement of the island, the entire population, from the oldest inhabitant down to the youngest child, realized that on the whaling industry depended their livelihood. A story is told of a Nantucket youngster who tied his mother’s darning cotton to a fork, and, hurling it at the cat as she tried to escape, yelled “Pay out, mother! Pay out! There she ‘sounds’ through the window!” The inhabitants always alluded to a train as “tying up,” a wagon was called a “side-wheeler,” every one you met was addressed as “captain,” and a horse was always “tackled” instead of harnessed. The refrain of an old Nantucket song runs as follows:—

“So be cheery, my lads, let your hearts never fail,
While the bold harpooner is striking the whale!”

A young man who had not doubled the cape or harpooned a whale had no chance of winning a Nantucket, New Bedford, or New London belle, and it is stated as a fact that the girls of Nantucket at one time formed a secret society, and one of their pledges was never to marry a man until he had “struck his whale.” The well-known Nantucket novel “Miriam Coffin” tells of a girl who made to her two lovers a condition of marriage that they must first of all undertake a whaling voyage, and that she would wed the more successful of the two. It happened that one was a Minister, and the other was no better adapted to the whale fishery; nevertheless, both set out to sea. The former was killed by a whale, and the latter returned after an absence of several years, but instead of claiming his bride, he tells her that before going he had already made up his mind that a girl who made such foolish propositions was no girl for him; and so the story ends.

Many a Nantucket bride stepped from her home to her husband’s whaleship for a three-year voyage round Cape Horn, which probably suggested these verses:—

“I asked a maiden by my side,
Who sighed and looked at me forlorn,
‘Where is your heart?’ She quick replied,
‘Round Cape Horn.’

* * * * *

“I said, ‘I’ll let your fathers know,’
To boys in mischief on the lawn;
They all replied, ‘Then you must go
Round Cape Horn.’

* * * * *

“In fact, I asked a little boy
If he could tell where he was born;
He answered, with a mark of joy,
‘Round Cape Horn.’”

Any one who did not live in Nantucket was called a foreigner. To show their attitude a schoolboy was asked to write a thesis on Napoleon, and he began by stating that “Napoleon was a great man and a great soldier, but he was an off-islander.” In fact, it was an act of condescension for a Nantucketer even to shake hands with a “Mainlander,” and there are many of the older islanders to-day who have never set foot on any other soil.

Most of the inhabitants were Quakers, and there was a saying that a Nantucketer was half Quaker and half sailor. Though their cemetery contains about ten thousand graves, there are only half a dozen tombstones in one corner of the field. There are no “Friends” in Nantucket to-day. The following incident shows the Quaker thrift, to which was due in a great measure their success in whaling. When the first chaise was purchased, the owner was about to take a drive in it, but, after a few minutes’ deliberation, decided it was too progressive, and would subject him to criticism, so he loaned it only to invalids and funeral parties.

Billy Clark was town crier, and for forty years, up to the time of his death in 1909, he voluntarily announced with a bell and horn the arrival of all whalers and steamers. Once as he went along ringing, a girl asked him rudely where he got his bell, and his reply was, “I got my bell where you got your manners,—at the ‘brass foundry.’” Nantucketers declare that his death was due to the fact that he actually “blew his lungs away.”

The Chase family has always occupied a most prominent position in the history of the island. One of the family was Reuben Chase, who served under John Paul Jones on the “Ranger,” and on his death the following epitaph was placed on his tombstone:—

“Free from the storms and gusts of human life,
Free from its error and its strife,
Here lies Reuben Chase anchored; who stood
The sea of ebbing life and flowing misery.
He was not dandy rigged, his prudent eye
Fore-saw and took a reef at fortune’s quickest flow.
He luffed and bore away to please mankind;
Yet duty urged him still to head the wind,
Rumatic gusts at length his masts destroyed,
Yet jury health awhile he yet enjoyed,
Worn out with age and shattered head,
At foot he struck and grounded on his bed.
There careening thus he lay,
His final bilge expecting every day,
Heaven took his ballast from his dreary hold,
And left his body destitute of soul.”

Every islander knows the story of the Nantucket skipper who claimed that he could always tell where his ship was by the color and taste of the lead after sounding. Marden, his mate, on one trip determined to fool him, and for this purpose brought some dirt from a neighbor’s garden in Nantucket. He woke up the skipper one morning off Cape Horn, and showed him the lead, which had been smeared with this dirt, whereupon, to quote the words of James Thomas Fields,—

“The skipper stormed and tore his hair,
Hauled on his boots and roared to Marden:
‘Nantucket’s sunk, and here we are
Right over old Marm Hackett’s garden!’”

Another Nantucket captain always took to sea medicine bottles, each numbered and indexed to suit different complaints. Once his mate was ill, and, looking up the bottle to administer in his case, found that No. 13 contained the cure for his patient. Unfortunately, this bottle had all been used, so, after careful deliberation, he mixed the contents of bottles 6 and 7, which he gave the mate, who promptly died.

Early history tells us that Thomas Macy purchased the island for thirty pounds and two beaver hats, “One for myself and one for my wife,” and to him therefore belongs the honor of the settlement of Nantucket; he had been driven away from Massachusetts for sheltering Quakers, which was at that time against the law, and with his friend Edward Starbuck fled to the island and established a colony composed of such well-known families as the Coffins, Husseys, Swaynes, Gardners, Chases, Folgers, and Starbucks. These men were not whalers, but they watched the Indians and learned much from them, and later on employed Ichabod Paddock to come over from Cape Cod and instruct them further.

The character of the island and its situation far out in the ocean, its poor soil, and the number of whales along its shores, all proved an inducement to the Nantucketers to follow the sea as a calling. At first, there were so many whales that they did not find it necessary to go beyond the coast; so, under the guidance of Paddock, lookouts were erected along the South shore, and each man patrolled a certain amount of territory. Each one took his share of whales killed, and business flourished. This method of whaling continued until 1712, when Christopher Hussey, while cruising along the coast, was blown out to sea. He ran across a sperm whale, which he finally killed and brought home. This year was epoch making, as this was the first sperm whale known to have been taken by Americans. The oil from this species of whale being superior to that of all others, the Nantucketers now (1715) decided to change their methods and to whale in the “deep.” As the vessels steadily increased in size with greater and greater cargo-carrying capacity, voyages necessarily became longer, extending even to periods of four or five years. In fact, a voyage lasting but two years was considered unusually short. The point of view of most whalers regarding a two-year voyage is shown by the captain who, when boarding his ship, was reminded by a friend that he had not said “Good-by” to his wife,—

“Why should I?” said he; “I am only to be gone two years.”

About 1730 “try-works” were built on the vessels instead of on the shore, and the oil was boiled and stowed away at sea, thus allowing the ships to make much longer voyages. At this time Nantucket owned as many whaleships as all the other ports of America combined. Whaling continued to increase, and the sterile island was turned into a prosperous community, when the Revolution came on, and for the time being practically put an end to the industry. Nantucket was the only port that carried on whaling during the war: the island simply had to whale or starve, as the inhabitants knew no other occupation. Most of their vessels were eventually captured or lost by shipwreck, and over twelve hundred of their men were either killed or made prisoners. The end of the war found the island’s business hopelessly wrecked; but, with their usual pluck and determination, the Nantucketers once more built up a profitable fleet. So impoverished were they that the government for one year levied no taxes.

At the close of the war a Quaker, called William Rotch, was Nantucket’s greatest whaler, and even he became so discouraged with the prospects at home that in 1785 he left the island in his ship, the “Maria,” for London. He endeavored to make some arrangement with the English government to import some whaling families from Nantucket, but, failing to do so, repaired to France, where he succeeded in making an agreement with Louis XVI. A great many families moved to France, and carried on the pursuit from Dunkirk in Normandy. Rotch soon returned to Nantucket, and later moved to New Bedford, where he died. The old Rotch counting-house was later used as a club-room for Nantucket whaling captains, and is even now being used as such. In the old prosperous days this was jocosely called the House of Commons, while another club, which was used by the ship owners, was named the House of Lords.

Immediately after the war, the ship “Bedford,” one of the Rotch vessels, was loaded with oil, and sent to England under command of Captain Mooers. This was the first vessel to display the American flag in a British port. It is related that one of the crew of the ship was hunchbacked, and when on shore one day a British sailor clapped his hand on his shoulder, and said, “Hello, Jack, what have you got here?” “Bunker Hill, and be d—d to you,” replied the Yankee.

The redoubtable Nantucketers resumed their whaling at the close of the Revolution, and their energy and skill were again yielding rich profits when the War of 1812 almost annihilated the island’s fleet. But as it was another case of whale or starve, Nantucket continued to send out a few whalers, and was the only American port during the war that dared to brave the risks of British capture.

About this time, in one of the Pacific ports, an incident occurred which showed in an amusing light the ready wit and intrepid courage of an American whaleman. He had in some way displeased an English naval officer, who, feeling himself highly insulted, promptly challenged the Yankee, who accepted and, being the challenged party, had the choice of weapons. He selected, of course, the weapon with which he was most skilful and took his stand with a poised harpoon. It had altogether too dangerous an appearance for the irate Englishman, particularly as the whaleman was evidently an expert in the manual of thrust and parry, and so with as good grace as he could command, the Englishman withdrew from the fight.

At a very early day in the fishery, whaling vessels, which were at first long rowboats and later small sloops, began to increase in size, and about 1820 ships of three hundred tons were found profitable. The increase in profit producing capacity, strange as it may appear, actually sounded the death-knell of the Nantucket whaling, for across the mouth of the harbour ran a bar, over which it soon became impossible for whaling vessels of large size to pass. The difficulty was for a time overcome by the true Yankee ingenuity of some inventive Nantucketer, who devised the “camel,” a veritable dry-dock barge in which the larger whaleships, lightened often of oil and bone, were floated over the bar into the forest of masts which in those days characterized a harbour now frequented only by a few schooners and sloops, the small pleasure crafts of the summer residents, and an occasional steamer.

As whaleships still continued to increase in size, the “camel” expedient was only a temporary success; for the time came when vessels were of too great tonnage to be thus floated over the bar, and the daring and skilful Nantucketer, who had taught the civilized world not only how, but where, to whale, had to admit defeat and gradually give up the industry to more fortunately situated ports. At this time, about 1830, Nantucket was commercially the third largest city in Massachusetts, Boston being first and Salem second.

In 1843 Nantucket owned its record number of ships, eighty-eight. In 1846, which is referred to as the “boom” year in American whaling, sixteen vessels cleared from Nantucket and sixty-nine from her near-by rival—New Bedford. In 1869 Nantucket sent her last ship and disappeared from the list of whaling ports. The great fire of 1846 also contributed to the downfall of the industry.

A new era in whaling was to be born, with New Bedford as the centre, and Nantucket was to become only a health resort and mecca for sight-seers, more than ten thousand persons visiting the island in 1914.

NEW BEDFORD

New Bedford undoubtedly owed its whaling success to its proximity to Nantucket, to its wonderful harbour, and to the honesty, thrift, and good business ability of its citizens, most of whom were Quakers.

As in Nantucket, the whole city lived to go whaling, and as each inhabitant made more money, he moved his residence higher up on the Hill. It is said that there was an inn called the “Crossed Harpoons,” and another called “Spouter Inn,” and there is a Whaleman’s Chapel on Johnny Cake Hill where regular Sunday services were held, at which the following hymn was always sung by the congregation:—

“The ribs and terrors of the whale
Arched over me in dismal gloom,
While all God’s sun-lit waves rolled by
And left me deepening down to doom.

“I saw the opening maw of hell,
With endless pains and sorrows there;
Which none but they that feel can tell—
Oh, I was plunging to despair—

“In black distress I called to God,
When I could scarce believe him mine,
He bowed his ear to my complaints—
No more the whale did me confine.”

The pulpit of this chapel was made to represent the prow of a whaleship, and was ascended by means of a rope ladder, which the minister, who had been a harpooner in his youth, hauled up after him. Around the walls of this little church can still be seen tablets erected in memory of many whalemen who lost their lives at sea. There also was a daily paper called _The Whaleman_, which gave the reports of the whaleships and the whaling news. It has been said that New Bedford fathers gave whales for dowers to their daughters, and that they had reservoirs of oil in their attics to burn on gala occasions.

It is a curious fact that three Morgans not long ago married three Rotchs, three Rotchs married three Rodmans, and three Rodmans married three Motleys. Among other well-known New Bedford whaling families are the Hathaways, Swifts, Howlands, Morgans, Stones, Delanos, Rodmans, Seaburys, Giffords, Tabers, Grinnells, and Wings.

Whaling was a tremendous financial gamble, and until a vessel came home “clean” or “greasy,” meaning empty or full, the success of the voyage was not known. They tell a story of a New Bedford captain who had been out for nearly four years, and as he came up to the wharf the owners asked him what luck he had had. His reply was, “I didn’t get any whales, but I had a damn good sail.” There is another tale of a seaman whose vessel left New Bedford on the day of his mother’s funeral. Naturally he set sail with a heavy heart, and during his three years’ cruise he thought many times of his sorrowful father at home. As the ship neared the docks he was met by his father with “Hurry up, Jim, I want to introduce you to your new mother.” There were many changes at home during a long cruise, and sometimes even the fashions had entirely changed. One whaleship captain described his surprise at seeing for the first time the crinoline or hoop skirt.

The real founder of New Bedford, and the pioneer of the whale fishery at this port, was Joseph Russell, who sent his ships out in 1765. Several years later the first ship was launched and was called the “Dartmouth,” and this vessel is well known to history owing to the fact that she was one of the ships that carried into Boston Harbour the tea that was thrown overboard. The whaling industry increased steadily, except during the wars, until 1857, when the New Bedford fleet numbered three hundred and twenty-nine vessels, was valued at over twelve million dollars, and employed over twelve thousand seamen. If these vessels had been strung out in line, they would have stretched over ten miles. In addition to these sailors, thousands of others were employed at home making casks, irons, ropes, and many other articles used in whaling. In fact, it was often stated that the population was divided into three parts,—those away on a voyage, those returning, and those getting ready for the next trip.

There were many nationalities represented in the crews of the whalers, and the New Bedford streets presented a very foreign appearance, with Spaniards, Portuguese, Dutch, Norwegians, Germans, French, English, Scotch, Irish, Sandwich Islanders, and New Englanders at every turn. A large number of Portuguese served on whaleships, and a part of the city near the south end of Water Street became known as Fayal.

The “Golden Age,” as it is called, of whaling was between 1825 and 1860, and during the whole of this period New Bedford assumed the lead, even long after other ports had given up the pursuit. It is estimated that about the year 1848 there were over seventy millions invested in the industry and seventy thousand persons derived from it their subsistence.

It is an interesting fact that the insurance on American whalemen was about one-half the rate that was charged the Englishman, which certainly showed the superiority of our Yankee seamen. There were several whaling insurance companies in New Bedford. There is a story told of a New Bedford ship owner who had just heard that his vessel had gone down and he hadn’t yet received the insurance policy from the company. He sent a letter down to the office which read as follows: “I have heard from my ship and thee need not place the insurance.” Of course, the policy was sent up immediately.

The New Bedford whalers explored new grounds, and to this fact chiefly is due the continued prosperity of its whale fishery, but it was to die slowly; in 1875 the fleet from this port had declined to 116 vessels, in 1886 to 77 ships, and in 1906 to 24.

One of the chief historical events of New Bedford happened in 1861, when the famous Stone Fleet sailed from that port. The United States government decided to purchase some old ships and sink them in the channels of the harbours of Charleston and Savannah, to prevent blockade running during the war. H. Bartlett & Sons supervised their purchase and Captain Rodolphus N. Swift was the general agent. Bartlett purchased some of the old whalers for as small a price as thirty-one hundred and fifty dollars, some of them having more cement than wood in their hulls. To James Duddy, a teamster, fell the task of supplying the seventy-five hundred tons of stones with which to fill the vessels, and many a New Bedford stone wall now lies at the bottom of some of our Southern harbours. Captain Rodney French, an old “slaver,” who afterwards became Mayor of New Bedford, was selected as commander of the fleet, and on Thanksgiving Day most of New Bedford assembled on the wharves and saw fifteen of her once famous fleet, which had for years been the homes of its seamen, sail forth never to return. It must have been a very sad day for the city, and it may be said that this event marked the beginning of the decline of the industry at New Bedford.

One captain insisted upon washing the decks of his ship every morning, using pulverized stones instead of sand, and another, to give the fleet a warlike appearance, mounted a formidable “Quaker” gun, made from a section of a spar.

A second fleet sailed later in the year, making forty-five vessels in all. Although the expedition cost the government about a quarter of a million dollars, its success was only temporary. The captain of the “Alabama” swore vengeance on New Bedford and destroyed or captured every whaler he could find, and in the “Alabama” awards that were made after the war New Bedford received a large share.

Ten years later occurred the worst disaster that ever befell a whaling fleet. Thirty-four whalers were caught in the ice in the Arctic regions and sunk, and it is a curious fact that, while the loss reached one million five hundred thousand dollars, not a single human life was sacrificed. These three pictures of a series of five on the following page show the sinking of the ships, the abandonment of their vessels, which had their flags union down, and the eighty-mile sail through the ice-floes to the open sea, where twelve hundred and nineteen men, women, and children were taken home in the seven whalers that had not been lost in the ice. It must have been very crowded, as each ship had to stow away several hundred persons in addition to her own crew. There were many sad hearts as they left their vessels and almost all of their belongings, and started off in the small boats. The trip to sea and the trans-shipment in the heavy swell must have been made with the utmost care, otherwise many lives would have been sacrificed. The loss to the New Bedford owners was so tremendous that they never really recovered from the catastrophe, and many families had to economize for years after. The Swifts, Howlands, and Rotchs were among those who lost ships.

On one of the vessels in the first picture of this series was a large quantity of the finest Manila cigars and also some rare Madeira wine, that had been picked up in the Philippines the year before on instructions from the ship’s owner. When the captain of this vessel reached New Bedford and reported the loss of his command, the owner’s first question, after listening to the dismal tale, was whether his cigars and wine had been saved. “All of it,” came the reply. “Where is it?” said the owner, looking more cheerful. “Well, you see, I drank the wine and Mr. Jones, the mate, he smoked the cigars, and they certainly done us both good,” replied the captain.

The ship “Progress,” shown in the last picture, forms an interesting connecting link between the Stone Fleet and this 1871 disaster.

Under the name of the “Charles Phelps” she whaled from Stonington, Conn., for a number of years and finally was purchased for the Stone Fleet. She was found to be in such good condition that the government decided not to sink her, and she returned to New Bedford and was sold; and it was this same vessel that took part in the rescue of the twelve hundred and nineteen shipwrecked people ten years later. In 1893 she was fitted out as if for a whaling voyage and towed by way of the St. Lawrence River to Chicago, where she was exhibited at the Fair, and now lies rotting on the sands of the lake at South Chicago. No other whaler ever had so interesting and varied a history.

The year after this Arctic disaster found the fleet again in the Arctic, and the “Minerva,” one of the ships left at Point Belcher, was discovered and found to be in good condition; the others had sunk. One lone person was found who had remained on board his ship for the whole year, and his sufferings had been fearful. The natives had stolen all the whalebone and oil from the sinking vessels, and when some of the same shipwrecked captains arrived the next year the Esquimaux tried to sell them back their own property, and one native was using one of the chronometer cases as a dinner pot in which to boil his blubber. The “Minerva” was manned and sailed to New Bedford and continued in the whaling industry.

New Bedford ships suffered severely during the Rebellion, but later new ones were added to the fleet and business again prospered. Lack of space prevents enumerating the achievements of American whalers during the Civil War. Captain William P. Randall, however, will go down in history as a hero of this war; he was brought up on a whaleship and later served in the navy.

Captain Frederick Fish, father of Frederick P. Fish and Charles H. Fish, of Boston, was one of the best known and most respected of the whaling captains sailing out of New Bedford. He commanded the “Montreal” and the “Columbus” when only twenty-two years old, made nine voyages round the world, and was one of the most successful whalers of his day. Once when near the Sandwich Islands his vessel happened to anchor very close to an English ship, and Captain Fish noticed that every evening at sunset the English commander, while at anchor, set all sails and then furled them again in order to show how quickly this work could be performed. After a few evenings Captain Fish ordered his crew to do the same, and the time consumed was so much less that the next evening the Englishman decided he did not care to go through the performance; in fact, he never tried to show off again in that port.

There is also another amusing story told about Captain Fish. His ship at one port took on a great many chickens, which were used for food, and finally one of the crew rebelled and informed the captain that he had eaten enough hen. He was immediately ordered out on a yard-arm and was made to crow like a rooster for such a long time that when he was again allowed on deck, he had a most excellent appetite for another chicken dinner. Captain Fish delighted in telling of the time when he took a local pilot on board somewhere in the Pacific to conduct his vessel into port. He asked the navigator if he were sure of his course, and received a prompt and decisive answer in the affirmative. Presently, to the disgust of the captain, the vessel touched. The next question put to the pilot was whether or not he could swim, and finding that he could, Captain Fish ordered his crew to throw him overboard. This was done, and, the distance being short, the swimmer made the land, and the captain himself took his vessel in the rest of the way.

Captain Fish was an excellent story teller, and another yarn has been handed down in connection with one of his trips. The voyage had been very unsuccessful, and as he was looking over his chart he tossed his dividers down in a disgruntled manner, and by accident they chanced to stick in the chart. He then conceived the novel idea of sailing to the very place where his instrument happened to land, and curiously enough he was rewarded by a very large catch.

Once when one of his whaleboats had been overturned by a fighting whale he hurried to the assistance of the crew, who were struggling in the water, and to his amazement found two of them squabbling over the ownership of a pair of old shoes, instead of thinking about saving their lives. It is a curious fact that he never learned to swim, and often saved his life when capsized by grabbing some floating débris. His nerve and courage were remarkable, and it is related that even on his death-bed he told the doctor an amusing story.

This picture of New Bedford in 1808 is most interesting. The oil market shed on the right-hand side of the street was built in 1795 by Barnabas Russell for his son Joseph, and the last building shown on the right of the picture was the mansion of William Rotch, Sr., and the first estate in the village at that time. This Rotch was the son of Joseph Rotch, one of New Bedford’s earliest whalers, and he himself is represented in his old chaise, the only private carriage then in the town. He is negotiating for a load of hay, and from all accounts he must have been a keen business man, for he was often seen going to market so early that he had to use a lantern. All the other figures in this picture also are intended to represent well-known citizens of the time. The two men shaking hands are Captain Crocker and Samuel Rodman; the latter, who was the son-in-law of William Rotch, had the reputation of being the best dressed man in New Bedford in his day. One of the boys harnessed to the small cart is the Hon. George Howland, Jr., great-uncle of Llewellyn Howland. H. H. Hathaway, Jr., and Thomas S. Hathaway have three ancestors in the picture.

OTHER NEW ENGLAND WHALING PORTS

Rhode Island pursued whales in 1731, Newport and Providence being the two most successful ports. Fifty ships were owned by Connecticut and Rhode Island in 1775. Massachusetts owned over three hundred at this time. Rhode Island was more of a “slave” than a whaling State. New London became a great whaling port in 1846, and was the third in importance in New England.

The people of Cape Cod began sending ships to sea about 1726, and a few years later a dozen or so vessels were fitted out at Provincetown. Boston claimed twenty whaleships in 1775, and registered from one to eleven vessels almost every year until 1903, since which date no whaleship has been recorded from this port. Gloucester turned to whaling in 1833.

The following figures show the different whaling ports in Massachusetts and the largest number of vessels enrolled in any one year in each. New Bedford, of course, held first place with 329 in 1857, with Nantucket 88 in 1843, Provincetown claimed 54 in 1869; Fairhaven 50 in 1848 to 1852; Edgartown and Mattapoisett owned 19 each; Salem had 14 in 1840; Boston 11 in 1868; Dartmouth, 10; Plymouth, 9; Falmouth, 8; Wareham, Fall River, and Marion, 7 each; Beverly, Holmes’ Hole, Orleans, 5 each; Lynn, 4; Newburyport, 3; Gloucester, Dorchester, and Sandwich, 2 each; and the following claimed 1: Braintree, Hingham, Marblehead, Barnstable, Duxbury, Quincy, Truro, Yarmouth, and Wellfleet. Of the Rhode Island towns Warren owned 25; Newport, 12; Bristol, 10; Providence, 9. Connecticut towns that owned whalers were New London, 70; Stonington, 27; Mystic, 18; and a few scattered among half a dozen other places. Portsmouth, N.H., at one time owned two vessels, and between the years 1835 to 1845 Bath, Bucksport, Portland, and Wiscasset in Maine each had one. Massachusetts, however, could claim five-sixths of the total fleet.

A few words must be said in praise of Samuel Mulford of Long Island. Governor Hunter of New York claimed for his State a share of all whales caught, whereupon Mulford waged war against this act in every possible way. Finally he sailed to London and put his case before the Crown. The people in London were much amused at his country clothes, and the pickpockets in particular became a nuisance to him in the streets. Mulford, however, showed his resourcefulness by sewing fish hooks in his pockets and succeeded in capturing the thief. Another incident shows the ingenuity of the whaleman. The ship “Syren” was attacked by a horde of murderous savages, and the crew of the ship would, doubtless, have been murdered had it not been for a quick stratagem of the mate. He remembered a package of tacks in the cabin and yelled, “Break out the carpet tacks and sow ’em over the deck.” The natives, yelling with pain, jumped headlong into the sea, and the ship was saved.

The world owes many discoveries to the energy and determination of whaleship captains. Over four hundred islands in the Pacific were discovered and named by American whalemen, and the history of New Zealand is closely connected with the visits of New England whalers. Australia, too, was opened to the world by the whalemen.

It was to a certain extent due to the testimony of Captain Bryant, a whale captain of Mattapoisett, that Alaska was purchased by the United States government. That there was a northwest passage was also discovered by American whalemen in this way: the date and name of a ship were always marked on its harpoons, and in several instances whales were captured in the Pacific by ships that were known to have been cruising not long before in the Atlantic. It was Captain Timothy Folger, of Nantucket, who charted the Gulf Stream at the request of Benjamin Franklin, to whom he was related, and this drawing was engraved on an old chart and preserved in London. In this way English mariners discovered how to avoid the swift current and thereby gain much time. Our seamen in the early days were not very kindly treated by the Japanese, but, finally, several whalemen secured their good will by teaching them English. This encouraged the American government to send out Commodore Perry’s expedition, which succeeded in making our first treaty with Japan, thus opening that country to Western civilization.

It was difficult to make discoveries ahead of our whalemen. In 1834 two Russian discovery ships approached a forlorn little island in the Antarctic Ocean and the commander was about to take possession in the name of his Czar. There was a dense fog at the time, but when it cleared away they were very much surprised and vexed to see a little Connecticut ship at anchor between their two vessels. The name of this whaler was the “Hero” of Stonington, captained by Nathaniel B. Palmer, who was only twenty-one years of age and was just returning from his discovery of the Antarctic Continent. The Russian commander was so impressed by the achievement of this youthful captain that he cheerfully acquiesced in naming the place Palmer’s Land. This name has since been changed to Graham Land. It is an undisputed fact that the whalers prepared the way for the missionaries.

ABOARD A “BLUBBER HUNTER”