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THE STORY OF
THE NEW ENGLAND WHALERS

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Li

TORONTO

Ready to Sail

THE STORY OF

THE NEW ENGLAND

WHALERS

BY
JOHN R. SPEARS

Nifo

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1922

Set up and electrotypcd. Published September, 1908.

Norwood Preu

J. S. Cuibing Co. — Berwick & Smith O>.
Norwood, Matt., U.S.A.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. SAMUEL MULFORD, ALONGSHORE WHALER . I

II. TOLD OF THE RED INDIAN WHALERS . . 1 8

III. EARLY DAYS ON NANTUCKET . . . 38

IV. THE MINOR COLONIAL PORTS . . . 73
V. NANTUCKET IN THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION 85

VI. A LONG PERIOD OF DEPRESSION ... 97

VII. ADVENTURES OF THE EXPLORERS . . .123

VIII. WHALES AS THE WHALERS KNEW THEM . . 159

IX. HARPOONS, LANCES, GUNS, AND BOATS . . 203

X. SKETCHES AFLOAT WITH THE WHALERS . . 244

XI. WORX OF THE FIGHTING WHALES . . .286

XII. WHALING AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE . ^^_-_ 312-

XIII. THE MUTINEERS AND SLAVERS . . -34°

XIV. TALES OF WHALERS IN THE CIVIL WAR . 365
XV. IN THE LATER DAYS . . . . • 394

961710

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Ready to sail ...... Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Trying out blubber on deck . . . . .68

Towing whales to the Onondar Fiord trying house, Ice-
land . . . * ' -. . . .128

Off for a two years' cruise . . . . . .160

Sperm whaling — The chase . . . . . 188

Entangled whale diving . . . . . .226

Cutting in a whale . . . . . . .276

Ships receiving the captains, officers, and crews of aban-
doned ships ... . . . . . 304

View of the Stone Fleet which sailed from New Bedford,

November 16, 1861 . . . . . 384

Abandonment of the whalers in the Arctic Ocean, Sep-
tember, 1871 ...... 402

ALL WHO PULL TO THE TUNE OF
"A DEAD WHALE OR A STOVE BOAT"

SAMUEL MULFORD, ALONGSHORE
WHALER

AT a meeting of the inhabitants of
Easthampton, Long Island, held on
November 6, 1651, "It was ordered
that Goodman Mulford shall call out ye town by
succession to loke for Whale."

"Goodman," as the reader will remember,
was not a given name but a title that was applied
to citizens who were not of the aristocracy.
"Goodman" Mulford had been christened John.
He was of the peasantry, but the fact that he
was chosen to the office mentioned shows that he
was a man of influence in the community, and of
tried impartiality as well.

Restless Englishmen from the settlements on
Massachusetts Bay had scattered themselves along
the coasts to the south and west, and crossing
Long Island Sound (the first purchasers numbered

8 I

2 The Story of the New England Whalers

thirty-five), they had formed a settlement at the
easterly end of Long Island as early as 1640.

Long Island was a goodly country in its soil
and climate. Prodigious crops of wheat could
be raised, and prodigious crops of truck are yet
raised there. And what was of more importance
to this story, the sea, just off the dune-lined beach,
was a natural feeding ground for whales at cer-
tain seasons of the year.

The pioneers on Massachusetts Bay, with their
followers, seem to have had some knowledge of
the whale fishery. When the Mayflower had
anchored inside of Cape Cod, the Pilgrims ob-
served that "large whales of the best kind for
oil and bone came daily alongside and played
about the ship. The master and his mate and
others experienced in fishing preferred it to the
Greenland whale fishery." Because of the num-
ber of whales seen there some of the Pilgrims
wished to settle on the cape rather than go on in
search of another location, for they had come to
establish a fishing colony as well as in search of
"freedom to worship God."

As the products of the whale formed an impor-

Samuel Mulford, Alongshore Whaler 3

tant source of income to the first settlers on Mas-
sachusetts Bay, the prospectors who came to Long
Island to spy out the land looked away across the
surf, as well as at the soil in the clearings the
Indians had made; and seeing the familiar spout
of the right whale out at sea confirmed them in
the good opinion of the locality which an inspec-
tion of the soil had already given them. More-
over they learned from the Indians that " drift
whales," namely, those that had died from natural
causes, were often to be found on the beach.

It is manifest from the records that the whale
fishery was prosecuted on Long Island almost
from the first day the settlers arrived. In March,
1644, the settlers divided themselves into four
wards of eleven persons each to attend to the
drift whales cast ashore, and it was voted that,
when such a whale was found, " Every inhabitant,
with his child or servant that is above sixteen
years of age," should share equally in the products,
save only as two men who were appointed to cut
up the carcass were to have two shares each.

The active work of hunting live whales was
carried on at the Long Island settlement after a

4 The Story of the New England Whalers

fashion that had already been established on
Massachusetts Bay. Boats fit to launch through
the surf were built by the community, and, with
the necessary implements, these boats were held
in readiness to go in pursuit of any whale that
might be seen offshore. To make sure that every
whale that came near the beach would be seen it
was necessary to keep some one constantly on
watch alongshore. To give such lookouts a wide
range of vision the settlers erected among the
dunes a number of tall spars, fitted with wooden
pins up which the lookouts could climb, with
perches or seats at the top. Further than that,
a well-thatched hut was built, here and there,
near the beach to serve as a shelter from heavy
storms; for the whales "struck in" along that
beach in winter — from November to April.

Naturally, the work of the lookout was irk-
some and distasteful even to settlers inured to
hardship. The perch on the spar was an uncom-
fortable seat in the best of weather, and a gale of
wind searched the hut, in spite of the fire that
was built, for every hut was open on the side
toward the sea. However energetic these settlers

Samuel Mulford, Alongshore Whaler 5

might be in the actual work of killing a whale
and preparing the products for market, some of
them would shirk their tours of duty on lookout.
Shirking roused the anger of those who did not
shirk, and therefore, to preserve peace in the
community, it was necessary to give some one
authority "to call out ye town to loke for Whale."

To this delicate and thankless task "Good-
man" John Mulford was called in 1651. It may
be noted also that he was chosen to serve as
magistrate during the same year.

It has seemed important to give these facts
about the whaler settlers of Long Island, partly
to set forth something of the character of their
work, but chiefly because "Goodman" John Mul-
ford was the father of Samuel Mulford, who was
not only the most notable whaler of his day, but
a patriot of the colonial period, whose work has
never received the attention it has merited.

Samuel was six years old when, in 1651, his
father was authorized to "call out ye town to
loke for Whale. " In connection with his career
it will be interesting to consider a peculiar feature
of the work of the whalers among whom he was

6 The Story of the New England Whalers

raised. It was the custom to employ the natives
of the island, the red Indians, in the boats used
for pursuing the whales. The story of the Indian
as a whaler shall be told in the next chapter, but
it may be noted here that the tribesmen of vari-
ous parts of the American coast had been in the
habit of going afloat in canoes in pursuit of
whales before the white man came, and that
they succeeded, now and then, in worrying one
to death, though possessed of no more efficient
weapon than a bone spear or a flint-pointed
arrow. And that is to say that they were able
and courageous in the handling of such weapons
as they had. How the European invaders usually
treated the unfortunate aborigines is very well
known to all readers; the story as a whole is
shocking, but at the east end of Long Island
the white settlers employed the Indians as whal-
ers instead of exterminating them. Moreover, the
pay given to the Indians when thus employed
was three shillings a day at a time when that of
common white laborers was two shillings.

In fact, the competition of individual white
whalemen for the services of the more expert

Samuel Mulford, Alongshore Whaler 7

red men led, in time, to an increase of the pay
given to a point where the white community as a
whole deemed it necessary to enact a law for the
regulation of the matter. The act declared that
"whosoever shall hire an Indyan to go a-Whaling,
shall not give him for his Hire above one Truck-
ing Cloath Coat, for each Whale, hee and his
Company shall Kill, or halfe the Blubber with-
out the Whale Bone."

Samuel Mulford was not only trained by a
father who was noted for his sense of justice, but
he grew up in a community that would provide
by law that Indians might receive a "lay" of half
the blubber of the whales they helped the white
men to take.

The details of the training of Samuel Mulford
in the actual work of a whaler are not recorded,
but it is not to be doubted that he learned to
hurl the harpoon and use the lance as soon as
he had the strength to do so, and that he became
an expert in "saving" whales. Further than
that, it is certain that he became a leader in the
community, as his father, "Goodman" John, had
been. As a whaler of skill and a foremost citizen

8 The Story of the New England Whalers

of his community, he lived for about seventy
years, and he would have died without any
greater claim upon posterity than such a career
afforded but for an arbitrary attack that was
made, meantime, upon the rights of all American
whalers of his day. When this attack was made,
Samuel Mulford, animated by a hatred of injus-
tice that was hereditary and ingrained, stepped
forward alone as the champion of his guild, and
won in a fight that, as said, has made his name
memorable in the annals of the nation.

It was in the days when Governor Robert
Hunter ruled New York. Hunter, in his early
youth, was an apprentice to a druggist, but having
entered the British army, he rose by good work
and hard fighting to the rank of major general.
Then, at a time when he was not needed in the
field, he was sent to succeed Governor Lovelace
in New York. The rise of the poor apprentice
to such high rank shows that Hunter was a man
of uncommon ability; and that is not all one may
learn in his favor. His papers show that he wrote
French at least as well as he did English. He
had educated himself while working his way up

Samuel Mulford, Alongshore Whaler 9

in the army, and "his intimacy with Swift and
Addison and the other wits of the day affords
another proof of his literary taste."

Until he received his commission as governor,
Hunter had grasped at power and position
chiefly; in New York he reached out for wealth
as well, and thus fell foul of the Long Island
whalers. Observing that no tax was paid on the
catch of whales within his colony, Hunter decreed
that the whalemen should pay him one-twentieth
of all the oil and bone they gathered, not only
from drift whales, but from those captured with
boats; and the share thus to be taken was to be
delivered to him in New York, a point more than
a hundred miles, on the average, from the whal-
ing grounds. The whalers having ignored the
decree, "there was a writ directed to the sheriff
[1711] to seize all whale fish whatsoever" in order
to compel the whalers to bring in the share of oil
demanded.

Up to this time Long Island whaling, though
it had been carried on by means of small boats
only, had been fairly profitable. A report by
Lord Cornbury, dated July I, 1708, in speaking

io The Story of the New England Whalers

of this matter, says that "for example last year
they made 4000 Barrils of Oyl." On the other
hand, in the season preceding this very profitable
one, only six hundred barrels had been secured.
It was plain to all the fishermen that if they were
to be taxed one-twentieth of their gross product
of oil every year, they would have their labor for
their pains during a large part of the time. This
fact was, naturally, quite enough to create opposi-
tion, but a loss of profits was not the only feature
of the situation that aroused the indignation of
the whalers. Fishing was among the rights that
had been granted to them in the patent to their
lands, and for that patent they paid a yearly tax
of forty shillings. Under the rights thus granted
them they had been accustomed, from the making
of the settlement, a period of more than seventy
years, "to go out upon the Seas, adjacent to
their Lands, Six Men in a Small Boat, to take
and kill Whales and other fish, and the Capters
to have all they killed."

That a governor, sitting at ease in New York,
should demand a share of their hard-earned
produce from the high seas, after all those years

Samuel Mulford, Alongshore Whaler it

of freedom from such a tax, was bad enough,
particularly as the levy was made without any
pretence of a return to them for what was thus
to be taken; but fully to understand their indig-
nation in the matter, it must be remembered that
they had been, practically, republicans, making
laws for themselves, at least in local matters, and
paying very little in the way of taxes save as they
made levies upon themselves for the benefit of
the community.

After the sheriff came among them with his
orders to "seize all whalefish whatsoever," some
few of the whalemen paid the tax. Others, more
indignant, ceased fishing for whales. Of neither
of these classes, however, was Samuel Mulford.
With his two sons, Timothy and Matthew, and
enough Indians to complete the crew of the boat,
he went to sea whenever the lookout reported
a whale, and he disposed of the catch according
to the ancient custom under which the "capters"
had "all they killed."

In the days before Governor Hunter levied on
the product of the whale fishery, Samuel Mulford
had served his neighbors as a civil justice and as

12 The Story of the New England Whalers

a lieutenant of militia. He was now chosen to
represent the community in the General Assem-
bly. It was hoped that he would there be able
effectually to oppose the governor's schemes.
Apparently Governor Hunter feared the influence
of the whaler in the legislature, for he promptly
got out an anchor to windward, so to speak, by
creating new assembly districts in territory wherein
he was able to control the elections, and he was
thus able to secure a working majority.

Mulford was thus balked of his hopes of relief
through legislation, but he took the legislator's
privilege and freed his mind by a speech before
the assembly, in which he not only set forth the
rights of the whalers, but exposed a number of
the other grasping schemes of the governor in
merciless fashion. He who had hauled in along-
side a whale was not to be frightened by any
kind of a man, however great in power and
station.

Of course the governor struck back. The
obedient assembly expelled the bold whaler.
Then a creature of the governor who held the
office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,

Samuel Mulford, Alongshore Whaler 13

assisted by the prosecuting attorney, proceeded
against Mulford for the "high misdemeanor" of
uttering "a false and seditious libel," and that,
too, in spite of the fact that under the law the
speech was privileged. Still further to harass
the whaler, "an action of trover" was com-
menced against him and his sons "for converting
the Queen's goods to their own use."

As the action for libel could not be lawfully
pressed, the charge was continued from term to
term during four terms of the court; and at each
term the old man was brought to town, a dis-
tance of one hundred and fifteen miles. He was
tried on the charge of trover by the Chief Justice,
although he appealed, as a matter of right, for a
jury trial. Of course he was convicted. In short,
every method known to an adroit politician in
power was used to annoy and overpower the de-
termined whaler, who, in spite of losses and per-
sonal persecutions, continued the fight.

A remarkable figure is Samuel Mulford as he
is portrayed in the records of his day. Governor
Hunter frequently speaks of him in letters sent
to England as a "crazy old man." Gardiner's

14 The Story of the New England Whalers

East Hampton says he was "an original genius of
good judgment but of an odd turn." It is re-
lated that while he was a member of the legis-
lature he got into trouble by saying that the
House was governed by the devil. When brought
to the bar by the speaker, he explained that what
he had intended to say was that the House was
ruled by the Albany members, they by Colonel
Schuyler, he by the Mohawk Indians, and they
by the devil; whereat everybody laughed so
heartily that the old man was forgiven for his
plain speech. That he should have made such a
decided stand against the governor was evidence
in the minds of average citizens that he was what
would now be called a "crank." But if his mo-
tives and ambitions be now examined, it is seen
that he was not only the ablest citizen of Long
Island, but a far-seeing statesman, one worthy of
being ranked with the patriots of the Revolution.
For he had come to be animated, not by a fool-
ishly stubborn determination to oppose a tyran-
nical governor, but by a lofty spirit of patriotism.
The fight as he made it was not to escape the
payment of a fine of £50 that had been im-

Samuel Mulford, Alongshore Whaler 15

posed upon him, but to establish a principle, as
shall now appear. Parliament had provided
special encouragements for "subjects within this
Kingdom, " who might wish " to go a Whale Fish-
ing to Greenland, Friezland and places adjacent."
In Mulford's view "the subjects in New York"
had the same rights under that act as any English-
man in England. If that were so, the decree of
Hunter for taxing the fishery was contrary to the
act of Parliament for encouraging it, and this was
the plea which Mulford's attorney made when
he was arraigned on the charge of trover. The
subservient Chief Justice, in considering this
plea, declared that the colonists "had nothing to
do with the acts of Parliament," and that they
"had no law but what the Crown allowed" them.
On hearing this decision Samuel Mulford de-
termined to learn "whether the Subjects in New
York Colony are to be governed by Prerogative
and deprived of property, or whether they are
to be governed by the Constitution of English
Government." That is to say, Mulford made his
fight to determine the rights of the colonists as
British citizens, and not merely to escape a petty
fine that he was well able to pay.

16 The Story of the New England Whalers

Finding the power of the governor too great for
him in the colony (Hunter called him a traitor for
standing out against the decision of the Supreme
Court), Mulford left home secretly, crossed over
to Newport, walked thence to Boston, and sailed
for London to lay his case before the Crown.

Rarely has a man seen a greater change in his
surroundings than Mulford saw when he went
from the stern sheets of a Long Island whale
boat to the crowded antechambers of those who
waited upon royalty at the beginning of the
eighteenth century. Dress, manner of speech,
and every motion proclaimed him a wayfarer
from a far country. The pickpockets of the
streets "annoyed" him much. The gentlemen of
the court found him vastly amusing at first, and
latterly, as he persisted, perhaps something of a
nuisance. But the resourcefulness and the deter-
mination of the whaler were in him. He sewed
fish-hooks inside of his pockets, and so caught the
light-fingered thieves; and by other hooks equally
effective he drew those in authority around him
until the Lords Justices wrote to Governor Hunter,
saying plainly, "We must observe to you that we

Samuel Mulford, Alongshore Whaler 17

hope you will give all due encouragement" to the
whalers.

Before Washington was born, Samuel Mulford,
the alongshore whaler of Southampton, set the
pace to which the patriot hosts at Lexington
were to march. Decision on the main point for
which Mulford contended was avoided. That
was left for later arbitrament. But Hunter was
compelled to reply, "I have remitted the five per-
cent on Whale Fishing." By means of the mental
qualities that he had cultivated when "out upon
the seas" with "six men in a Small Boat to take
and kill Whales," Mulford triumphed over one
of the ablest of the royal governors of New York.

This account of Samuel Mulford has little of
whaling in it, but it seems well worth telling here,
first of all, because one of the most important
features of the American whale fishery is found
in its influence upon the men who were engaged
in it, and, through them, upon the whole people.

TOLD OF THE RED INDIAN WHALERS

IN the early days of Nantucket, while yet the
people were engaged in alongshore whaling
by means of small boats only, it happened
one day while thirty boats were in search of
whales at a distance of something like six miles
offshore that the wind suddenly whipped around
to the north and began to blow with great vio-
lence. At the same time snow began to fall.

In the circumstances there was only one thing
for the whalers to do, and that was to head for
land and pull with all their might. This was
done, though without much thought of danger at
first. Boats were often caught thus by an off-
shore wind, but as time passed it became apparent
to all hands that they were making little headway
against the gale, and then one after another of
the oarsmen became weary, and finally dis-
couraged. Through the weakness of these men

Told of the Red Indian Whalers 19

the headway that had been made theretofore was
soon lost, and a time came when the whole flotilla
was at the point of drifting away to sea.

But at that moment, when thirty boat loads of
men were held in a balance that was wavering to
and fro between life and death, one of the Indians
employed shouted in a loud voice:

"Pull ahead with courage; do not be dis-
heartened ; there are too many Englishmen to be
lost now I "

It was a voice like that of old Cornstalk, as he
raged to and fro at the battle of Point Pleasant,
shouting to his men: " Be strong ! Be strong!"
It was even more than that, for the words were a
keen taunt to the white men who had shown dis-
couragement. And when those words were heard,
the weak, as well as the strong, bent to their oars
once more, and with an increase of energy that
carried the flotilla to safety.

The historians who have from time to time
considered the whale fishery have all been much
interested in a discussion concerning the first
whalers known to the record. It is pretty well
agreed among them that the peculiar people

20 The Story of the New England Whalers

found in certain places along the north coast of
Spain, and called Basques, were the first to make
whaling a regular business. The ancient docu-
ments to be seen there show, at any rate, that
in 1150 King Sancho the Wise granted special
privileges in the matter of whaling to the city of
San Sebastian; and there is no record about
whaling to be found elsewhere among civilized
people of earlier date. It is not to be inferred
from this fact, however, that the Basques were
the inventors of the arts of whaling. The abo-
rigines of Europe in the stone age were certainly
as courageous and venturesome as those of
America, and the first white men to explore the
coast of New England found red whalers at work.
In every clan and tribe along the coast were men
accustomed to killing whales.

Most interesting to the humanitarian is every
record of things done by the red men of America
in the days when they were undefiled by contact
with the white race. And of the stories of the
things done, few if any portray red manhood in
brighter colors than those relating to the whale
fishery.

Told of the Red Indian Whalers 21

One can appreciate the work of the red whalers,
however, only after a consideration of some de-
tails of his weapons. On the Atlantic coast the
Indians had stone-headed arrows and stone-
headed spears. The arrow-heads were about two
inches long; the spear-heads four or five. Some
were made longer than the dimensions here given,
but the average weapon of each kind was no
larger. These weapons were used on land for
killing deer and other animals found in the
forest. For the land animals they were efficient
enough. Deer, moose, elk, and bears were all
killed with such weapons easily, though always
at such short range that the Indian was almost
within touch of his prey. The white man, with
his repeating rifle that fires a bullet through a
quarter of an inch of iron plate, may well won-
der at the ability of the Indian to strike down the
moose with stone-headed arrows.

To secure the whale, the Indian had to go
afloat upon the sea, and it was during the winter
season that whales were found in greatest num-
bers along the Atlantic coast. In modern days
we praise the courage of our life savers who go

22 The Story of the New England Whalers

off to stranded ships in twenty-eight-foot surf
boats, built with all the strength that modern
skill and the best of tools can give them; and
provided, moreover, with air-tight tanks at each
end that will keep them afloat even when a hole
in the bottom lets the water in. The life savers
deserve all the credit they get, and more too; but
the Indian, let it be remembered, went afloat on
the ocean in a canoe, the frame of which was
tied together with sinew, the planking composed
of the bark of a tree, and the cracks calked with
the fat of animals mixed with spruce gum.

Two kinds of whales were commonly hunted
by the Indians. One was the black fish that
came in large schools to such sheltered waters as
were to be found under the point of Cape Cod
and elsewhere along shore. To kill these was not
a difficult matter. The other kind was the right
whale. In two respects, at least, the right whales
were of a character to try the nerves of white
men as well as of red. Thus, as they swam to
and fro, with their lips up, sucking in the food
that floated upon the surface of the sea, the
spectacle was so horrifying that the officers in the

Told of the Red Indian Whalers 23

whale fishery of the white men were careful never
to allow a "greenhorn" to look at it lest he be
frightened out of his senses, and even men of
experience sometimes felt their nerves quiver as
they gazed upon one of these whales that was
approaching the boat. To the superstitious Ind-
ians, therefore, the right whale must have
seemed to be the embodiment of the most frightful
spirit of evil. Nor was it the appearance of the
beast alone that impressed them thus, for this
whale, when angered, was a monster of devilish
power and instincts. To enormous strength it
added astonishing agility. Raising its wide-
spread flukes in air, it would sweep them from
jaw to jaw, searching, sometimes swiftly and
sometimes with a gentle touch, here and there
for traces of its enemies. Everything within the
sweep, whether boat or man or splinter, was in-
stantly detected and crushed under a blow from
that tail.

And yet the Indians, with their frail canoes and
their stone-headed spears, swarmed out to sea in
pursuit of right whales whenever they saw the
spouts, unless, indeed, the surf was impassable.

24 The Story of the New England Whalers

Puny were the implements of the red whalers,
but what they lacked in implements they made
up with courage, ingenuity, and perseverance.

In John R. Jewett's Narrative of his adven-
tures among the Indians of the Northwest coast,
it is said that the Indians used harpoons made of
wood shafts with pieces of shell for points. It is
remarkable that these Indians, who made enor-
mous and seaworthy canoes from the trunks of
huge trees, should have used such frail weapons
as the shell-pointed spears were ; for they met, now
and then, the Eskimos living farther north, who
had harpoons and spears of superior construction.
Jewett won the regard of his Indian masters by
making whaling implements of iron; but he says
in his Narrative that his work only made them
the more determined to keep him from returning
to civilized parts of the world.

The weapons made by the Eskimo whalers
were the best of any ever found among the abo-
rigines of America. The ingenuity displayed by
them in making what is known among white
whalers as the "toggle" harpoon was remark-
able. Taking a walrus tooth the Eskimo mechanic

Told of the Red Indian Whalers 25

carefully scraped one end to a point, and then,
after cutting a slit in the point, he inserted a
triangle of chipped flint or of some other kind of
stone ground to a point and a cutting edge. Just
why a stone point was added to the ivory point
has never been explained. Then midway of its
length he bored a hole crosswise through the
tooth, and through this hole he secured what
the white men called the warp or harpoon line.
Above this hole another one was drilled length-
wise of the tooth, and this was shaped so that it
served as a socket for the insertion of the handle
of the harpoon. The part of the tooth above
this hole was then carved into the shape of a
barb, and some of the more artistic harpoon
makers shaped the barb so that it looked like the
upturned tail of a fish. To complete the weapon
an inflated sealskin float was attached to the
loose end of the harpoon line.

When the Eskimo hunter arrived alongside a
whale, he jabbed his harpoon into the animal
until the walrus-tooth head was buried out of
sight in the blubber. Then he jerked away the
harpoon handle, leaving the head of the harpoon

26 The Story of the New England Whalers

in the whale, and threw overboard the sealskin
float. The whale, in plunging under water,
brought a strain on the harpoon line, of course,
because of the resistance offered by the float: but
this strain, instead of drawing the harpoon head
out of the whale, turned it around in the blubber
so that the only way of getting it out thereafter
was to cut it out.

This "toggle" harpoon was in use above
Bering's Strait and on the coast of Greenland for
no one knows how many years before a bright
Negro blacksmith at New Bedford invented the
same style of weapon for the use of white whalers.

As for the Eskimo lance, it consisted of a long
shaft with a chipped-flint head as broad as a
man's hand — a genuine paleolith sort of spear,
such as the ablest of the cave dwellers would
have thought perfection. It seems to the white
whaler now like a crude weapon, something
"heathenish for fair," as the writer once heard
an old whaler say; but while the modern Eskimo
has the lighter and sharper lance of the white
man, together with the terrible bomb-lance gun,
he yet carries one of those ancient stone-headed

Told of the Red Indian Whalers 27

weapons. With the skill and strength of his
ancestors he drives it home as soon as possible
after he has struck his whale with the harpoon,
and it is only when this has been done that he
turns to use the steel lance and the bomb gun
which he buys of the white man.

The float was the distinctive feature of the
Indian whaler implements. White and red
whalers alike used barbed spears for harpoons,
but it was the red man who always used the float
in connection with the harpoon. On the Atlantic
coast the Indians made their floats of logs of
light wood which were of as large a size as possi-
ble without bringing a strain upon the harpoon
line that would pull the head from the wound
or break the line. The line was only a few feet
long. To have made it longer would have allowed
the float to come within reach of the flexible tail
of the animal. The Indians depended upon
these floats to impede the progress of the whale
as it strove to escape from them. A single float,
whether it were an inflated sealskin or a log of
wood four feet long, did not materially lessen the
speed of a fleeing whale; but when the Indians

28 The Story of the New England Whalers

went hunting these animals they gathered around
their victim in numbers, and thrust in so many
of their harpoons that only the stronger of the
whales were able to escape from them. Many
an Indian canoe was smashed by the fighting
whales, and many an Indian thus lost his life;
but with the red as with the white whalers the
dangers did but add to the joys of the chase.

The white settlers on the Atlantic coast promptly
made friends with the red whalers. This is not
to say that the white whalers always gave the
Indians fair treatment; but, as already noted, the
red men were employed, not exterminated with
swords and guns, nor even driven away. It is not
unlikely that the first whale boat that was set
afloat by the white settlers was manned in part
by Indians, and in all times until the present
day red men and white have been found pulling
together to the tune of " a dead whale or a stove
boat." The records say that they have always
been good oarsmen and the very best of harpoon
throwers. More than one American whale ship
has had red men for mates, but no record of one
serving as a captain is known to the writer.

Told of the Red Indian Whalers 29

While the Eskimos have always been on friendly
terms with the white whalers (too friendly for
their own good), they have never been employed
to any considerable extent in the crews of the
Arctic whale ships. Their principal connection
with these whalers has been in the exchanging of
whalebone for the weapons used by white men,
and for other less useful products of civilized
countries.

The work of the modern Eskimo whaler, as
described by John Murdock, a scientist in gov-
ernment employ who spent a winter at Point
Barrow to study their habits, is extremely inter-
esting. The whales in working their way to the
breeding grounds at the north of the continent
pass Point Barrow in the months of May and
June. Accordingly, the Eskimos begin their prep-
arations for whaling in April. First of all the
umiaks (whale boats), which are stored away
during the winter, are brought out. The frames
are carefully cleaned, the lashings are all renewed,
and the skins that cover the frames are soaked,
repaired, and stretched into place. The weapons
of all kinds are also carefully cleaned. This

30 The Story of the New England Whalers

work is not done because the Eskimo dislikes
dirt to any extent, but because his religion or his
ideas about luck make him think the things
should be cleaned. In this particular respect
the Eskimo differs, by the way, from the white
whalers, many of whom think that cleaning away
the dirt that accumulates on the masts of a ship
while cutting in blubber would surely bring bad
luck.

When the owners of the umiaks have their
cleaning done, they hire their crews. For it is to
be noted that the modern Eskimo is a capitalist
— an employer of labor. Some of them own
property of considerable value by the white man's
standard. That is to say, some of them own
harpoons, lances, and bomb guns to the value of
several hundred dollars, as well as boats. In
hiring his crew the boat owner sometimes pays
stated wages in tobacco, knives, guns, cartridges,
etc., which he obtains by selling bone to white
traders. Usually, however, he follows the white
custom and gives each man a "lay" or share of
the whalebone taken, the bone being the mer-
chantable portion of the whale.

Told of the Red Indian Whalers 31

Having selected his crew, the Eskimo owner
looks after the charms and amulets which he and
his men are to carry afloat to insure success.
The skin of a raven, the skull of a wolf, and the
incisor teeth of a mountain sheep are all valued
for the luck they are supposed to bring to whalers.
So, too, is a stone image of a whale; but nothing
else is prized quite as highly for this purpose as a
bunch of feathers from a golden eagle, or a few
hairs from the tip end of the tail of a red fox.

When open water is seen offshore, the umiak
is loaded on one sled and the gear upon another.
Dogs drag the sleds across the ice to the water,
and the women go along to guide it and push.
Having launched their boats the crews go cruis-
ing, and as it is by that time perpetual day, they
remain afloat as long as they can endure the
work, eating and sleeping as they can. The
women bring food to the edge of the open water
from time to time.

The attack upon the whale is made by a rush
of all the boats, as was that of the Indians of
Long Island, though the Eskimo must now be
much more cautious than in other days, because

32 The Story of the New England Whalers

whales have learned to fear the whaler. The
modern Eskimo is, if possible, more reckless than
any red whaler of former years. Because of the
ever present ice under which the whale usually
tries to escape, he must strike while he may, and
to see an Eskimo taking chances in order to get a
thrust with his lance or a shot with his bomb
gun is the experience of a lifetime; for the Eskimo
whaler is always so anxious lest his prey escape
that he never gives any thought to the dangers
he may be risking.

It was the custom of the red whalers to divide
the meat and blubber which they took among
their neighbors — among the whole community,
that is. This custom still prevails among the
Eskimo. They are so far socialists. The bone
was also common property in former days, but now
it is divided .as prize money is divided among
the crews of war-ships, all boats within reach at
the killing, and no others, share the bone. Bone
is held as private property now because the white
trader will buy it. With bone held as private
property the Eskimo whaler of unusual ability
now has what a white man would call a tangible

Told of the Red Indian Whalers 33

profit from his work in proportion to his skill.
Yet it appears that the able Eskimo of other
days was not without a somewhat satisfactory
reward; for while bone as well as meat was shared
among all, he was distinguished as the leader of
his community. The white whalers say that the
Eskimo has made progress in civilization through
acquiring civilized ideas about personal property.
The fact is, however, that his habit of thought
has been changed only in the increase of selfish-
ness, and as for the reward for his superior skill,
it appears that, if he should come to own a dozen
bomb guns instead of one or two, and many
boats loaded with other gear, he could never be,
at best, more than the leader and benefactor of
his community, while at the worst he might en-
slave all his neighbors.

Since the whale has been in all times a principal
source of food and other supplies, the red novel-
ists — the myth makers — have naturally directed
much attention to it. It is a pity that the traders
who have bought the bone of the red whalers
have always considered the red man's literature,
if that word may be allowed, as the mere gibberish

34 The Story of the New England Whalers

of idolaters. If we could have had a Ruskin to
place their myths before us, we should have found
in them something more than idle talk; for, how-
ever told, the stories of the red men give us an
insight into the life of the igloo and the tepee not
to be obtained in any other way.

As a final view of the Eskimo whalers, consider
their "Myth of the Raven, the Whale, and the
Mink," as gathered by Nelson near Bering's
Strait and printed in the Eighteenth Annual Re-
port of the Bureau of Ethnology:

Seeing a Whale near the shore the Raven shouted :
"When you come up again shut your eyes and open
wide your mouth." The Whale did as he was ordered,
and the Raven, "carrying his fire drill under his wings,"
flew "straight down the Whale's throat." As the whale
plunged under water once more the Raven found itself
"at the entrance of a fine room, at one end of which
burned a lamp," and he "was surprised to see a very
beautiful young woman sitting there," the young woman
being "the shade or inua of the whale which was a
female."

The young woman made the Raven welcome and
went about preparing him a meal of berries and oil.
Every time she went out of the room while thus engaged,

Told of the Red Indian Whalers 35

she called his attention to a tube leading along the top
of the room from the end of which oil was dripping
into the burning lamp. That tube, she said, he must
not touch. In spite of the repeated warnings, however,
his curiosity led the Raven to catch a drop of the drip-
ping oil on one claw and lick it off with his tongue.
The taste was so sweet that he caught more of it, until
finally that method of collecting the oil "became too
slow for him, so he reached up and tore a piece from
the side of the tube and ate it." Instantly "a great
rush of oil poured into the room extinguishing the light.
. . . The inua never came back to the room and the
whale drifted ashore."

The Eskimos of a near-by village found the dead
whale, and in cutting it up released the Raven. Leav-
ing his fire drill behind him, the Raven flew away un-
observed and alighted upon a hill from which he watched
the people at their work. After a time he changed him-
self into the semblance of a man, and joined them in
cutting up the whale until he found his fire drill. With
that in hand he began rolling down his sleeves, saying,
" This is too bad, for my daughter has told me that if a
fire drill is found in a whale and people try to cut up
that whale, many of them will die. I shall run away."
"And away he ran," adds the tale.

Being frightened, the people ran away as he had
done, whereat the Raven laughed heartily, and return-

36 The Story of the New England Whalers

ing to the whale began to cut it up for his sole use.
Later, upon observing that he had nothing in which he
could store the oil, he called on the Mink for help. The
Mink invited the "sea people," the seals, to a feast in
a house that he and the Raven built. When the sea
people came, and had filled the house, the Raven said
to them :

"What a number of people! How shall I be able
to make a feast for all of you? But never mind; let
me first rub the eyes of some of you with this stuflF in
order that you may be able to see better; it is dark in
here."

"This stuff " was a ball of gum that closed the eyes
of the seals, effectually blinding them, whereupon the
Raven killed all but one, that, through an oversight,
escaped to the sea.

"When he had finished Raven turned to Mink and
said, 'See what a lot of seals I have killed. We will
have plenty of oil bags now.' Then they made bags of
the sealskins and filled them with oil for the winter.
Ever since that time Raven and Mink have been friends,
and even to this day ravens will not eat the flesh of a
mink, be they ever so hungry; and the raven and the
mink are often found very close together on the tundras."

These sauvage whalers were a rude people, but
they could look into a whale and see its inua in

Told of the Red Indian Whalers 37

the form of a beautiful young woman sitting
beside a lamp that burned as long as the whale
lived. They saw the cunning of the raven, the
simplicity of the seal, and they laughed heartily
at the thought of a raven taking a whale from
them by guile. They could while away the long
hours of a winter's storm by elaborating a story
to explain a strange companionship that they had
observed among the tundras.

Not less interesting were the mental charac-
teristics of the whalers found on the other coasts
of America. If we could but see their courage
and fortitude, and their humor and poetry, they
might seem now to be something different from
the vile and degraded heathen they were sup-
posed to be when the white men first came among
them.

Ill

EARLY DAYS ON NANTUCKET

ACCORDING to a story told by the myth
makers among the red whalers, a
mighty giant who, once upon a time,
lived on the Atlantic coast was in the habit of
using Cape Cod as a sleeping place — partly be-
cause the warm and yielding sands were com-
forting, and partly because the shape of it fitted
him well when he curled down to rest. One night,
however, he was so restless that he kicked his feet
around the whole night long. Naturally the cape
sand was scooped out and bulged up, here and
there, forming hollows and dunes to be seen to
this day, and what is of more interest here, the
giant got his moccasins well filled with sand.
When awakened the next morning he found the
sand in the moccasins particularly annoying be-
cause of the ill humor following such a night,
and taking off first one moccasin and then the

Early Days on Nantucket 39

other, he flung their contents away across the
sea, and thus made Martha's Vineyard and Nan-
tucket and the shoals beyond.

Whether this myth is regarded as the absurd
emanation of an idolatrous brain, or the vision of
a poet who saw dimly the workings of the giant
forces of nature, it gives the account of the origin
of Nantucket as it was told to the first white men
who settled on the island.

Of the settlers themselves we have a more
detailed record. One Thomas Macy, living in
Salisbury, in the colony of Massachusetts, gave
shelter and food to three or four Quakers who
were fleeing through a storm from the persecu-
tions of the Puritans. In due time the officers of
the colony came and demanded the Quakers; but
Macy, who had been in the army under Oliver
Cromwell, refused to give them up, until the
Quakers saw that their host in defending them
was preparing serious trouble for himself and in-
sisted on surrendering themselves. Thereupon the
officers took them away and hanged one of them.
Then, being as yet unsatisfied, they returned to
persecute Macy, and in this they persisted until

40 The Story of the New England Whalers

he was obliged to fly. Embarking his family in
an open boat, with a friend named Edward Star-
buck, Macy sailed across Massachusetts Bay,
rounded Cape Cod, and, braving the perils of the
open sea, crossed to Nantucket Island. There,
"as the Indians were not sufficiently enlightened
to abhor his crime, the dispenser of unlawful
hospitality was kindly received and permitted to
live in peace."

The first white explorer to see Nantucket was
Bartholomew Gosnold, who went cruising among
the islands south of Cape Cod in 1602. The
title which his discovery gave to the British was
found in the hands of the Earl of Stirling in 1641.
The earl's American agent sold the island on
October 13 of that year to Thomas Mayhew, a
merchant of Watertown, Massachusetts, for £40.
Mayhew still owned the island when, in 1658 or
^1659, Thomas Macy fled from Salisbury; but no
one had been able, up to that time, to secure a
foothold among the red inhabitants — a fact that
gives interest to the story of Macy's choice of a
location and his success in obtaining a welcome.

Finding the island very much to his liking,

Early Days on Nantucket 41

Macy remembered some of his friends in his
former home — men who were lawless enough to
give shelter to Quakers adrift in a storm — and
sent Starbuck back to tell them what was to be
found on Nantucket. This mission was so well
executed that several families agreed to emigrate.
The whole company thus formed united to pur-
chase the island from Mayhew, who, after reserv-
ing one-tenth of it for himself, sold the remainder
to Tristam Coffin, Thomas Macy, Christopher
Hussey, Richard Swayne, Thomas Barnard, Peter
Coffin, Stephen Greenleaf, John Swayne, and
William Pike. Mayhew and the nine men here
mentioned are known in Nantucket annals as
"The Ten First Purchasers." Each of the ten
afterward took a partner on equal terms and
thus the "Twenty Purchasers" were organized.
To omit mentioning the "Ten First Purchasers"
and the "Twenty Purchasers" in any account of
Nantucket would be, in the eyes of Nantucket
people, like a history of the United States with
no mention of the Declaration of Independence.

On emigrating to Nantucket, the "Twenty
Purchasers" bought "the right of the Indian

42 The Story of the New England Whalers

Sachims the tenth of May, 1660." As the record
very clearly shows, not one of the Nantucket
settlers was a whaler. All were frontier home
makers — such men as those who crossed the
Alleghanies a hundred years later to create the
civilization that now distinguishes the Ohio Valley.
Neither were they sailors, for the records show
that they offered special inducements to one
"William North, Salier," to come to the island
and there "imploy himself or Bee Imployed on
the sea . . . and not to leave the island for three
yeares time."

These settlers must have seen the red whalers
at work, but it had no particular influence upon
them, for it was not until a whale placed itself in
a natural trap within their reach that they made
any effort to go whaling. According to the
tradition a "scragg" whale (a right whale having
a number of small humps on its back) came into
the harbor and remained there three days. Its
prolonged stay "excited the curiosity of the
people," according to Macy, the island's chief
historian, " and led them to devise measures to
prevent its return" to the open sea. "They

Early Days on Nantucket 43

accordingly invented and caused to be wrought
for them a harpoon with which they attacked
and killed the whale."

But if the settlers of Nantucket were not whale-
men, nor even sailors, they had a love for the sea
which was manifested in their custom of going
to the hilltops to look over the waters surrounding
their home. Indeed, they built platforms on top
of their houses that they might have lookout
perches more convenient than the hills. And
according to a tradition of the island the habit of
going to the hilltops to look at the sea eventually
turned the thoughts of the people toward the whale
fishery. As a number of the people were on Folly
House Hill one day, so the story runs, one man
pointed to a school of whales seen offshore and
exclaimed :

"There is a pasture where our children's grand-
children will go for bread."

Of course it was an idle remark, worded in a
manner peculiar to the day, but it was remembered
for the reason that within the year when the re-
mark was made (1690, according to Starbuck),
the people of the island began to go regularly to
that offshore "pasture" for "bread."

44 The Story of the New England Whalers

The Nantucket method of undertaking the
whaling business was characteristic and memo-
rable. They sent in 1690 to Cape Cod, where,
as they knew, "the people had made greater pro-
ficiency in the art of whale catching than them-
selves," and hired Ichabod Paddock, an expert,
to come to the island and teach them how to do
the work.

Comparisons may be odious, but they are none
the less instructive. In the period when the Nan-
tucket people sent to Cape Cod for a teacher of
the arts of whaling, the French Canadians were
also thinking about engaging in the same enter-
prise. As early as 1636 (Thwaites's Jesuit Rela-
tions, IX, 169), the Basque whalers worked in the
St. Lawrence River "up as far as Tadousac, or
farther," and schools of whales were seen at
" Kebec." But when seeing these whales finally
turned the thoughts of the French Canadians to
the whale fishery, they did not hire a Basque to
teach them the arts; they applied to their king
for a subsidy with which to hire Basque whalers
to do the work for them. The king gave them the
" encouragement " they said they needed to estab-

Early Days on Nantucket 45

lish the industry. Some Basques were brought
over to go whaling. Some individual French
Canadians thus made some money. But when
the king ceased giving the encouragement, the
fishery ended. The difference between the
French Canadians, with their subsidy, and the
Nantucket people, with their schoolmaster, seems
particularly well worth the attention of the pa-
triotic Americans who are now interested in sea-
faring matters.

Under the lead of Ichabod Paddock the south
shore of the island (more whales were seen off
the south than the north shore) was divided into
four beats, or districts, each about three and a half
miles long. To each beat six men were assigned.
A hut was built at the centre of each district for
the shelter of the crew during stormy weather, and
a tall spar with a "crow's nest," or lookout perch,
at the top was erected on a sand dune near each
hut to give a wide range to the eyes of a man who
was kept on the perch at all times during the day,
and possibly during moonlit nights.

These crews "carried on their business in com-
mon." They united their labor and means to

46 The Story of the New England Whalers

build the huts, erect the spars, build the boats,
and buy the necessary gear. When one crew went
in chase of a whale, the others, summoned by a
signal, joined as soon as possible. When a whale
was killed the crews united to save the oil at try
works erected near the beach for the purpose, and
all shared alike in the product.

The work of getting the blubber into the pot was
particularly laborious. The huge carcass had to
be towed to the surf, and these men knew whether
it was easier to tow it head first or tail first. At
the beach the blubber was dragged from the car-
cass by means of a sort of capstan called a crab,
after which it was cut into chunks that could be
lifted into a cart.

As these men labored on the beach they were wet
with the spray and with the sweat of their toil;
they were chilled by the north wind's blast; they
were smeared over with the grease of the blubber,
and they were stung by the flying sand that the
wind carried ; but they kept the pot boiling.

As on Long Island, the Indians were employed.
They soon learned to use the white man's weapons,
and because they accepted as pay the unmarket-

Early Days on Nantucket 47

able parts of the whale, with clothing and other
things manufactured by the whites, they were
exceedingly profitable hands. The Nantucket
solution of the race problem is memorable in
connection with modern race problems.

The success of this first whale fishery is manifest
from the fact that it not only persisted, but it grew.
From keeping men perched on top of tall spars,
"in order to observe the spouting of whales,"
the Nantucket men began to go afloat in their
open boats. They went cruising offshore and
thus at once increased their opportunities and
acquired a skill and a venturesome habit of
thought, which were of the utmost importance.
The records show the results of their enterprise.
In 1726 twenty-eight boats saved eighty-six whales.
Captain Abishai Folger is credited with six, while
Captain James Johnson and Captain Shubael
Folger killed five each. The savings of the others
numbered from four down to one.

It was in the stories of the offshore cruising
that the account of the red whaler hero, as told
in the last chapter, was found, and it was there,
too, that the adventure of the first white whaler

48 The Story of the New England Whalers

hero of the island is described. Captain Chris-
topher Hussey, probably a son of one of the
"Twenty Purchasers," while in command of an
open boat, in 1712, was blown away to sea. That
all hands labored with all their might to reach land
is not to be doubted, but a time came when they
could do no more.

As they were drifting away through the deadly
perils of a winter's storm on the open sea, however,
a school of sperm whales suddenly appeared.
These Nantucket men had seen one whale of that
kind. It had drifted ashore, dead, and they had
probably shared in the product. A sperm whale
was to them like a "pay streak" to a Rocky Moun-
tain prospector, for "sperm," taken from a cavity
in the head, was "thought to be of great value
for medicinal purposes, ... a certain cure for all
diseases, . . . esteemed to be worth its weight in
silver," or eight shillings an ounce.

And there within reach of the drifting Hussey
and his crew was a school of sperm whales.
Forgotten was the danger! Though the devil
himself were knocking the spume from the wave
crests, Hussey would go in chase of such a prize,

Early Days on Nantucket 49

and his men would bend to their oars at the
word.

Thereupon safety was found in aggressive
courage. Having killed the whale, the "slick"
(the oil that oozed from the carcass) smoothed the
sea so that they rode out the gale in safety. Then
they towed their prize to the beach — the first of
the kind ever killed by Nantucket whalers.

Most interesting is a picture of Nantucket life
at that time. Every family had a home, — a log
house with a thatched roof, or at best a roof of
shingles that were held in place with long poles.
They all owned sheep, cattle, and hogs that
ranged the common pastures, and they cut their
fuel in the common forest; but they raised their
corn and wheat on lands which each owned in-
dividually. In connection with the fuel it was
noted in the annals that the poorest among them
warmed himself at a better fire than the lords of
England could afford. And that they should have
drawn such a comparison is a memorable fact be-
cause it shows that Young America was looking
up.

Their farms not only afforded food, but cloth-

50 The Story of the New England Whalers

ing. The women spun the wool of the sheep into
yarn that was woven as well as knitted, and some
of the skins of domestic animals were used for
clothing.

It is noted in connection with the farm work
that loans of seed and animals were easily obtained
by all who needed such an accommodation because
such loans were held to be "debts of honor."
While all were farmers, none lived isolated. The
homes were in the village that was then called
Sherbourne.1 The houses were built close to-
gether, too. While the man was away from home
it was a comfort to the wife to live with her neigh-
bors close at hand.

Because they lived simply the men found that
they needed to give only a few days to their farms
to produce the necessities of life, and thus they
were free to give many days to the profitable open-
boat whaling.

In the meantime the original plan of holding all
things in common in the whale fishery had failed

1 In the earliest days the village stood some distance west
of its present location. It was moved because the people
needed the better harbor facility found at the present site.

Early Days on Nantucket 51

to give universal satisfaction. Some who were
stronger and more skilful than others thought
themselves entitled to shares that should be in
proportion to the work they did ; and, being
stronger and more skilful, they took the larger
shares to which they thought themselves entitled,
and the original associations of all on equal terms
developed into a system of partnerships.

The socialistic community had separated into
groups of partners in Hussey's time (1712).
Working as partners the men of Nantucket cut
trees in the forest, whip-sawed the logs into lumber,
and with the lumber built boats. Iron (Spain
made the best in the world then) was secured in
exchange for oil, and the blacksmith forged the
iron into nails for the boats, and into harpoons
and lances. The lines or warps were also
purchased with oil.

In the meantime some Nantucket men had
invested in sloops fit for use on the open sea, fit,
that is, when manned by such sailors as Nan-
tucket now boasted. The first vessel larger than
a rowboat owned on the island was the sloop
Mary, of twenty-five tons, built in Boston in 1694

52 The Story of the New England Whalers

and sold to Richard Gardner and his partners of
Nantucket four years later. When Hussey brought
his sperm whale to the try pot, five sloops of from
fifteen to forty tons each were owned on the island,
and with visions of the product of the sperm whale
that was "esteemed to be worth its weight in silver,"
the people of the island began to fit out their
sloops for whaling cruises of from five to seven
weeks' duration; for the sperm whale was to be
found only in deep water. Of course the vision
of "sperma Coeti," salable at eight shillings an
ounce, proved to be a mirage; but beyond the
mirage was a solid substance of fine oil and candles
worth good money.

Cash capital was lacking on Nantucket, and
throughout New England, for that matter; but
these men who had wrung the necessities of life
from the sterile land were able, through a union of
labor, and in spite of a lack of currency, to embark
in a business that not only sent open boats rowing
alongshore, but fitted out vessels able to keep the
sea for two months at a stretch.

Out of the partnership system of fitting out
whale ships grew the later "lay" system of paying

Early Days on Nantucket 53

the crew. At first, as noted, the owners were the
crews, save only as the Indians were hired. When
some had accumulated capital, they hired white
men as well as Indians. But instead of paying
monthly wages, as was done on vessels in the cargo-
carrying trade, the owners took the sailors into a
form of partnership by assigning to each a share
of the expected catch, this share being called a
"lay." The lay was large or small, according to
the skill and strength of each man employed.

The "lay" system of paying will be described
more particularly in another place ; but it is to be
noted here that even after common ownership of
boats and gear had been replaced by private
ownership, men who had not invested a penny
or a day's labor in either boat or ship or gear
were yet made partners in the cruise for whales;
they received a share of the catch in proportion
to their skill and efficiency. Even the apprentice
who helped the cook prepare the meals had his
"lay." Where European whalers of those days
sharpened the eyes of the men on lookout by an
application of the "cat," every member of the
Nantucket crew felt the dignity and responsibility
of an owner.

54 The Story of the New England Whalers

Consider, too, how the partnership plan of fit-
ting out the whalers affected the whole industry.
The coopers made casks in which the blubber was
stowed until it could be brought back to the try
pots that were yet located on shore. The boat-
builders, blacksmiths, and coopers — every one
that furnished anything to the whaling outfit —
became an owner or stockholder in the new en-
terprise, and received a share of the proceeds
in proportion to what he had supplied. In like
manner the men who tried out the oil were share-
holders. It was therefore inevitable that each
man should do his work as well as he could; he
was working for himself.

The frontier home makers who subdued the
wilds of the nation have been justly lauded for
their enterprise, courage, and fortitude. The
men of Nantucket not only did all that was done
by home makers elsewhere, but while they sub-
dued the land they also accumulated capital for
and established a new industry which prospered
in a way that yet excites astonishment.

It was in 1690 that the islanders hired Ichabod
Paddock to teach them the arts of the whaler.

Early Days on Nantucket 55

Four years later they bought their first sloop. In
1712, the year that Hussey killed his first sperm
whale, five sloops were owned on the island. Two
years later the number was increased to nine, of
which six were in the deep-water whale fishery.
These sloops, in 1715, secured 600 barrels of oil
and 11,000 pounds of bone, which were sold for
£1100. In 1730 Nantucket had twenty-five
whalers in commission and they brought home
oil and bone that sold for £3200.

In the meantime the alongshore or open-boat
fishery had been growing; it was in 1726 that
the eighty-six whales already mentioned were
taken.

A glance at the shipping in the coastwise and
over-sea trade of the colonies, in the early days,
will give one a better idea of the conditions under
which the whalers made progress. Ships were
built and fitted out at various points on the coast
by men who had little or no cash capital, but
an abundance of strength and enterprise. They
began with fishing smacks of the smallest size,
and the codfish they obtained with the smacks,
when exported, brought the iron, sails, ropes, etc.,

56 The Story of the New England Whalers

needed in building larger vessels. Timber prod-
ucts were important items in the exports, and,
in time, finished ships. So the colonists became
ship owners and merchants trading to many for-
eign parts.

The profits on the early voyages varied greatly.
Weeden notes that a cargo brought from Bermuda,
in 1636, by Thomas May hew, returned a profit
of "twenty od pounds." John Winter of Rich-
mond Island, Maine, in 1639, sent pipe staves cost-
ing £6 141. 3^/. to England, and realized £26 \"js.
on the venture. A schooner that went to Nova
Scotia to trade for furs secured a cargo valued at
£1000. John Hull, a notable merchant of Massa-
chusetts, wrote that the profit in the passage of
a ship from London "may be neer £100."

The slave trade was often particularly profitable.
In 1696, for instance, the brigantine Seaflower
brought forty-seven negroes from Africa to Rhode
Island, which sold for from £30 to £35 each. In
1727 a prime slave, fresh from Africa, would bring
as high as £80 at Salem. Of course the cost of
slaves on the African coast varied. A few gallons
of rum or "ten shillings in English goods" often

Early Days on Nantucket 57

sufficed. At other times the trader had to give
goods costing as much as £12. The margin at
worst was large. Then because the negroes were
generally sold in the West Indies, and a cargo
was brought thence to the home port, another
profit was secured.

Rum was the best cargo taken to the black
coasts for trade, and it is an interesting fact that
while the Nantucket people were developing the
whale fishery, their neighbors in Rhode Island
were developing especial skill as distillers of
molasses. Rhode Islanders were noted for their
ability to make a gallon of rum from a gallon of
molasses, and in consequence of their superior
distilling they soon had a long lead in the slave
trade. As is pointed out in The American Slave
Trade, "Rhode Island had 150 vessels in the
African slave trade in 1770."

In the cod fishery of the seventeenth century
the ship owners took half the catch, the crew
dividing the other half. Later the owner had to
be content with only a fifth, if he were to get a
crew for his ship, and thereafter the thrifty crews
had opportunity to become owners.

58 The Story of the New England Whalers

In the coasting and the over-sea voyages of the
freighters it was customary to allow captains and
mates to carry "private ventures." Each with
his own money bought such goods as he supposed
would sell in the ports to which the ship was bound.
These goods were (in limited quantities, of course)
carried free of charge. The proceeds were in-
vested in foreign goods for the home market.
A few voyages were made in which the crew
received no wages; the profit on the private
ventures which all carried sufficed. The slaver
captain, in addition to his wages, had a commission
of five per cent on the sale of the negroes in the
West Indies, and five per cent more on the purchase
of a cargo there for the home market. Further-
more he was allowed the price of four out of every
one hundred and four slaves delivered in good
order, and was permitted to buy five more with
his own money and carry them freight free. The
mates were allowed to carry two negroes each,
bought with their own money, free. In short, in
all the colonial ships of early days all of the
officers, and at times the men, had some oppor-
tunity for profit beyond the wages paid. Thrift

Early Days on Nantucket 59

and enterprise were encouraged, with the result that
American shipping increased at a marvellous pace.
Most interesting is a comparison of the oppor-
tunities of the men in the various kinds of ships
during the early (eighteenth century) days of the
colonies. The average captain of the average
slaver certainly made much more money than the
average whaler captain. Even when the owners
of cod-fishing vessels took one-half the catch, the
crews received a greater per cent on the sale of the
fare than the crews of whalers secured from their
lays. If the fact that a slave ship was a floating
cesspool kept Nantucket men from the slave trade,
there was no such objection to the cod fishery.
Even the cargo-carrying trade afforded, on the
average, more money to the crews than the whale
fishery. Hull paid his captains £4 a month and
his best seamen £2 los. The average whaler
did not get as much as that. Thus in 1730 the
twenty-five vessels that brought in £3200 worth
of product had only £128 each. The captains with
a lay of one-eighteenth received for that year less
on the average than £8, where one of Hull's
captains earned £48.

60 The Story of the New England Whalers

How did it happen, then, that anybody went
in search of whales ? Why did not all Nantucket
men forsake whaling for the cod fishery or
cargo carrying ? For one thing, habit held them
from it. The men of Massachusetts Bay, living
within easy reach of populous fishing banks, had
developed the cod-fishing habit; the Nantucket
men, living near the whale-feeding grounds, had
developed the whaling habit. Further than that,
the income of the whaler was not as bad as the
figures make it seem, for there is no statement of
the length of time passed at sea in securing the
£3200 worth of oil and bone. At most the captain
was afloat for three or four cruises in the course of
a year, and a cruise lasted for six or eight weeks.
The Nantucket men were yet farmers as well as
whalers; they spent much time caring for land
and flocks. The average yearly whaling income
of a captain was usually earned within six months,
at most, passed at sea.

Of course, even with these facts in view, the
whaling income on the average was so far below
that of the other seafaring men that one must
look still farther to understand the matter. Any

Early Days on Nantucket 61

inference drawn from a statement of the average
income of the whalers is sure to be misleading
in a consideration of the influence of the fishery
upon its followers. The important fact is that they
never calculated average incomes. From captain
to cabin boy every member of every crew had his
mind constantly fixed on the uncommon voyage
— the "greasy" voyage which the skilful master
and the "lucky" ship made every year. If the
present voyage proved dry, no matter; the next
would be greasy enough to make up for the present
loss.

Nantucket people were not gamblers, for in spite
of a lack of " meeting houses " that was shocking to
Puritan ideas, they were deeply religious in their
way ; but some ships took more whales than others,
and the thought of being one of the crew of a
"greasy ship" — one that was filled with oil quickly
— was fascinating. A man might, as some men did,
make a year's wages in two months, and he would
get his pay in a lump. Owners and crews were
alike in this respect. All whalers eagerly "took
chances"; they were under the sway of the gam-
bler's instinct.

62 The Story of the New England Whalers

It is a curious fact, worth mentioning here,
that in the seventeenth century employers on land
were sometimes fined for paying, and workmen
were publicly flogged for accepting, higher wages
than the law prescribed. The whalemen who
went to sea for a "lay" were not subject to any
such law.

If the owners be considered by themselves, it is
found that they were doing pretty well even on
the average. Their income compared very well
with Mayhew's "twenty od pounds" profit on a
voyage to the Bermudas. This is of interest be-
cause the increasing wealth of the owners was
not a matter that excited, at that time, the envy
of the forecastle men. It excited, rather, their
emulation, because every ambitious forecastle
man had opportunity to become an owner — to
hold shares in ships. Ownership followed easily
on the lay system of paying the crew. At the end
of every "greasy" voyage the men drew more
money than they needed for home and personal
supplies (they drew it "in a lump," too), and it
was the natural and usual thing for them to invest
the surplus in the business wherein they had made

Early Days on Nantucket 63

it. Many a Nantucket capitalist began his in-
vestments in whaling ships by buying a five-dollar
or a ten-dollar share. And this fact seems worth
the consideration of those who would like to see
the American high-seas fleet increased.

Although the whaler's opportunity for acquiring
wealth has been considered first of all among the
incentives which drew him into his career afloat,
it is by no means certain that the call of greed was
stronger on Nantucket than that of pride and
ambition. John Paul Jones was not the only
man of the eighteenth century who spelled rank
with a capital R. In the slavers and freighters
the ambitious youngsters saw above them at most
four posts of honor, — the berths of boatswain,
second mate, first mate, and captain. By good
work they could, in time, reach the highest rank,
and the boy whose blood was not stirred at the
thought of pacing a quarterdeck as captain of a
ship was a "poor stick" indeed. So exalted did
the position of captain seem that in their deter-
mination to reach it boys were known to wade
barefooted through the snow from the farm to the
wharf, where they might ship as foremast hands.

64 The Story of the New England Whalers

And those barefooted boys worked their way
aft to the berths of mates and captains with the
rapidity, and with the ease and certainty, with
which they climbed on a stormy night to the
weather-topsail yard-arm when sail was to be
shortened. "Bill" Phipps, the backwoods orphan
boy, went to sea before the mast and in time came
to be known as Sir William. Every ship's deck
was then a pathway to honorable distinction, but
in no other ship could an ambitious green hand
gain rank so quickly as on a whaler; for the
whaler carried more officers than any other ship,
and the necessities of the work compelled the
officers to give much attention to the training of
the inexperienced.

The whale ship not only carried a captain and
at least two mates, as other ships did, but it carried
also a harpooner for every boat on the davits.
And it was no small distinction to rank as har-
pooner on a successful whaler. In the work of
killing a whale the harpooner stood up in the bow
of the boat, as it danced and plunged over the
waves; poised aloft the harpoon, and then hurled
the weapon through the air with a might that drove

Early Days on Nantucket 65

it "to the hitches" into the body of the whale.
On the accuracy and strength of the harpooner
(and splendid courage was at the bottom of his
skill and strength) the ship depended, first of all,
for success in saving the whale.

It is particularly notable that the harpooner held
the post of danger. The tossing flukes and the
open jaws of the wounded monsters reached the
man at the bow more frequently than any other
of the boat's crew. And as the whale fled, drag-
ging out the warp that was attached to the harpoon,
the flying coils of the line caught many a harpooner
and dragged him to death under the sea.

It is noted in most descriptions of whale killing
that where the warp or harpoon line leaves the
boat it passes through a wooden Y standing at
the extreme bow. A small wooden peg was
inserted through holes in the arms of the Y to
keep the rope from flying out. This peg was a
mere sliver which any Yankee could whittle to
shape in two minutes; but the harpooners of
Nantucket, when on shore and dressed for society
(especially when dressed for a "squantum," as
a picnic was called), wore those pegs as medals of

66 The Story of the New England Whalers

honor. And every citizen of Nantucket, and of
every other community where whalers were known,
accepted the pegs as evidence of distinguished
services afloat. The ambitious, agile youth on
a freighter often served for several years before
he was able to work his way aft to the berth of a
second mate, but in the whale ship he often had
opportunity during his first cruise to earn the
right to wear the harpooner's badge.

Last of all, consider the secret society that the
girls of Nantucket formed, a veritable Masonic
order in its strength and beneficent influence, if
we may believe the whaler annals. Though a
man searched the ports of the wide world from
Spitzbergen around both capes to the Sea of
Okhotsk, he could find no girls to equal those of
Nantucket Island ; and every one of them, obeying
the precept of the ever present presiding genius
of their society ("The Widow's Daughter?")
was pledged not to marry any man until he had
"struck his whale."

By its appeal to pride, ambition, greed — to
the most powerful passions of the human mind
— the pursuit of the whale drew every Nantucket

Early Days on Nantucket 67

lad to the sea, and there gave him the heart of a
hero.

In 1712 Hussey showed the way to deep-water
fishing. With every voyage thereafter the eager
whalemen sailed farther from the home port. The
Gulf Stream was reached, and abundant wealth
was found there because of the whale food that
floated along the edge of its current. The whalers
were the first sailors to recognize the existence
of this remarkable river of the sea, and through
them all American captains learned to avoid it
when westward bound across the Atlantic. They
told the English captains about it, but for many
years the proud Briton refused to take instruction
from any colonial, even though Franklin (whose
mother was a daughter of Peter Folger, a Nan-
tucket whaleman) made a chart of the stream
that had general circulation.

Cruising along the Gulf Stream the whalers
went south to the Hatteras grounds, and on to the
coast of Cuba. Cruising north and east they went
to the Banks of Newfoundland and on to the waters
about the Azores and Madeira, where a narrow
space, quickly crossed, separated them from the
grounds on the coast of Africa.

68 The Story of the New England Whalers

In 1732 American whalers went to Greenland
to hunt the whale among the ice fields off Cape
Desolation, and it is recorded that "Capt. Atkins,
returning from a whaling voyage thence, brought
a Greenland bear." Crossing the equator they
pursued the whales off the headlands of Brazil,
along the desert coasts of Patagonia, and among
the treeless Falklands. In 1767 no less than fifty
New England whalers went to far southern waters
"by way of experiment," as the chronicle says.

A table of dates of the extension of the Nan-
tucket fishery, as found in the Merchants' Maga-
zine, November, 1840, is as follows:

The Island of Disco, in the mouth of Baffin's Bay,
in the year 1751.

Gulf of St. Lawrence, 1761.
Coast of Guinea, 1763.
Coast of Brazil, 1774.

It was when inspired by the enterprise of Amer-
ican whalemen thus exhibited that Edmund
Burke, in his speech on Conciliation with Amer-
ica (now a schoolboy classic), said :

No sea but is vexed by their fisheries. No climate
that is not a witness to their toils. Neither the perse-

Early Days on Nantucket 69

verance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the
dextrous and firm sagacity of 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.

The market was sometimes swamped, for a
time, by the flood of oil poured upon it by the
successful whalers; but where others might be
embarrassed, the people of Nantucket prospered
steadily. In 1730 they began building their own
ships. Captain Isaac Myrick launched a "snow"
of 118 tons during that year, a snow being a vessel
having one square-rigged mast set at the midship
section and another much shorter farther aft.
Sloops and schooners of from 30 to 60 tons only
had satisfied the Nantucket men theretofore.

In 1743 these whalers began to carry try-pots in
furnaces built on their ships to try out the blubber
as fast as it was saved, and larger ships were then
needed for the longer voyages that this practice
made possible. Yet the reader is not to think of
any ship of the day as being large by any modern
standard. An Erie canal boat carries 240 tons;

jo The Story of the New England Whalers

it has twice the capacity of Captain Myrick's
snow.

In 1720 a small quantity of oil was shipped from
Nantucket for sale in London. It brought a
better price than the Boston buyers could afford
to pay, and the cordage, canvas, iron, etc., which
were purchased with it, were much cheaper than
the same goods in Boston. This led, by slow de-
grees, to the establishment of regular direct trade
relations with London. During the wars that
afflicted the seas between the years 1740 and 1762
the American whalers were much troubled by the
cruisers and privateers of the enemy, and by
pirates also; but when they heard the reverbera-
tions of the guns at Quebec, they made haste to go
whaling in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and while
commissioners were considering terms of peace
in Paris, in 1762, seventy-eight whalers cleared
from American ports, of which more than half
were from Nantucket. The year of 1766 saw
118 vessels, measuring 75 tons each on the aver-
age, clear from Nantucket alone. They brought
home 11,969 barrels of oil valued at $129,983.
In 1770 the Nantucket fleet numbered 125 ships

Early Days on Nantucket 71

of the average size of 93 tons. During that year
they took 14,331 barrels of oil worth $358,200.

The ship owners of other ports, seeing Nan-
tucket's prosperity, had tried to share in it. Their
success was fairly good, but Nantucket owned at
this time as many whale-ships as all the other
ports of America combined. The whale-ship
owners of the other ports were obliged to send to
Nantucket to get men fit to serve as captains and
mates. The Nantucket men accepted the offers
thus made, but they were Nantucket men still;
for they called all the inhabitants of the mainland
"Coufs," an uncomplimentary designation they
had learned from the Indians.

Travellers from Europe, in those days, were
astonished to find that America was a land where
"no one begged." To its lasting honor Nantucket
was a community not only where no one begged,
but where every man was a laborer, and where
every man was a capitalist, or, at worst, had
capital within immediate reach.

"It is a fascinating theme. Nowhere in the
whole history and evolution of peaceful commerce
has such actual romance emanated as glowed in

72 The Story of the New England Whalers

the voyages and lives of these homely men. These
common folk, in their contest with the monsters
of the deep, easily paralleled the old life of viking
and sea rover." (Weeden's Economic and Social
History of New England.}

But the evil days of the War of the Revolution
were now at hand.

THE MINOR COLONIAL PORTS

THE story of Nantucket is by no means
completed, but before going on with it
some account of the whale fishery at
other ports in the early days will prove of interest.
Whales haunted the whole New England coast.
They were often seen in Buzzard's Bay and all
the length of Long Island Sound. Indeed, there
is an account of one that worked its way up the
Hudson River as far as Cohoes. As on Nantucket,
the settlers everywhere alongshore were farmers,
woodsmen, and mariners (half horse, half alligator,
was the description applied to such men in the
Mississippi Valley), who promptly went in pursuit
of the oil-bearing monsters whenever good oppor-
tunity offered. And of course the whales that
drifted ashore were saved — with some bickerings
over the ownership, as a rule. At Cape Cod
and on Long Island the pursuit of whales became
73

74 The Story of the New England Whalers

a regular business while yet the Nantucket people
were content merely to save those that floated
ashore. There were many whalers elsewhere.
Salem was a whaling port of some importance
as early as 1700. The records of Martha's Vine-
yard show that whales were killed alongshore in
1702. The Rhode Island sailors went in pursuit
of whales at an early date, and in 1731 the colony's
assembly offered a bounty of five shillings for every
barrel of whale oil and a penny a pound for bone
taken by Rhode Island vessels and carried into
the colony. The sloop Pelican, Captain Benjamin
Thurston, was the first vessel to receive the bounty
thus offered. She brought 114 barrels of oil and
200 pounds of bone to Newport in 1733.

In 1738 Captain Benjamin Chase, a successful
Nantucket whaler, moved to Martha's Vineyard,
intending to build up the whaling business on that
island. He bought twenty acres of land on Edgar-
town harbor, built a wharf, and erected try-works.
In the meantime he sent his sloop, called the
Diamond, to deep water after whales. But a
change of residence brought a change of luck; he
failed. Between 1738 and 1744 three other capi-

The Minor Colonial Ports 75

talists, one of whom had made a success on Nan-
tucket, went to Martha's Vineyard to establish
the fishery at Edgartown, and all failed as Chase
had done. Then the tide turned and Edgartown
was for more than a hundred years a moderately
successful whaling port.

More important than any or all of the other
minor ports of that day was the settlement which
eventually developed into the famous port of New
Bedford, on Buzzard's Bay. The land where New
Bedford now stands was bought of the Indians
by William Bradford and others in 1652. The
first settlers were nearly all driven away by King
Philip's War; but when peace was made they re-
turned and prospered. Remembering that Nan-
tucket was first settled through the persecution of
the Quakers, and that as it increased in popula-
tion nine-tenths of the inhabitants were of that
liberty-loving sect, it is interesting to note that the
people of the New Bedford region were for the
greater part Quakers, and that their settlement
first acquired notoriety in New England through
their persistent refusal to support a minister of
the Puritan creed. When the General Court

j6 The Story of the New England Whalers

levied a tax of £100, though the tax roll did not
mention the purpose for which it was to be used,
the Quakers saw that it would be given to a Puri-
tan minister and refused to pay it. It was not a
matter of money with them. They at once raised
£joo with which they prosecuted an appeal to the
home authorities, before whom they won.

It was this band of stiff-necked religious inde-
pendents that established the whale fishery at
New Bedford. One may suppose that the bull-
dog persistence of the Quaker in his fights for
principle was at the foundation of his success in
the whale fishery. A friend of the sect might go
farther, perhaps, and say that while the standards
of right and wrong of those days differed widely
from the modern, yet even then the Friends chose
whaling rather than the slave trade, and coast-
wise smuggling. And since they could not in
good conscience sail on either a naval ship or a
privateer, their innate love of a good fight had
to find vent somewhere, and the whale fishery
proved the most exciting resource.

The first settler .on the territory now occupied
by New Bedford was named Joseph Russell.

The Minor Colonial Ports 77

He was a ship carpenter, as well as a farmer
and fisherman, and with his two sons, Joseph
and John, got afloat a number of vessels that
were sent whaling offshore. The blubber was
brought back to the Russells, who built try-works
on the Acushnet River. The business prosper-
ing, works for refining sperm oil were erected, and
then (1765) Captain Joseph Rotch, a Nantucket
whaler with capital as well as experience, joined
the Russells on the Acushnet, bringing with him
several whaling vessels.

Rotch's reason for joining the Russells rather
than locating on the more populous Apponegan-
sett River may be noted here for future reference.
The harbor was "deeper, broader, and safer."
Rotch had reason for paying especial attention
to the character of the harbor.

The glimpses which one may get in the records
of the early whaling from Buzzard's Bay are all
of interest. For instance, a part of the log of the
whaling sloop Betsy,, of Dartmouth (the name of
the village on the Apponegansett), is preserved
in Ricketson's History of New Bedford.

"Aug. 2d, 1761, saw two sperm whales; killed

78 The Story of the New England Whalers

one. — Aug. 6th, Spoke with John Clasbery; he
had got 105 barrels; told us Seth Folger had got
150 barrels; spoke with two Nantucket men;
they had got one whale between them; they
told us that Jenkins & Dunham had got four
whales between them."

The whale ships often cruised in pairs, work-
ing as partners. The vessels were then small,
and carried only one whale boat each. A single
whale-boat crew could and did kill many a whale;
but with two whale boats working together to
kill a whale, the chances of success were more
than doubled. Moreover, if the first boat to
strike a whale happened to be crushed by the
whale, the second boat would be at hand to rescue
the crew. The crew of a boat working alone
had to wait for the ship to come to the rescue.

There is no record of a crew of a whale boat
being lost at that time through working alone,
but there are tales of tragedies among the whalers
from Buzzard's Bay. Thus in 1764, Jonathan
Negers, of Dartmouth, was so badly hurt when
a whale struck his boat that he died a few days
later. No details of the event are given. A

The Minor Colonial Ports 79

more graphic tale is found in the Boston News
Letter of August 18, 1766: "Capt. Clark on
Thursday Morning last discovering a Spermaceti
Whale near George's Bank, manned his boat
and gave chase to her, & she coming up with
her jaws against the Bow of the Boat struck it
with such Violence that it threw a son of the
Captain, (who was forward ready with his Lance),
a considerable Height from the Boat, and when he
fell the Whale turned with her devouring Jaws
opened, and caught him. He was heard to scream
when she closed her Jaws, and part of his Body
was seen out of her Mouth when she turned and
went off."

It appears that while the Nantucket whalers
were cruising far to the south, the Buzzard's
Bay men had a particular liking for the northern
waters. The whaling vessels bound for the north-
ern grounds were commonly fitted out for cod-
fishing as well as whaling, — a division of interests
that was profitable enough, but one that accounts
for the superior growth of the Nantucket whaling
interests. Having the cod-fish as a resource in
case of failure in whaling, the ships with two out-

8o The Story of the New England Whalers

fits were not likely to be as eager in the chase
of a whale as those that had to get whales or
nothing.

In 1765 the northern whalers ran foul of the
authorities appointed by the Crown for the govern-
ment of Newfoundland and the Labrador coast.
A company had been chartered in London to
carry on whaling, cod-fishing, and trading with the
Indians on the coasts of Labrador. At the insti-
gation of this company, Governor Hugh Palliser,
of Newfoundland, issued a set of rules for the
conduct of the colonial vessels coming to the
coast. They were not "to fish for any other
than Whales on this coast." When a whale
was stripped of its blubber, the captors were to
tow the "lean" at least three leagues out to sea
because, as it was believed, the floating of a car-
cass alongshore drove away the cod. All fishing
on the Newfoundland coasts was prohibited,
and the trade with the Indians was restricted.

To enforce the obnoxious rules the sloop-of-
war Zephyr, Captain John Hamilton, was sent
cruising alongshore. She boarded the colonial
vessels she met and confiscated their catch of

The Minor Colonial Ports 81

cod-fish, thus ruining their voyages. Worse yet,
in the view of these sturdy colonials, was the
haughty and insolent bearing of the Zephyr's
captain. Furthermore, two vessels that had been
fitted out by the London company joined the
sloop-of-war in her raid, and profited much by
robbing the fishermen of their hard-earned fares.
On an appeal to the king he sustained the rights
of the colonists to fish and trade on those coasts,
but Governor Palliser was still able to forward
the interests of the London people. Another
proclamation was issued in which it was declared
that the cruisers on the coast were to afford every
protection and encouragement to the colonial
fishermen. At the same time, however, the
colonial ships were to be "under certain necessary
Restrictions." Thus they were not to land to
cut up whales and save the oil. To justify still
further interference with the colonials it was
asserted that they were in the habit of "plunder-
ing whoever they find on the coast too weak to
resist them; obstructing our Ship Adventurers
from Britain, . . . destroying their fishing works
on shore, stealing their boats, Tackle and Utensils,

82 The Story of the New England Whalers

and hunting for and plundering, taking away
or murdering the poor Indian Natives of the
country." Because of "these Barbarities, and
other Notorious Crimes and Enormities" the
cruisers were "to apprehend all such offenders"
and to "bring them to me to be tried for the
same."

As the Governor was at once prosecutor, judge,
and jury, many of the colonial whalers were
driven from the coast to deep-water fishing.
It was an event that was not without influence
upon the Revolution that was then at hand.

Nevertheless, further petitions brought a real
modification of the rule, and in 1768 eighty
whalers from Nantucket, and as many from the
other ports, went to the northern grounds. This
proved a notable year for natural disasters. Ten
of the Nantucket ships were lost and the fleet
from other ports suffered as badly. Captain
Hamilton, who, during this year, was in the
Merlin sloop-of-war, saved two Nantucket crews.
The catch of the survivors ran from 100 to 200
barrels of oil.

To complete the record of the whalers in the

The Minor Colonial Ports

days before the Revolution it is necessary only
to quote from a report, dated February 2, 1791,
which Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State,
made to the House of Representatives regarding
the whale and cod fisheries. A table in this
report shows the "State of the Whale Fishery
in Massachusetts from 1771 to 1775." It is the
only statistical record of the fishery for that
period, and it is as follows :

•*! £

|l£

Barrels

Ports from which the

|j|j

Their

|||

Their

Seamen
em-

of sper-
maceti

equipments were made.

ji£~i

tonnage.

ploy-

oil taken

s^||

ed.

annu-

111

If]

ally.

Nantucket

4,875

IO,2OO

2,025

26,000

4,000

Wellfleet

1, 600

1,000

420

2,250

Dartmouth

4,500

2,000

1,040

7,200

1,400

Lynn [yard,

120

2OO

100

Martha's Vine-

720

156

900

300

Barnstable

'5°

240

Boston

1,300

700

260

1, 800

600

Falmouth, Barn-

stable County

300

400

Swanzey

300

400

Total

183

13,820

121

I4,O2O

4,059

39,39°

8,650

From this it appears that Massachusetts owned
304 whalers. Crews numbered from 13 to 14

84 The Story of the New England Whalers

for each ship, and in the aggregate 4059 men
were employed. The right whales gave ten
pounds of bone for each barrel of oil. One-
fourth of the oil of the sperm whales came from
the head. This sold for $150 a ton, or $18.75
a barrel. Plain sperm oil sold for $100 a ton
and right whale oil, which was darker and of
a rank odor, brought $50. Whalebone sold
for 15 cents a pound. The number of ships
in the whale business that were owned outside
of Massachusetts in the year 1775 was between
50 and 60. Rhode Island and Connecticut
owned most of them. The average size of a
whaler of those days was 90 tons. They would
be called small smacks in these days, but they
braved the fiercest hurricanes of the seas, and
those that were well handled often paid for them-
selves in the first voyage, leaving all subsequent
catches as clear gains.

NANTUCKET IN THE WAR OF THE
REVOLUTION

WHEN, with the War of the Revolution
at hand, the Americans began arming
themselves, and the British authorities
were considering plans for coercing them, a
committee of the House of Parliament was di-
rected to consider the condition of affairs among
the people of Nantucket. The facts related
before this committee proved so interesting to
the British public that Dodsley's Annual Reg-
ister of London (1775) printed a resume of the
testimony from which the following paragraph is
taken :

"The case of the inhabitants was particularly
hard. This extraordinary people, amounting to
between five and six thousand in number, nine-
tenths of whom are Quakers, inhabit a barren
island, fifteen miles long by three broad, the
85

86 The Story of the New England Whalers

products of which are scarcely capable of main-
taining twenty families. From the only harbor
which this sterile island contains, without natural
products of any sort, the inhabitants, by an as-
tonishing industry, keep 140 vessels in constant
employment. Of these eight are employed in
the importation of provisions for the island,
and the rest in the whale fishery; which with
an invincible perseverance and courage, they
have extended from the frozen regions of the
Pole to the coasts of Africa, to the Brazils, and
even to the Falkland Islands; some of those
fishing voyages continuing for twelve months."

Here was an island thirty miles offshore that
was dependent on the mainland for its daily
bread, and yet there was not a gun mounted,
nor was there any other means of making a de-
fence if the enemy should come. And if a block-
ade were established, starvation or submission was
inevitable.

As the reader will remember, Parliament was
considering a bill "to starve New England" into
subjection by " restricting colonial trade to British
ports" and placing an embargo "on all fishing

Nantucket in the War of the Revolution 87

along the American coasts." The Quakers of
England interceded in behalf of their Nantucket
brethren; but the bill passed 215 to 61, and war
became inevitable. The people of Nantucket
had kept in touch with the political movements
of the day, of course, and yet they were by no
means prepared for war when it came. Their
ships were out cruising for whales as usual, and
their coasting vessels were plying to and fro,
carrying oil to Boston and bringing food and
other supplies to the island. The coasters were
easily provided for, when war came; but the
sound of the shot that was fired at Lexington,
and was "heard around the world," was a long
time reaching many of the whalers. In some
cases, British cruisers took the echo to them —
with a summons to surrender that was not to be
disobeyed. Those that escaped this misfortune
hastened home as soon as they learned that war
had been declared.

The story of the Nantucket whalemen during
the years of war is tragic. The ships that reached
home were no safer than they were on the high
seas; they were not as safe, in fact. The British

88 The Story of the New England Whalers

having a great navy were able to blockade the
American coast and raid the American ports as
well as scour the high seas. They burned ships
at the wharf (fourteen at the first dash), and
storehouses upon the land at Nantucket. The
people of the little island were at the mercy of
the invader, but they fitted out such vessels as
escaped the invader and went to sea again and
again in pursuit of whales until the fleet was almost
entirely wiped out.

A number of the inhabitants migrated to the
mainland, most of them naturally settling in
ports of the mainland. Some of those who
remained, preferring their island home to any
other as long as they could live upon it, went afloat
in rowboats to search for whales in the early
fashion. Others manned blockade-running boats
(the enemy did not occupy the island all of the
time, but had cruisers near it much of the time)
and carried on a traffic with and between the
ports of the mainland. One reads in the histories
of many venturesome deeds done by whale-boat
men during the Revolution.

Meantime, to quote the words of Weeden,

Nantucket in the War of the Revolution 89

some of the Nantucket men "occupied them-
selves in the common and inferior work of catch-
ing cod and mackerel in the nearer waters. The
scarcity and high prices of salt took away the
profit here. They tried making salt from the
Atlantic sea water, but the fogs around their
island gave them a too infrequent sunlight. As
the war developed, West India produce became
dear, and the whalemen engaged in this com-
merce."

The fact that Nantucket men thought the
fishing for cod and mackerel common and in-
ferior work and the West India trade something
worth consideration only when war had brought
them to the verge of starvation, is illuminating.

A graphic scene in Moby Dick is that where
Captain Ahab calls all hands aft and questions
them as to their duty when a whale is seen. They
reply that, first of all, they are to "sing out," and
then at the word they are to "lower away."

"And what tune do you pull to ?" asked the captain,
and they replied with a shout, "A dead whale or a stove
boat!"

Men who had pulled to that tune took kindly

go The Story of the New England Whalers

to war, once they were afloat in an armed ship.
Many Nantucket men shipped in the patriot
navy. Buell's John Paul Jones says that twenty-
five Nantucket men were on the Ranger when
she left Portsmouth. The privateers, however,
were favored most of all. There is abundant
reason for saying that out of the 1700 men who
had manned Nantucket whalers before the war,
some hundreds shipped on the privateers. They
took kindly to a calling in which there was such
a strong element of chance. The hope of good
luck was strong within them, and not without
reason. For in the preceding war with France
one Providence, Rhode Island, privateer, Captain
Abraham Whipple, had captured no less than
twenty-three prizes valued at a million of dollars.
The Nantucket men firmly believed and often
said, "What man has done man can do."

In due time the British cruisers began to gather
in the ill-armed, under-manned, venturesome pri-
vateers. Some were captured by armed British
merchantmen, for dozens of the Yankee pri-
vateers went to sea when armed with only one
cannon, and a four-pounder at that. In fact,

Nantucket in the War of the Revolution 91

while our histories of privateering make boast
of the number of ships captured from the enemy,
they omit mention of the number the enemy
took from us. By a return made in 1778 in Par-
liament it appears that while American cruisers
had taken 733 British ships, the British had
captured 904 American ships.

It is a most interesting fact that whenever an
American ship was captured by British cruisers,
the crew were at once interrogated to learn where
each man hailed from. A list was then made
of all Nantucket men found on board, and these,
when they had arrived in England, were offered
good wages as well as liberty, provided they
would ship on British whalers. Naturally some
accepted the offer. When, however, not enough
whalers were thus secured, the obdurate Nantucket
men were fed on food of such poor quality and
so scant in quantity that they felt obliged to eat
snails and rats found in the prison to keep soul
and body together. In time, these methods
of persuasion having failed, the Nantucket men
were taken from prison and compelled to choose
whether they would go whaling or ship on a

92 The Story of the New England Whalers

British man-o'-war and serve under the claws
of the cat.

The British government had determined to
establish a British whale fishery. As few British
subjects knew anything about whale fishing, and
because Nantucket men knew all about it, the
authorities tried to compel the captured whalers
to man the ships destined for this fishery, and
not only secure the bone and oil wanted in the
market, but at the same time build up a whale-
fishing population at some port in England. To
encourage the owners of British ships fitted for
this fishery, the government granted each ship a
bounty of from £500 to £1000.

In a communication from the American com-
missioners in France (Franklin and John Adams),
dated October 30, 1778, to M. de Sartine, is the
following :

"The English last year carried on a very valu-
able whale fishery on the coast of Brazil and off
the River Plate . . . just on the edge of sound-
ings, off and on. . . . They have this year about
seventeen vessels in this fishery which have all
sailed in the months of September and October.

Nantucket in the War of the Revolution 93

All the officers and almost all the men belonging
to these seventeen vessels are Americans from
Nantucket and Cape Cod in Massachusetts,
excepting two or three from Rhode Island and per-
haps one from Long Island."

A list of twenty American captains of British
whalers, as obtained from the officers of three of
the whalers that had been captured by French
cruisers, was added to the communication. Six-
teen of the twenty were from Nantucket.

The commissioners suggested the sending of a
French frigate to the Brazil coast to gather in
that whaling fleet. Adams wrote home urging
that an American frigate or sloop be sent to the
same coast. In this letter he said:

"Whenever an English man-o'-war or privateer
has taken an American vessel, they have given
the whalemen among the crew, by order of gov-
ernment, their choice either to go on board a
man-of-war and fight against their country, or go
into the whale fisheries. Such numbers have
chosen the latter as have made up the crews of
these seventeen vessels."

There is no record of any attack upon this
British fishery.

94 The Story of the New England Whalers

In time the British, occupying Newport and
New York, sent out privateers that broke up the
despised cod and mackerel fishing of the Nan-
tucket men, and drove the West India traders
into narrow waters. In this desperate situation,
in fact, to avert actual starvation, an effort was
made to secure from the British authorities per-
mits to go whaling. Timothy Folger and William
Rotch were sent as envoys from the island to New
York to negotiate for permits to set afloat twenty
open boats for alongshore fishing, four deep-
water whale ships, and ten small coasters to serve
as packets for carrying food and fuel from the
mainland. In 1781 Admiral Digby, commanding
at New York, being moved by the statements of
these envoys, issued permits for twenty-four whale
ships to go to sea.1

1 The following is a copy of one of the permits taken from
Starbuck :

"L.S. By Robert Digby, Esquire, Rear Admiral of the Red,
and commander-in-chief, &c., &c.

"Permission is hereby given to the brig Dolphin, burthen
sixty tons, Walter Folger, owner, navigated by Gilbert Folger
as master and the twelve seamen named in the margin, to leave
the island of Nantucket and to proceed on a whaling voyage,
— to commence the first of January, 1782, and end the last

Nantucket in the War of the Revolution 95

Of seventeen vessels that were fitted out during
1781 under permits of this kind, two were carried
as prizes to New York and one was burned in
spite of the permits. The others made good voy-
ages, and, in consequence, twenty-four were fitted
out in 1782. Of these one was taken to New
York in spite of her permit, and two were carried
to Salem and Boston because of the permits.
The New England privateersmen had learned
about the Nantucket people having British per-
mits, and, in spite of the well-known condition of
the islanders, went cruising after the twenty-four
whalers. The courts in Massachusetts released

day of — following, provided that they have on board the
necessary whaling craft and provisions only, and that the
master of said brig is possessed of a certificate from the select-
men of the said island, setting forth that she is bone fide the
property of the inhabitants of the island, with the names of
the master and seamen in her; and that she shall not be found
proceeding with her cargo to any other port than Nantucket
or New York.

"ROBERT DIGBY.

"Dated at New York the first day of December, 1781.
"To the commanders of his majesty's ships and vessels of
war, as well as all privateers and letters of marque.
"By command of the admiral.

"THOMAS M. PALMER."

96 The Story of the New England Whalers

the two thus taken, on the grounds of humanity,
but their voyages had been ruined and they had
no redress.

Finally (March 22, 1783) the "draft of a pass-
port" for the use of Nantucket whalers was re-
ported to the American Congress and "agreed
to" in such shape that the inhabitants were to be
permitted to go whaling with British permits as
well. The war, however, was now about at an
end, and the measure had little effect upon the
fortunes of the whalers.

To sum up the disasters that befell the people
of Nantucket during the War of the Revolution,
it appears that out of a fleet that numbered 150
vessels of all kinds, owned in the island before
the war began, no less than 134 were captured
by the enemy, while fifteen others were wrecked.
So much for the property losses. Of the 800
families that were yet on the island at the end
of the war, no less than 202 were the families of
widows who had 342 children. With few excep-
tions the men of those families had lost their lives
in fighting for their country. Over 1200 Nan-
tucket men were killed or captured in the course
of the War of the Revolution.

VI
A LONG PERIOD OF DEPRESSION

THE Nantucket whaler of widest repute at
the end of the War of the Revolution
was William Rotch. Manifestly he was
a sincere Quaker and a typical whaleman of his
day, for he would take no part in the fighting,
and he would not let anything, not even repeated
and enormous losses, interfere with the prosecu-
tion of his business enterprises. Thus, as noted,
he was one of the men who went to New York
to secure fishing permits from the British admiral.
With Samuel Starbuck he went to Philadelphia
to intercede with the American Congress for
licenses to send ships to sea with British permits
also on board, and he succeeded in that design.
And when the Massachusetts privateers took a
couple of whale ships into port for sailing under
British licenses, he was one of the committee sent
from Nantucket to argue before the court at
Boston for the release of the captured vessels.
H 97

98 The Story of the New England Whalers

Further than that, although his losses amounted
to more than $60,000 during the war, he built
ships to replace those taken by the enemy, and
he kept them cruising for whales. For perse-
verance under adverse circumstances, there was
no man more noted in the annals of the whale
fishery than Rotch.

As it happened, one of the ships of William
Rotch returned to port just at the time, at the
end of the war, when it became safe to send a
cargo to Europe. She was at once ordered with
oil to London. The appearance of a ship flying
the American flag in that port created a decided
sensation. Said a periodical of the day :

"The ship Bedford, Captain Mooers, belonging to
Massachusetts, arrived in the Downs the 3d of Febru-
ary, & was reported at the Custom-House the 6th in-
stant. She was not allowed regular entry until some
consultation had taken place between the commissioners
of the customs & the lo.ds of council, on account of
the many acts of parliament yet in force against the
rebels in America. She is loaded with 487 butts of
whale oil; is American built; manned wholly by Ameri-
can seamen; wears the rebel colors & belongs to the
island of Nantucket in Massachusetts. This is the

A Long Period of Depression 99

first vessel that displayed the thirteen rebellious stripes
of America in any British port." 1

Another Nantucket ship, the Industry, Captain
John Chadwick, arrived a few days after the
Bedford. Both ships sold their cargoes to ad-
vantage.

The appearance of these two ships with Ameri-
can whale oil thus promptly after the end of
hostilities, however, prepared the way for what
seemed at the time the death-blow to the Ameri-
can whale fishery.

The British ship owners, who had been extend-
ing their fishery by the aid of Yankee whalemen
captured during the war, protested against further
importations of "rebel" oil, and a duty of £iS a
ton was immediately laid upon all foreign oil.
As the other European nations were also striving
to foster their whale fisheries by means of pro-
tective duties, the American whalers were thrown
back on their own home market.

1 It is said (Starbuck) that one of the Bedford's sailors was x
humpbacked. One day while he was ashore one of the natives
overhauled him, and, laying a hand on his back, said, "Hello,
Jack, what have you got here ?" — "Bunker Hill and be d — d
to you," replied the Yankee.

ioo The Story of the New England Whalers

As already noted, the War of the Revolution,
together with unusual misfortunes in storms,
had destroyed 149 out of 150 ships that were
owned at Nantucket before the war began. The
Buzzard's Bay and other whaling fleets had suf-
fered almost as severely. The American people
had waged a defensive war, for the enemy had
come to the American coasts to do the fighting,
and the raids alongshore that were thus made
inevitable had wiped out ships, warehouses, the
outfits stored therein, and the try-works. To add
to the other misfortunes of the whalers, the market
for whale products was almost ruined. Having
no whale oil, the people of America had turned
to substitutes, such as tallow candles. Even the
lighthouses were in some cases compelled to use
substitutes. It is likely that no other industry of
the country suffered as much through the war
as that of the whalers.

When the European market was closed to them
the American whalemen found their oil, which
cost them not far from $120 a ton to secure,
selling for $85. Thereupon the Nantucket men
applied to the Massachusetts legislature for a

A Long Period of Depression 101

bounty to save the fishery from extinction. The
legislature granted £5 a ton on white sperm oil,
£3 on yellow sperm, and £2 on whale oil "that
may be taken or caught" by vessels "owned and
manned wholly by the inhabitants of this Com-
monwealth."

The whalemen promptly fitted out their ships
then, and brought home so much oil that the
burden of the bounty became too great, and at
the same time the market was depressed so far
that the ships were worse off than they had been
before the bounty was given them.

As early as 1764, while yet the whalemen were
subjects of Great Britain, the British authorities
had contemplated establishing a whale fishery at
Halifax or Quebec, but had been unable to in-
duce the whalemen to migrate. They said that
Quebec was not a suitable location; it was too
far from the sperm grounds. As for Halifax, it
had a military government, something heartily
detested by all Americans, and what was of more
importance, they had "so invincible an aversion
to the loose habits and manners of the people,
that nothing could induce them to remove thitherp

IO2 The Story of the New England Whalers

even supposing them reduced to the necessity of
emigration." *

When, after the War of the Revolution, the
one industry of Nantucket became depressed to
a point where even such thrift as that of these
islanders was not able to make a whale ship profit-
able, some of the inhabitants remembered the
British attempts to establish whaling communities,
and began to look abroad for opportunities that
seemed to be denied them at home. With Eng-
land and France paying bounties to their whale-
men, these Nantucket men thought they might
do better to migrate to Europe. Chief among
those who thus determined to abandon their old
home was William Rotch. Leaving the island

1 It is related that a young whaleman named Greene, mate
of a Nantucket whale ship that had put into Halifax, had the
audacity to interfere for the protection of a girl to whom the
Duke of Clarence, admiral of the British fleet, was giving un-
welcome attention, and when nothing else would protect the girl
he took the officer by the coat collar and the seat of the trousers
and threw him down a flight of stairs. The admiral (he was
afterward William IV of England), on picking himself up,
sent for the young whaler, intending to offer him a commission
in the Royal Navy, but Greene had gone on board ship and
would answer no summons from any naval man.

A Long Period of Depression 103

on July 4, 1785, with the ship Maria, he went to
London and applied to William Pitt, Chancellor
of the Exchequer, for aid in transferring the
whalers of Nantucket to some port in England.

Pitt allowed Rotch to wait in idleness for four
months and then appointed Lord Hawksbury,
"a gentleman not very favorably disposed toward
America," to consider the matter. Captain Rotch
asked Hawksbury for £100 sterling transporta-
tion for a family of five persons, and £100 settle-
ment.

"And what do you propose to give us for this
outlay of money?" said Hawksbury.

" I will give you some of the best blood of the
island of Nantucket," replied Rotch. He added
that 100 families would take advantage of such
an opportunity to emigrate. Hawksbury calcu-
lated that a family could be transferred for £87
ios., and he offered that sum. Captain Rotch
arose to leave, saying, "Thy offer is no object."

"Well, Mr. Rotch, you will call on me again
in two or three days," said Hawksbury.

"I see no necessity for it," replied the captain,
and away he went. The next day Hawksbury

IO4 The Story of the New England Whalers

sent for him, and they "had the old story over
again." Rotch told Hawksbury that a rumor
was current to the effect that France had agreed
to admit oil from Nantucket.

" If there is any such contract sufficient to retain
us at Nantucket, neither you nor any other nation
shall have us," said he. "And if it is insufficient,
I will endeavor to enlarge it."

"Ah, Quakers go to France?" said Hawks-
bury.

"Yes, but with regret," replied the captain.
Thereupon he went to France. Hawksbury then
became suddenly anxious to secure the whalers
and wrote to Rotch, offering to give all the money
asked, and to allow the whalers to bring in forty
of their ships; but Rotch refused to have anything
more to do with him. In Paris Rotch found a
kindly reception.

"I had a separate interview with all the ministers
of state necessary to the subject, five in number,"
wrote Rotch (the quotations are from a Rotch
manuscript first published by Starbuck), "who
all agreed to and granted my demands. This
was effected in five hours/'

A Long Period of Depression 105

The concessions thus secured allowed the Nan-
tucket whalers to have "an entire free exercise
of their religion"; a tract of land for homes,
storehouses, and a dry-dock; the importation of
all whaling products and of food supplies free of
duty; all bounties and other privileges allowed
to native fishermen ; an additional premium per
ton on the burden of their vessels engaged in the
whale fishery; liberty to command their own
ships and select their own crews; freedom from
military duty in time of war as well as peace. An
additional duty was to be laid on all oil that
might thereafter be brought from foreign nations.

According to Jefferson's Report, "Nine families
only of thirty-three persons accepted this invi-
tation" from France. Rotch was among the
number.

In the meantime the British authorities had been
negotiating directly with Nantucket to induce
some of the whalers to go to Nova Scotia, and
with so much success that a ship was sent to carry
away the emigrants. While the ship lay at the
wharf, however, a letter was received from La-
fayette, asking the people not to move until they

IO6 The Story of the New England Whalers

should hear further from France. This letter had
so much influence that only two families went
away in the British ship.

The publication of Jefferson's Report, however,
while the facts are as stated, has created a wrong
impression as to the condition of affairs on Nan-
tucket during that period. For, while only the
few left at the times mentioned, a considerable
number of whalers went to Nova Scotia later
and established themselves at a settlement on
Halifax Bay, which they named Dartmouth, — a
fact that indicated the presence of a number of
Buzzard's Bay whalers in the community. Others
went to Milford Haven, England. A Catalogue
of Nantucket Whalers, issued by Hussey and Rob-
inson of Nantucket, in 1876, gives a list of 149
Nantucket captains who commanded British whale
ships "prior to 1812." It is certain that many
of the mates and harpooners, and some of the
seamen on these ships, were also Nantucket men;
for when Commodore Porter, in the American
frigate Essex, destroyed the British whale fishery
in the Pacific Ocean, he found several of the crews
so made up. The Nantucket captains of French

A Long Period of Depression 107

whalers numbered 81 at the same period. Both
England and France got some of what Captain
Rotch called "the best blood of Nantucket. "

To complete the story of Captain Rotch, it
appears from manuscripts quoted by Starbuck that
he had to return to America eventually. He wrote :

"In the beginning of 1793 I became fully aware
that war between England and France would soon
take place, therefore it was time for me to leave
the Country in order to save our vessels if cap-
tured by the English. I proceeded to England.
Two of them were captured, full of oil, and con-
demned, but we recovered both by my being in
England, where I arrived two weeks before the
war took place. My going to France to pursue
the whale fishery so disappointed Lord Hawksbury
that he undertook to be revenged on me for his
own folly, and I have no doubt gave directions to
the cruisers to take any of our vessels that they
met with going to France. When the Osprey was
taken by a King's ship the officer sent on board to
examine the papers called to the captain & said,
'You'll take this vessel in, sir; she belongs to
William Rotch.'"

io8 The Story of the New England Whalers

Rotch had lived eight years in France. He
remained only one year in England. He then
returned to Nantucket, but found a welcome that
did not please him, and a year later he moved to
New Bedford, where he died in 1828. It appears,
however, that members of this family continued
to reside in France, and to maintain a whaling
fleet there until 1855. Other vessels belonging
to the Rotches were sailed out of England for a
long time after William Rotch returned to America.

The fact that Rotch was not heartily welcomed
in Nantucket is interesting. The people of Nan-
tucket as a whole loved the Stars and Stripes, as
the emblem of a nation ; they had a pride in their
skill as something peculiarly American. They
regarded the emigrants as deserters, and from the
day when William Rotch sailed away in the Maria,
they openly denounced the migrants.

In fact, while Rotch was preparing to sail,
Captain Alexander Coffin, a leader of the patriots,
wrote (July 8, 1785) to Samuel Adams to invoke
legislation against the emigrants. He said (letter
quoted by Starbuck) that Captain Rotch "is
now taking on board a double stock of materials,

A Long Period of Depression 109

such as Cedar boards (commonly called boat
boards), of which they have none in England, a
large quantity of cooper's stuff for casks, &c.
Neither does it stop here. The house of Rotch
have been endeavoring to engage an acquaintance
of mine to go to Bermudas to superintend the
business at that place. . . . One of the company
is now at Kennebeck, contracting with some
persons for an annual supply of hoops, staves,
and other lumber necessary for the business."
In consequence of Coffin's letter, Massachusetts
forbade the exportation of the materials that Rotch
was taking.

The depression which drove Rotch and his
associates from Nantucket was by no means
ended when Rotch returned to America. The
weakness of the American republic and the dis-
ordered conditions in Europe due to the French
Revolution bore heavily upon the American
whalers. Pirates and piratical privateers swarmed
from the ports of the West Indies. Some of the
whalers were captured and others were driven
from the sea by the danger of capture. The good
fighting done by the little American navy in the

I io The Story of the New England Whalers

quasi-war with France ended to a large extent the
depredations of the French pirates; but the Ameri-
can foreign policy was changed after the end of
that war. Under the new administration (Jef-
ferson's), the aggressions of European belligerents
were to be stopped by a policy of "peaceable
coercion." The American government thought
it possible to compel the British, during the war
with Napoleon, to grant "free trade" to American
ships by a threat to cease buying certain British
goods, such as beer, playing cards, etc., in case the
grant were not made. When an American war-
ship was attacked upon the high seas and a part
of her crew carried away by a British frigate, the
American administration avenged the outrage by
laying an embargo on all American shipping!
No other part of the history of the American people
is so exasperating to a modern patriot as that
relating to the period between 1801 and 1812.

Naturally an embargo upon American shipping
was wholly ruinous to the whalers, and it was
during the embargo period that most of the whale-
men whose names appear in the list of captains
of foreign whale ships emigrated. Finding it

A Long Period of Depression in

impossible to follow their calling at home, they
went to England and secured employment, even
though the British authorities were then treating
the American people with a degree of injustice
not yet forgotten. Because the British had a
strong navy and knew how to use it, the British
whale fishery flourished while the American whale
fishery was depressed beyond measure.

And yet during the long period between the
War of the Revolution and the end of the War
of 1812, those who, like the people of Nantucket,
could build, and fit out, and man their own ships
with their own labor and resources — without
borrowing capital — had a fair chance to make
a living, and a few of the more enterprising,
skilful, and fortunate could and did do something
more.1 The business as a whole, however, was
of very little consequence as compared with what
it had been in the good times before the Revolution.

Between 1789 and 1815 one notable advance
was made by the American whalers : they increased
the size of their ships up to 300 tons. The greater

1 The following account of a voyage made by the ship Lion
of Nantucket shows how owners made money when every-

112 The Story of the New England Whalers

economy found in the use of larger ships, together
with the discovery of new fields, really saved the
American whale industry from extinction.

And yet, curiously enough, the progress that
called for larger ships sounded the death knell
of the Nantucket whale fishery. The myth of the
red whalers was true, — Nantucket was a moc-
casin full of sand thrown out to sea by the giant

thing went well. The "owners' share was much more than
the ship was worth " (quoted by Weeden) :

Ship Lion, Nantucket, 1807

DR.

To am't charge . . .
Sundry acc'ts in clearing
ship
Share of captain, 1/18
Share of mate, 1/27 .
Share of second mate,
1/37 . .

$362-75

43-38
2,072.13
1,381.41

1,008.06

CR.

By 37,358 gals,
body oil . . $19,766.14
By 16,868 gals,
head matter . 17,849.73
By 150 gals,
black oil . . 45. 15

Share of 2 ends men,
each, 1/48 ....
Share of 5 ends men,
each, 1/75 •'•"••''•
Share of cooper, 1/60
Share of boy, 1/120
Share of 5 blacks, each,
1/80

1,554-10

^,486.55
621.64
310.82

2 731 IA

Share of i black, on
400 bbls., 1/80 . .
Share of i black, 1/90
Share of i black, 1/85
Share of i black on all
but 400 bbls., 1/90
Ownes' share ....

•^JOO 1*1H

108.36
414.42
438.80

318.10
24,252.74

$37,661.02

A Long Period of Depression 113

forces of nature. The arms of the crescent, in
which the island took form, provided a very good
shelter from sea and wind, once a ship had arrived
within the embrace. But across the mouth of
the harbor lay a bar upon which the water was
never more than ten feet deep. When the Nan-
tucket people began deep-water whaling with
3O-ton sloops, the harbor was excellent for their
purpose. When the ships had reached a size of
100 tons and more, however, trouble began. In
pleasant weather lighters were sent off to receive
so much of the cargo as was necessary to lighten
the ship to a point where she could enter. In
foul weather the ships went to Martha's Vineyard
and to mainland ports to shift cargoes.

By their ingenuity the Nantucket whalers kept
afloat, but the lightering was expensive. More-
over, there were dangers to be considered in con-
nection with such work. Accordingly, in 1803,
when many of the Nantucket ships were so large
that they could scarcely cross the bar, though
in ballast only, the people of the island made an
appeal for help to the national government. The
document can be found in Volume X, American

114 The Story of the New England Whalers

State Papers, pp. 526-527. In it the story of the
Nantucket fishery is told briefly; reference is
made to the large bounties which were then paid
by the British and French governments to sustain
their whalers, and then, with these facts for an ar-
gument, the Nantucket whalers asked "that Con-
gress would grant them the nett revenue collected in
Nantucket as a fund to enable them to extend piers
into the sea, so as to form a narrow channel which
might be deepened and would, (as they conceive,) be
kept deep, when so confined, by the rapidity of the
tide flowing in and out."

A more modest or a more worthy petition for
national aid cannot be found in the archives of
the nation. They asked only that they might
retain for a time their own contributions toward
the support of the general government and use
the money to increase their facilities for doing
their peculiar business, and thus increase their
ability to make greater contributions to the sup-
port of the government.

Further than that, here were a number of plain
but observing sailors, men without scientific
training, proposing the very means for cutting

A Long Period of Depression 115

away sandbars which brought fame to the cele-
brated engineers who deepened the water at the
mouth of the Mississippi, and gave to Charles-
ton, South Carolina, a new, deep, and permanent
channel to its harbor.

The modest petition of the Nantucket whalers
was considered by a committee of Congress.
The committee reported that they reflected "with
great pleasure on the enterprise and skill with
which the inhabitants of Nantucket have pursued
the whale fishery; affording an admirable example
of zeal and industry to all nations of the earth,"
and then resolved, "That the inhabitants of the
island and town of Nantucket . . . have leave
to withdraw the said petition."

In 1806 the whalers came once more to Congress
for relief. They pointed out the disadvantages un-
der which they labored because of the necessity
of taking their ships to other ports to discharge the
oil into lighters, and then said :

"Add to this the collectors of the customs
charge the fees of office in each collection district,
although the ships have no foreign goods on
board, so that whaling vessels are almost always
compelled to pay double custom house expenses."

n6 The Story of the New England Whalers

A committee of Congress considered this appeal ;
it also listened to the politicians ("good fellows,"
every one, beyond a doubt), who held the offices
of collector of customs at the ports involved, and
then declared that "it would seem to be fair and
reasonable that the collectors of customs should
receive their regular fees in transacting all their
official business"; because, forsooth, "the fishery
is profitable to those who carry it on," and the
payment of double fees "cannot operate, in any
essential degree, as a discouragement."

In 1806 thirteen whale ships cleared from
Nantucket and eight cleared from New Bedford,
the port next to Nantucket in the extent of its
whaling business. In 1818 Nantucket sent eigh-
teen whale ships to sea; New Bedford, twenty-
five. In 1846 (called the "boom year" of whal-
ing) sixteen whalers cleared from Nantucket and
sixty-nine from New Bedford.

In 1839 the whalemen of Nantucket made a
supreme effort to overcome the disadvantages of
a shoal bar at the harbor entrance by building a
steam "camel." This camel was a floating dock
that was able to travel in and out of the harbor

A Long Period of Depression 117

with its own motive power. It was large enough
to pick up a loaded whale ship and carry it across
the bar. Though it was used for the purpose
intended, it was not a practical success, and it was,
in time, abandoned.

In 1857 four whale ships cleared from Nantucket
and ninety-five from New Bedford. New Bed-
ford at that time owned 329 whale ships; Nan-
tucket owned only forty-one, and these were
handled chiefly from other ports. In 1874 Nan-
tucket's name disappeared from the list of Ameri-
can whaling ports. Because only ten feet of water
was found on their harbor bar at best, the whalers
who taught their arts to the whaling world were
beaten at last and compelled to emigrate to other
ports where the water was deeper.

The story of the American whalers during the
War of 1812, though brief, is interesting. At
the beginning of the war Nantucket owned forty-
six whale ships. Of these about twenty sailed
for the Pacific in the year 1811. New Bedford
sent one ship to those grounds, the Barclay, Cap-
tain Gideon Randall. These ships were yet on
the Pacific when the war began, and that fact was

Ii8 The Story of the New England Whalers

well known to the Nantucket renegades who were
in the British whale fishery. Accordingly, the
renegades secured letters of marque, armed their
ships, and sailed for the Pacific to prey on their
former friends and neighbors. One of them was
so eager for plunder that he did not wait for
a commission; and he was caught plundering in
a way that would have justified the American
authorities in hanging him as a pirate. However,
the appearance of the United States frigate,
Essex, under Commodore David Porter, in the
Pacific, not only released the American whalers
that the renegades had captured, but all of the
British whale ships except one were taken, and
the one was compelled to lie idle in harbor while
Porter was making his famous cruise.

The story of the whaler Barclay and Captain
Randall is worth giving in some detail because of
his connection with the first admiral of the Ameri-
can navy, David Glasgow Farragut, on whom he
tried to play a practical joke, with results that
Farragut remembered all his life.

While at work off the coast of Peru the Barclay
was captured by a Peruvian corsair called the

A Long Period of Depression 119

Nereyda. Spain (Peru was yet a Spanish pos-
session) was not at war with the United States,
but she was an ally of Great Britain in the war
with Napoleon, and the captain of the corsair
thought that, as Britain's ally, he might lawfully
prey on the valuable whale ships from New Eng-
land. He found the Barclay almost full of oil,
and taking out her crew he put some of his own
men on her and sent her toward port. On the
way, however, the Barclay fell in with a British
whaling letter of marque, the captain of which
soon learned the conditions prevailing upon the
captured ship. The fact that the Barclay was then
under the Peruvian flag was a matter of no im-
portance to the British captain, for he promptly
set the Peruvians ashore and took possession of
the Randall.

Unhappily for him, however, the Essex came
along and took both him and the Barclay. The
Essex had taken the Nereyda, meantime, and
released Captain Randall. Commodore Porter
now offered to give the Barclay to Randall, but
the crew of the Barclay had shipped on the Essex
and declined to return to the whaler. The whaler

izo The Story of the New England Whalers

was therefore manned with naval seamen and
kept in company with the Essex.

In due time, other ships having been captured,
Porter found himself short of officers to place in
command of the prizes, and in this emergency
he ordered Midshipman David Glasgow Farragut
to the command of the Barclay, although Farragut
was only twelve years old. What happened after
Farragut took command of the whale ship is told
in the admiral's Memoirs:

"This arrangement caused great dissatisfaction on
the part of the captain of the Barclay, a violent-tempered
old fellow; and when the day arrived for our separation
from the squadron [the Barclay was ordered to Val-
paraiso], he was furious, and very plainly intimated to
me that I would 'find myself off New Zealand in the
morning'; to which I most decidedly demurred. We
were lying still while the other ships were fast disappear-
ing from view.

"I considered that my day of trial had arrived (for I
was a little afraid of the old fellow, as every one else
was). But the time had come at least for me to play
the man; so I mustered up courage and informed the
captain that I desired the mainsail filled away, in order
that we might close up with the Essex Junior. He
replied that he would shoot any man who dared touch a

A Long Period of Depression 121

rope without his orders; he 'would go his own course,
and had no idea of trusting himself with a d — d nut-
shell,' and then he went below for his pistols. I called
my right-hand man of the crew, and told him my situa-
tion; I also informed him that I wanted the maintop-
sail filled. He answered with a clear 'Aye, aye, sir!'
in a manner which was not to be misunderstood, and
my confidence was perfectly restored. From that mo-
ment I became master of the vessel, and immediately
gave all necessary orders for making sail, notifying the
captain not to come on deck with his pistols unless he
wished to go overboard; for I really would have had
very little trouble in having such an order obeyed.

" I made my report to Captain Downes, on rejoining
him, and the captain also told his story, in which he
endeavored to persuade Downes that he only tried to
frighten me. I replied by asking Captain Downes how
he succeeded."

It was a serious matter to the young naval officer,
but the fact that Captain Randall said that he
would find himself "off New Zealand in the morn-
ing," though New Zealand was on the farther side
of the ocean, shows how the whaler really viewed
the matter. The fact is that in those days it was
the custom of whaler captains to take great interest
in the youngsters on their own ships, and to train

122 The Story of the New England Whalers

them in many ways. Captain Randall was but
training the youth who was to do much for the
honor of the flag later, and he was as much pleased
as any one when the lad was able "at least to play
the man." The Barclay was taken to Valparaiso,
and she sailed thence for New Bedford, arriving
there in March, 1814, with 1800 barrels of oil.

The records show that Captain Randall, while
in command of the ship George and Susan, "came
home sick, 1819." Thereafter he disappears from
the record. The Barclay was in commission until
1859, when she was "withdrawn," too old for
further service, and was sent to the "bone yard."

When by good fighting afloat during the War
of 1812 the American people gained the right to
send their merchantmen to all parts of the earth
unmolested by any power whatever, a new era
dawned upon the whalers and upon all other
American ships.

VII
ADVENTURES OF THE EXPLORERS

I asked a maiden by my side,

Who sighed and looked to me forlorn,
"Where is your heart?" She quick replied,
'"Round Cape Horn."

I said, "I'll let your father 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."

— Old "gamming" song.

WHEN Nantucket men first went whaling
in deep-water ships, the world was new
in a way not now easily comprehended.
Spain had drawn a line across the South Sea from
Panama and Mexico to Manila. Drake, Dampier,
and a few other hardy souls had followed that
123

124 The Story of the New England Whalers

route in search of the annual treasure ship, — some-
times with success, — but outside of this thin line
the mighty expanse of the Pacific was unknown.
In 1743-1744 Admiral Lord Anson strove to take
a squadron of six ships around Cape Horn to
destroy the Spanish forces on the west coast of
South America, but so great were the real dangers
as well as the terrors of the passage that only one,
the ship carrying the flag, succeeded. Admiral
Bougainville, of the French navy, became famous
as an explorer because he succeeded in sailing
around the world a little later. It was on February
14, 1779, that Captain James Cook, one of the
most noted of the explorers of the Pacific, was
killed at the Sandwich Islands, and it was not until
1 791-1 795 that Vancouver did the work that placed
his name on the map of the northwest coast.

In the Atlantic, during the eighteenth century,
the waters were, of course, better known. The
slaver's three-passage route was followed often
enough. There were packet lines from Spain
to the West Indies and the river Plate, from
France to the St. Lawrence (before the year 1762),
and from England to her colonies. But only the

Adventures of the Explorers 125

American sailors had recognized the Gulf Stream,
and wide breadths of the South Atlantic had never
felt the cut of a keel. Indeed, as already noted,
when Burke, in his speech on Conciliation with
America (1775), wished to praise in highest terms
the bold enterprise of the people of Nantucket, he
told how they ventured in their whale ships to the
Falkland Islands.

Terrors that were then very real seem foolish-
ness now. As late as 1833 the sloop Fame,
Captain Peter Myrick, of Nantucket, sailed
(July 27) "in search of whales, sea serpents, &c."
For this fishery she carried patent harpoons that
were charged with poison, — prussic acid. In
earlier days than that the superstitions of the sea
led the captain of the ship, even the bravest of
captains, to go to an astrologer for a horoscope
that would tell when the stars were in the right
position to bring good luck to the venture. The
fateful day having come, the sails were spread, but
never before, no matter how well the wind served.
The horoscope cleared away the terrors, — the
imaginary dangers, — but real ones remained that
tried the soul.

126 The Story of the New England Whalers

HOROSCOPE PREPARED FOR CAPTAIN DAVID LINDSAY, OF THE
BRIGANTINE "SANDERSON," NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND, 1752.

The quality of the ships may be inferred from
the fact that as late as 1825 tne Kingston, Captain
Alexander Perry, of Nantucket, was sheathed with
leather as a protection from the ravages of the

Adventures of the Explorers 127

teredo. The whirl of the cyclone had not been
recognized and ships were hove to with their bows
pointing toward the deadly centre of the hurricane.
The great plague of the sea, scurvy, was ever
before the crews making long voyages. The
game sought, especially the sperm whale, was not
only a monster of prodigious strength ; it was well
known to be aggressively vicious, and the boat's
crew took their lives in their hands whenever
they lowered for the chase.

Nevertheless, of such peculiar fibre was the mind
of the whaler that the terrors and dangers which
made weaker men tremble were given not a
thought, as he made sail for sea. Indeed, if these
dangers had any moving influence whatever upon
the American whaleman, they did but strengthen
his determination to go. With a spirit like that
which animated those who searched for the Golden
Fleece, or that in the breasts of the Vikings who
braved the frozen North, he went forth seeking
wonderlands.

Because of this spirit, enough tales of adventure
have been recorded in the annals of the whalemen
to fill a large volume, some of which shall be given
here to illustrate the character of these men.

128 The Story of the New England Whalers

In 1827, while Captain Alexander Macy, of the
ship Peruvian, was "in latitude 9 deg. 14 min.
south and longitude 167 deg. 48 min. west," he
"discovered land bearing from westsouthwest
to south by west, 12 miles distant, his ship then
heading south by east. On the following day he
saw two other islands, or prominent parts of the
island seen the day before, with valleys intervening,
lying to the south and west, the nearest part four
miles distant. This island was well wooded," and
in a way not pleasing "it was found to be inhab-
ited." Not at all timid were these islanders.
"At 3 P.M. a canoe with five natives of large stature
and ferocious countenances, well armed with
spears and clubs, came under the stern of the
Peruvian, and remained there nearly an hour.
Soon after many other canoes were seen at the
leeward paddling in a direction as though their
object was to intercept the ship. The manoeuvres
of the natives appeared so hostile that Captain
Macy made all sail offshore." When the ship's
course was changed the whole native fleet came
directly in chase, and they were yet bending to
their paddles when night came on; but the wind
held fair and the ship escaped.

Adventures of the Explorers 129

In 1819, while the ship Syren was near the
Pellew Islands her boats were lowered for whales.
The natives, seeing that she was left with but
three or four men on board, came off, swarmed
over the rail, and drove the ship keepers into the
rigging. A recall signal brought the mate's boat
alongside, where the mate was able to see the
savages dancing in glee over the prize they had
captured. Happily for the crew a quantity of
tacks had been stowed aloft, and remembering
them the mate shouted:

" Break out them carpet tacks and sow 'em over
the deck."

It was soon done, and the savages, who were
wholly unacquainted with such things, were soon
dancing to a new tune. With every step they
accumulated more tacks in the soles of their feet,
and they soon plunged, howling, over the rail and
swam ashore.

A dismal tale was that of the Ceno of Nantucket,
commanded by Captain Samuel Riddle. In
April, 1825, tms smP struck on a reef near Turtle
Island, one of the Fijis. The crew were received
on shore with kindly demonstrations, but a few

130 The Story of the New England Whalers

days later another clan of the islanders, on coming
to where the sailors were living, were filled with
greed for the strange garments worn by the white
men; and seeing that no arms were carried by
the sailors, massacred all of them but one, who
managed to hide in the brush until the murderous
clan had gone home.

The story of the Awasbonks, Captain Prince
Coffin, of Falmouth, Massachusetts, is of similar
interest. On October 5, 1835, this ship touched
at Namorik Island, one of the Marshall group,
for refreshments. The natives came off in un-
usually large numbers; but because they were
entirely friendly in their actions, no thought was
given to this fact. After some time spent in the
usual inspection of the ship, the natives suddenly
gathered into a compact body, seized such weapons
as were within reach, — especially the "spades"
used when cutting in blubber, — and attacked
the crew. Captain Coffin was beheaded by a
single stroke of a spade. The man at the wheel
and the second mate were quickly killed. The
third mate, Silas Jones, wrenched a spade from
one of the natives, but before he could use it two

Adventures of the Explorers 131

other natives came to the rescue and Jones fled
for life down the fore hatch. The other unhurt
members of the crew had, meantime, escaped
either to the hold or the rigging, leaving the tri-
umphant savages to take charge and head the ship
for the shore.

Then the men aloft cut away the running rig-
ging to impede the progress of the ship, while
those below, led by Jones, worked their way aft.
Finding in the cabin a number of muskets, with
ammunition, a fire was opened on the savages,
though not with decisive effect, because they
gathered in places out of sight.

In trying to get out of range a number of the
natives perched themselves above the companion-
way, which they had closed, and this gave Jones
an idea. Placing an open cannister of powder
close up under this group, he laid a short train
and then, regardless of the danger he incurred,
he fired it. The explosion tore ofF the roof of
the cabin and hurled the natives away; where-
upon Jones led his men on deck and drove the
savages overboard before they could recover
from the panic the explosion had created.

132 The Story of the New England Whalers

The story of another third mate, Mr. Benjamin
Clough, of the Sharon, and his fight with murder-
ous islanders, may very well be told here, because
of the effect which such stories had upon the
industry in the earlier days. On October 15,
1842, the whaler Sharon, Captain Norris, of Fair-
haven, Massachusetts, put into Ascension Island
for wood and water. When ready to proceed on
her voyage, eleven of her crew deserted, and being
protected by the inhabitants, they succeeded in
eluding the officers sent in search. In consequence
of this the ship sailed on October 27 with a crew
that numbered only seventeen men all told.
The captain intended to touch at Bay of Islands
or Port Jackson and fill up his crew.

On Sunday, November 6, whales were raised,
and two boats were lowered, leaving Captain
Norris, a Portuguese boy named Manuel Jose
dos Rios, and three natives of the Kingsmill group
of islands on board to keep the ship. A fourth
islander was in one of the boats. A whale was
soon killed by the boats, and as it was not far
from the ship it was "waifed," so that the ship
might easily run down to it and secure it, while the

Adventures of the Explorers 133

boats went on in pursuit of the "pod" of whales
still in sight.

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, while the mate,
a Mr. Smith, was still in pursuit of the whales,
he saw that the signal flag of the ship was at half
mast, — a call to return to the ship immediately.
On arriving near the Sharon the boat's crew saw
that the boy was aloft, and as soon as they were
within hail he told them that the islanders had
killed Captain Norris and were in possession of
the ship. To confirm this story one of the natives
at that moment leaped upon the rail, entirely
naked, where he brandished a cutting spade and
dared the crew to come in and attempt to retake
the ship. Another of the natives then joined this
one, while the third mounted the opposite rail.
Along both rails could be seen the spare harpoons
and other whaling tools, besides sticks of wood
and belaying-pins.

As the boat lay on the water with its crew gazing
astounded at what they saw, one of the savages
said something in his own language to the fourth
native who was in the boat. It is supposed that
he invited him to jump over and swim to the ship,

134 The Story of the New England Whalers

for the one addressed made a gesture of dissent.
Instantly the one on the ship picked up the cook's
axe and hurled it at the one in the boat. The
force with which the axe was thrown was so great
and the aim was so true that the weapon made a
clean cut across the back of the shirt of the one
in the boat, and it would have killed him had he
not dodged it. Then the three natives on the ship
united in throwing such missiles as would reach
at the boat's crew. No one was hit, but several
whalebone belaying-pins struck the rail of the boat
and were broken by the force of the blow.

It should be noted that the dead whale had been
secured alongside before the natives took the ship,
and that the sails had been trimmed to prevent
her forging ahead. Fearing that the mutineers
would swing the yards until the sails would catch
the wind and drive her away from the boats, Mr.
Smith ordered the boy to cut the halyards of the
upper sails on the mainmast and then go forward
on a stay and cut those of the foremast. This
was done. Then, the boat of the second mate
having come up, a consultation was held to deter-
mine what should be done next. For it was evident

Adventures of the Explorers 135

that retaking the ship was to be a more dangerous
task than any one there had ever faced. It was
first proposed that the two boats should separate
and make a dash at both sides of the ship at once.
To this Mr. Smith replied that a proper regard
for the interest of the owners, as well as for the
safety of the men under his command, required
him to avoid all personal risk, and he. therefore
suggested that the crews of the two boats should
unite in the boat of the second mate and attack
the ship, leaving him alone in his own boat at a
safe distance from danger. To this proposition
there was immediate dissent, and the men began
to talk about pulling away to the nearest land.
The second mate dropped out of the consultation
by rowing his boat out of talking distance.

In the meantime the mate's boat had drifted
rather close to the ship. In the bow of this boat
stood a young man named Benjamin Clough.
He was only nineteen years old, but by good work
had made himself third mate of the ship. Be-
cause the crew was short of its complement, he
was serving the mate as boat-steerer, or harpooner.
On seeing the boat within range of the ship, as

136 The Story of the New England Whalers

he supposed, he suddenly picked up the lance
that lay at his knee and hurled it at one of the
islanders standing on the ship's rail.

As the lance warp was not long enough, the
weapon, after stretching the warp, fell into the
sea. The native, seeing this, laughed jeeringly,
and invited Clough to throw again. To this
invitation Clough responded with all his might
as soon as he could recover the lance; and again,
to the glee of the native, the lance twanged the
warp taut and then fell into the sea.

Turning to the mate, Clough said: "Set me a
stroke or two nearer, sir;" but the mate, instead
of doing so, ordered the men to pull farther away
lest the natives begin throwing their ready missiles
at the boat again.

Upon this order Clough made no comment, —
seamen are notably polite to their superior officers,
— but after a little he offered to go alone on board
the ship by climbing over the bows, if the boy
would cut loose the foreroyalstay and let it drop
into the water from the end of the jibboom. It
was dough's intention to climb, with the warp
of the lance in his mouth, up the slender stay to

Adventures of the Explorers 137

the end of the jibboom and then, after getting the
lance in hand, to charge down the spar and attack
the three natives single handed.

To this proposition the mate gave ready con-
sent, but when the boy in the rigging tried to climb
up and cut the stay he was unable to do so, for
he had been weakened by fright and the fatigue
of his previous work.

As the ship was now forging slowly ahead, the
two boats pulled to a station off the bows where
they lay idle, silently watching the sharks that
had been attracted in schools by the carcass of
the whale beside the ship. Finally, when night
came, Clough once more offered to venture alone
upon the ship, and the mate once more con-
sented.

Stripping naked, the young officer took the boat
knife in his teeth, slipped over the side of the boat,
and began working his way through the water
toward the stern of the ship. The water was
full of sharks, — two of them swam slowly beside
him as he made his way, — but he continued un-
til he was beside the ship's rudder. Up this he
clambered and then passed in through the cabin

138 The Story of the New England Whalers

windows. Though it was perfectly dark in the
cabin, Clough found two cutlasses and two muskets,
which he loaded, and leaned against the bulk-
head beside the stairway leading up to the deck.
Then a shot-gun was found, and Clough was
loading it when he heard a native coming down
the steps. Running to the foot of the steps, Clough
picked up a cutlass and plunged it into the body
of the native; but as he drew it forth to give another
lunge the native grabbed it. A struggle ensued
in which the active youth managed to gouge out
one of the native's eyes, but the native in the mean-
time got a hold on the sword and cut Clough's
right hand so severely as to disable it. Then
the native fell exhausted.

Two of the savages were yet to be dealt with,
however, and one of them soon came to the head
of the stairs leading down into the cabin. Look-
ing up Clough could see dimly that the native
had a cutting spade poised. Hastily picking up a
musket from the floor, Clough with his left hand
and right forearm got it pointed up the stairs
and pulled the trigger. The native fell, dead,
down the stairs, but the spade came with him,

Adventures of the Explorers 139

and its edge struck dough's left arm in the thick
muscle above the elbow and cut through to the
bone.

Clough now hurried to the cabin windows and
called for help, telling the mate that only one
of the savages was yet alive, and explaining the
nature of the wound that the cutting spade had
inflicted. To this appeal, however, the mate re-
plied that as only one shot had been heard he
could not believe that more than one savage was
dead, and he thought it best not to venture on
board as yet. Thereupon Clough tried to staunch
the flow of blood from his wounds by applying
such clothes as he could find, but was able to
accomplish little because his left arm was entirely
disabled and his right hand was so badly cut that
he could grasp nothing with it. So he lay down
on the cabin floor and waited the issue of events.

At the end of half an hour, having heard no
sound from the ship, the mate pulled up under
the stern and with his crew climbed in through
the windows. On striking a light they saw the
savage whom Clough had killed, lying at the foot
of the steps, while the other was on the transom,

140 The Story of the New England Whalers

living, but unable to move. One of the men
promptly stabbed this savage twice with a boat
spade, and the mate fired a musket into the dead
body. Then the men went on deck. The re-
maining savage had jumped into the sea. The
dead body of Captain Norris was lying on the
quarterdeck, beheaded. The bodies of the two
dead savages were thrown into the sea and that
of Captain Norris was prepared for burial. Dur-
ing the night the remaining savage returned to the
ship and was put in irons. He was delivered,
eventually, to the authorities at Sydney, to which
port the ship made its way. Clough's wounds
healed in due time. When the ship returned to
Fairhaven the owners, in spite of his youth, made
him its captain, and then laid the keel of a new
ship of 600 tons (the Niagara}, especially for his
use.

Consider the story of Captain Richard Macy,
of the Nantucket ship Harvest (Vol. IV, " Naval
Affairs," in American State Papers}. In 1824,
while cruising for sperm whales "in latitude
21 deg. 21 min. south and longitude 161 deg.
west," as the log read, the lookout cried, "Land

Adventures of the Explorers 141

ho ! " The captain bore away for a look near at
hand. It was a fair land in the eyes of the sailors,
for it was covered with trees and other vegetation,
while cocoanut palms stood in ranks along the
beach. After a time a harbor was found, and
cautiously, with lookouts aloft where they could
see under-water reefs when far away, and with
men at the braces ready to trim the sails should
a change of course suddenly become necessary,
and with others heaving the lead to learn the
depth of water, the ship reached in and came to
anchor.

Then it was seen that the island was not only
fertile, but it was inhabited. People, who showed
plainly by their actions that they were "timid and
much alarmed by the approach of the vessel,"
appeared. It was manifest that they "had never
been visited before, nor had they any knowledge
of civilized people."

Thereupon Captain Macy, though familiar
with the tragic stories told of such islanders,
lowered a boat and pulled ashore. A little im-
agination helps one to see the shaggy-bearded
captain, clothed in broad-brim hat and a shad-

142 The Story of the New England Whalers

belly waistcoat, as he stood at the stern, steering
that boat toward the shore until he was able to
leap to the pebbly beach. How he smiled, and
spoke in soothing tones and offered gifts that were
beautiful in the eyes of the savages who had
gathered, with arms in hands, to meet him, need
not be told in detail. But in the account quoted
it is noted that after a time "they gathered around
him in great numbers. They would not allow
him to move or walk a step, but carried him wher-
ever he wished to go," and "paid him every
homage they knew how." To the untutored
mind of the islanders of the South Sea the whaler
was a god.

Of peculiar interest is the brief description of
Deception Island, as given by Captain Pendleton,
who was a whaler and sealer hailing from New
London, Connecticut. On approaching the island
he recognized at once that it was an extinct
volcano. The sight of such a peak rising out of
deep water excited his curiosity and he went
sailing alongshore for a further examination.
Thus, very unexpectedly, he came to a huge
gash or slit in the side of the mountain affording

Adventures of the Explorers 143

" a passage of fourteen fathoms of water " straight
into the heart of the peak. Through this narrow
passage the venturesome captain steered his ship
until she was floating in the centre of the ancient
crater, which, to his eyes, "had the appearance
of an immense bowl." Who but a whaler would
have dared to steer into such a harbor ?

Then imagine the feelings of the whalers who
were the first white men to land on Fanning's
Island. It was "a lagoon island, the land about
five feet above the surface of the water." On this
low reef the sailors found " the remains of a stone
hut about twelve feet square, and in it human
bones, stone hatchets, and blackfish teeth with
holes drilled through them. Some parts of the
island had been cultivated, as appeared by the
gardens, fences of stone, &c., remaining."

The remainder of this story will be readily
imagined by those familiar with those waters.
Most remarkable navigators were the natives of
some parts of the Pacific. With "tracks" —
charts — made of interlaced and curiously woven
sticks, they steered boldly forth, following not only
straight courses but crossing currents, and turning

144 The Story of the New England Whalers

at a right, or any other, angle from the original
course when points at sea, indicated by their curi-
ous charts, had been reached. How they were
able to read their woven sticks they could not
explain, neither did they know the origin of such
curious contrivances, but they understood the
things themselves, and they made crooked pas-
sages, hundreds of miles in length, with success.
Of course they failed sometimes: white men,
more learned, did that at times, too; and a crew
that had failed had landed on Fanning's Island,
built a rude hut, planted gardens, and finally
died there alone.

Still more weird was a tale of the Arctic. In
August, 1775, Captain Warrens, of the whaler
Greenland, while drifting in a calm among a vast
herd of icebergs off the Greenland coast, saw a
vessel that seemed to be badly dismantled aloft.
His "curiosity was so much excited that he imme-
diately leaped into his boat with several seamen
and rowed toward her," says an old newspaper
account. "On approaching he observed that her
hull was miserably weather-beaten and not a soul
appeared upon deck. He hailed her crew several

Adventures of the Explorers 145

times, but no answer was returned. An open port-
hole near the main chains caught his eye, and on
looking into it he perceived a man reclining back
in a chair with writing materials on a small table
before him. The party therefore went upon deck
and having removed the hatchway they descended
to the cabin. Its inmate retained his former
position and seemed to be insensible. He was
found to be a corpse, and a green, damp mould
covered his cheeks and forehead, and veiled his
open eyes. He held a pen in his hand, and a log
book lay before him, in which the last entry was
yet decipherable. It read :

" 'Nov. 14, 1762. We have now been enclosed in the
ice seventeen days. The fire went out yesterday, and
our master has been trying ever since to kindle it again
without success. His wife died this morning. There is
no relief.'

"Captain Warrens and his seamen hurried from
the apartment without uttering a word. On
entering the principal cabin the first object that
attracted their attention was the dead body of a
woman reclining on a bed in an attitude of deep
interest and attention. Her countenance retained

146 The Story of the New England Whalers

the freshness of life. Seated on the floor in one
corner of the room was the corpse of an apparently
young man holding a steel in one hand and a flint
in the other, as if in the act of striking fire upon
some tinder that lay beside him.

" In the forward part of the vessel several sailors
were found lying dead in their berths and the body
of a dog was crouched at the bottom of the gang-
way stairs."

This ship with her dead crew had been pre-
served in the Arctic ice for thirteen years. Cap-
tain George E. Tyson relates a similar story in
his Arctic Experiences.

If space may be allowed for one more tale of
adventure, contemplate the landing of Ronald
MacDonald on one of the Japanese islands in the
days before the awakening of that remarkable
people. One ship, the Lady Adams, had disap-
peared near the Japan coasts (1826), before Mac-
Donald determined to go ashore, and the circum-
stances made the whalemen believe that she had
struck a reef, and that her crew, after reaching
shore, had been killed. The ship Lawrence had
been wrecked near the coast, and the second mate

Adventures of the Explorers 147

and seven men, after landing, had been treated
with great cruelty. One of the number had been
tortured to death. The crew of the Lagoda, of
New Bedford, that stranded on that coast at about
the time of the loss of the Lawrence, were also
tortured, and one of these men killed himself to
escape further torment. The terrors that awaited
all who might be cast away in Japanese waters
were well known to the whalemen who sailed to
those waters, and yet when the Plymouth, of Sag
Harbor, was at work, on a pleasant day, within
sight of one of the islands, Ronald MacDonald,
one of her crew, asked for and received his dis-
charge. In lieu of his "lay," he took a boat
equipped for landing on the island. He carried
with him sundry books and utensils likely to be
interesting to the natives, and boldly sailed to the
beach. When he arrived he was seized, stripped
of his possessions, and imprisoned; but because it
was apparent that he came desiring only that he
might be serviceable to the people, and because
he at once began teaching those who guarded him
the English language, he was not tortured.

Some time after MacDonald's landing an

148 The Story of the New England Whalers

American naval expedition, under Commodore
Biddle, visited Yeddo, hoping to open trade rela-
tions. On the arrival of the naval ships, Mac-
Donald and the survivors of the two wrecked
whale ships were warned never to return to the
country, and then all were sent off to Commodore
Biddle. The stories told by these whalemen, in
connection with what Biddle learned, determined
the American government to send another ex-
pedition (that under Commodore M. C. Perry) to
Japan later, with the results well known to all.

From the earliest days of the deep-sea whale
fishery the boys of America sat by the hearth and
listened, wide-eyed and breathless, to such tales as
these whenever a whale ship came to port. They
gazed upon the curios, wooden swords that were
edged with sharks' teeth, and spears that were
pointed with human bones, which the whalemen
brought to fortify their stories. And then they read
such items as the following, taken from a New
York paper printed in April, 1831 :

" HUDSON, N.Y., March 29.

" Huzza for the Mansfield. — The gallant ship Alex-
ander Mansfield which fitted out at this port last May

Adventures of the Explorers 14^

for a two-years' voyage has returned in the short space
of nine months and a half with a full cargo having on
board 2020 barrels of whale oil, 180 br. sperm oil and
16,000 Ibs. whale bone. On Sunday evening she arrived
at this place and safely moored at the company's dock
amidst the loud huzzas of the citizens, and the firing
of cannon. . . . The Mansfield will be immediately
refitted for a second voyage. . . . We have also at the
company's docks a beautiful, substantial vessel of about
1800 barrels burthen, called the Washington, which is
fitted for a whaling voyage. Such is the spirit of the
young men in this vicinity that there are already more
applications for berths than will be wanted to man her."

f~In the early days the American whalemen were
made up from among the boys who were spurred
on to the sea by a love of adventure, and of honor,
and of wealth, all in the order named. It was
because the whalemen were of the boldest and
most enterprising men of the nation that the
fishery was spread over unknown seas and to the
uttermost parts of the earth within a period of
time that was astonishingly brie
TQw^th&^batera did this work ohall

In 1775 to have made a voyage to the Falk-
lands was so great a distinction that England's

150 The Story of the New England Whalers

best-remembered statesman of the period lauded
the voyagers in his greatest speech. Captains
David Smith and Gamaliel Collins, of Truro,
Cape Cod, were the whalers who earned this
honor. Their voyage was made in 1774. A
voyage around the Horn was the next venture
forward.

Among the notable merchants of London,
England, in 1787 or 1788, was Samuel Enderby,
who had been engaged in the whale fishery, and
in trade with America for many years. He was
especially interested in whale products, and in
the course of the year mentioned he fitted out the
ship Amelia, Captain James Shields, a Nantucket
man, for a voyage to the fishery on the coast of
Brazil. The mate of the ship was Archilaus
Hammond, also a Nantucket man. On reaching
the Brazil banks it was found that the season
was ended. The whales had migrated. To men
like Captain Shields, however, seeming misfortunes
do but furnish opportunity for distinction. Shields
had read the story of the explorations of Captain
Cook, R.N., made between 1768 and 1779.
Cook had seen many whales on the west coast of

Adventures of the Explorers 151

South America, and when Captain Shields found
himself on the Brazil coast too late in the season,
he braced his yards on the port tack and stood
down to south' ard, bound for Cape Horn.

The luck that follows on enterprise came to
Captain Shields. He found the west coast a
"greasy" ground, and First Mate Archilaus
Hammond was the first white man to drive a lance
under the shoulder-blade of a whale in the Pacific
Ocean. The Amelia returned to London full of
oil in September, 1790.

The story told by Shields reached Nantucket
and New Bedford before the end of the year,
and in 1791 six or seven ships sailed from these
two ports for the new grounds.

Soon so many ships were haunting these grounds
that the whales were killed or driven off. Cap-
tain George Swain, 2d, of Nantucket, who sailed
thither in 1817, declared on his return, two years
later, that, although he had saved 1388 barrels
of sperm oil and 568 of whale oil, no ship would
ever again fill with sperm on that coast. Captain
George W. Gardner, commanding the Globe, of
Nantucket, sailed in 1818 for those grounds, in

152 The Story of the New England Whalers

spite of the gloomy forebodings of Captain Swain.
On reaching the grounds, however, he became
convinced that Swain was very nearly right, but
with even greater confidence in his luck than that
which had animated the captain of the Amelia,
he put his helm astarboard and steered westerly
into the unknown seas. It is because he steered
into unknown waters that the enterprise of Captain
Gardner must be considered greater than that
of Captain Shields. By this venture Captain
Gardner found the "Offshore Grounds." At
the end of twenty-six months (whalers always
reckoned the length of their voyages by the number
of months) Gardner reached home with an inter-
esting, if not a very eventful, story of exploration,
and 2090 barrels of sperm oil, worth $61,555.73.
The Globe was the first ship to carry more than
2000 barrels of sperm oil to Nantucket. Some
years later this ship appears again in the annals
of the whalers because of a remarkable mutiny
among her crew.

While Captain Gardner worked the Offshore
Grounds, Captain Joseph Allen, of the Maroy
a Nantucket ship, sailed (October 26, 1819) for

Adventures of the Explorers 153

the Pacific. At the Sandwich Islands he found
the Rambler, Captain Benjamin Worth, of Nan-
tucket; the Syren, Captain Benjamin Coffin
(a Nantucket man), belonging to London (En-
derby and Sons) ; the Cyrus, Captain Elisha Folger,
and the Balena, Captain Edmund Gardner, both
of New Bedford. While all these ships were
lying in port the merchant ship O'Cane, under
Captain Winship, a Brighton, Massachusetts,
man, came in from Canton. Captain Winship had
passed the coasts of the mysterious Japanese
islands, and had seen so many whales that he
talked with enthusiasm about them to these
whalers; and thereupon the whalers made sail
for that far-away region. It was a long race, and
for a prize that might excite the ambition of
any yachtsman. The Syren and the Maro arrived
first and together. The Syren saved her first whale
on the loth of May; the Maro got her first on
June i. Both ships were full to the hatches
within three months after reaching the grounds.
The Maro returned after a voyage of 29 months
with 2425 barrels of sperm oil.

In 1828 four Nantucket ships went to the east

154 The Story of the New England Whalers

coast of Africa, where they hunted sperm whales
around Zanzibar and the Seychelle Islands.
One of them, the Columbus, found her way into
the Red Sea. In the years following this venture
it was a common thing for the whalers to go to
that coast and then sail easterly across the Indian
Ocean and among the islands beyond, until they
met their neighbors who had sailed around the
Horn. St. Paul and Kerguelen Land became
stopping places on an easterly route to the Pacific.

Of whaling around New Zealand it is recorded
that "large schools of great whales abounded."
"Several ships often get into a school of these
whales at one time, each vessel taking one or more
whales that yield TOO barrels of oil." Tasmania,
New Ireland, the Solomon Islands, New Guinea,
the Kermadec Islands, New Caledonia, New
Georgia, — all these coasts were soon well known
to the whalers of the United States. So, too, were
the Sooloos, with their Malay pirates.

In 1835 the Ganges, Captain Barzillai T. Folger,
of Nantucket, sailed along the northwest coast of
North America from latitude 50 to latitude 60
degrees, and found whales of enormous size.

Adventures of the Explorers 155

Some cow whales yielded as high as 250 barrels
each. The bone amounted to as much as 1000
pounds for each 100 barrels of oil, and bone was
then bringing a price that was worth while.

In 1843 wnales were found in abundance on
the coast of Kamchatka. The Herkules, Captain
Ricketson, and James, Captain J. K. Turner,
both of New Bedford, were the first on that coast.
The former reached home on April 3, 1845, w^tn
200 of sperm, 1900 of whale oil, and 12,000 pounds
of bone, while the other arrived on June 9, 1845,
with 270 sperm, 1600 whale oil, and 20,000 pounds
of bone.

It was in those days that the bowhead, a whale
so called because of the shape of its head (it
was a "bone" whale), was first seen in the North
Pacific. Just which one of three claimants had
the honor of this discovery is now past find-
ing out. Captain George A. Coville, of New
Bedford, having entered the Okhotsk Sea on a
venture, killed there a whale which he supposed
would yield about 70 barrels. On trying out
the blubber it yielded 150. The whaler Hunts-
ville was in the region about that time and

156 The Story of the New England Whalers

claimed the honor of killing one of these surpris-
ing whales before Coville killed his. A French
ship named the Asia, commanded by an American,
also claimed the honor. Disputes aside, it is
certain that many whalemen soon found large
profit on these grounds, for the whales were so
tame and easily killed that saving them was
like slaughtering pigs in the barnyard at home.
On October 22, 1847, the little bark Superior
(275 tons only) cleared out from Sag Harbor
for the far-away Asiatic grounds. On arriving,
it occurred to Captain Royce, commanding the
bark, that the Arctic Gateway, namely, Bering's
Strait, was but a little way off to the north, and
that it was invitingly open. Such an invitation
was irresistible, and squaring away he entered.
At the end of 19 months from the day he sailed,
a marvellously short time, considering the dis-
tance, the Superior sailed back into Sag Harbor
with all flags flying. She was loaded to the hatch
combings with oil, and carried bone wherever
it could be stowed, — 80 barrels of sperm, 2400
of whale oil, and 20,000 pounds of bone, the whole
worth $33,945-30.

Adventures of the Explorers 157

"A few years since," says the North Ameri-
can Review (January, 1834), "two Russian dis-
covery ships came in sight of a group of cold,
inhospitable islands in the Antarctic Ocean.
The commander imagined himself a discoverer,
and doubtless was prepared, with drawn sword
and with the flag of his sovereign flying over his
head, to take possession in the name of his Czar.
At this time he was becalmed in a dense fog.
Judge of his surprise, when the fog cleared away,
to see a little sloop from Connecticut, as quietly
riding between his ships as if lying on the waters
of Long Island Sound. He learned from the
captain that the islands were already well known,
and that the sloop had just returned from ex-
ploring the shores of a new land at the south;
upon which the Russian gave vent to an ex-
pression too harsh to be repeated, but sufficiently
significant of his opinion of American enter-
prise."

{'The day of the explorers was the Golden Era
of the whalers, and of all American seamen.
"Often adventures which Vancouver dedicates
three chapters to, these men accounted unworthy

158 The Story of the New England Whalers

of being set down in the ship's common log. "
(Moby Dick.) * A list of more than four hundred
islands which were discovered in the Pacific
by American whalers is found in the public
document quoted above.' But "whale, strong-
timbered craft and swift clipper boat are gone.
. . . We have lost our natural place upon the
seas. . . . No one can contemplate these achieve-
ments and this decay without sadness." (Weeden.)

VIII

WHALES AS THE WHALERS KNEW
THEM

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.

— Whale song quoted in Moby Dick.

WHEN Owen Chase, mate of the Nan-
tucket whale ship Essex that was sunk
by a whale in 1820, finally reached
home and related his experiences, he had this to
say about the whale that attacked the ship:

"Every fact seemed to warrant me in con-
cluding that it was anything but chance which
directed his operations; he made two attacks
upon the ship at short interval between them,
both of which, according to their direction, were
calculated to do us the most injury, by being
made ahead and thereby combining the speed
159

160 The Story of the New England Whalers

of two objects for the shock; to effect which
the exact manoeuvres which he made were neces-
sary. His aspect was most horrible and such
as indicated resentment and fury. He came
directly from the school, which we had just before
entered, and in which we had struck three of
his companions, as if fired with revenge for their
sufferings. ... At all events, the whole cir-
cumstances taken together, all happening before
my own eyes," produced "at the time impres-
sions in my mind, of decided, calculating mis-
chief."

The mate's thoughts, as he left the ship, are
expressed as follows:

"The dark ocean and swelling waters were
nothing; the fears of being swallowed up by
some dreadful tempest or dashed upon hidden
rocks . . . seemed scarcely entitled to a moment's
thought; the dismal-looking wreck and the hor-
rid aspect of the whale wholly engrossed my
reflections."

Many pictures of the whale have been printed.
Some were the dreams of poets. Others were
the tabulated measurements made by scientists.

Off for a Two Years' Cruise

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 161

Others still were the life scenes portrayed by
the men who hunted whales wherever whales
were to be found. In any story of American
whaling all of these pictures seem to be of interest;
but if it were necessary to make a choice among
them, one would naturally select first of all
those made by men who received their impres-
sions while afloat, gunwale to fluke, beside the
monsters to be described. When a man who
has worked his way from the berth of an ap-
prentice to that of chief mate of a whale ship,
as Chase had, tells what he has seen of whales,
his words are worth attention.

Nevertheless, it seems best to begin here with
what might be called the scientist's point of view.
As the reader learned long ago, the whales are
not fish, but mammals, — animals that suckle
their young. Unlike the fish, they have warm
blood and lungs, and must come to the surface
of the water to inhale fresh air at intervals under
penalty of death by drowning. The fins, one on
each side near the body, which help to make
the whale look like a fish, have bones within
that are not very different in location and number

162 The Story of the New England Whalers

from the bones of a human arm, and it is a mat-
ter of common knowledge that the mother whale
clasps her young to her breast by means of a
fin much as a human mother holds her babe.

It is believed that in some long-ago period
of the world's development the whales lived
alongshore, part of the time on land and part
of the time in the sea. How they were driven
from the land to permanent homes in the sea
is a matter of inference. Very likely the food
supplies in the ancient seas were abundant.
At the same time some huge reptile sought them
for food when they were out on the land. A
peculiar habit of the modern whale strengthens
the belief that they once had enemies on the
shore; when alarmed, now, they sometimes
rise up perpendicularly with their heads well
out of water, — they stand up like a beaver, so
to speak, to scan the sea, and when in that posi-
tion they revolve slowly around until they have
looked in all directions with both eyes.

While in Madagascar waters, Frank Bullen
(Cruise of the Cacbelot) saw a school of sperm
whales playing around the ship, the crew being

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 163

too busy with blubber already taken to lower
in pursuit. Of one thing they did, he says:

"As if instigated by one common impulse
they all elevated their massive heads above the
sea and remained for some time in that position,
solemnly bobbing up and down amid the glitter-
ing wavelets like moveable boulders of black
rock. Then all suddenly reversed themselves
and, elevating their broad flukes in the air, com-
menced to beat them slowly and rhythmically
upon the water, like so many machines."

It is supposed that whales may have been
animals not wholly unlike the flat-tailed beaver;
that, like beavers, they sat up or rose up on their
haunches to look around when danger seemed
to impend; also when they saw anything that
excited their curiosity; and, finally, that in the
course of the evolution of the race the hind legs
were eliminated and the tail was developed into
the form now seen.

Of hind legs the whales have not a trace.
From their lungs to the tips of their tails, whales
are very good fish, and yet the whales differ from
all fish in the position of their flukes.

164 The Story of the New England Whalers

"A whale is a fish with a tail that lies on the
water as flat as a pancake," said an old whaler
to the writer, "and every fish, big or little, with
that kind of a tail, is whale." The tails of fish
are in a vertical plane.

Of the many kinds of whales described in the
works of scientists two are of special interest
here. One is called the right whale, and the
other the sperm whale. Cachelot is another
name applied to the sperm. If seen side by
side at sea, they are at first glance very much alike,
for each looks like a long, smooth, black rock,
or say a monster log of black wood (albinos
have been seen), over which the waves run
freely, or break in masses of foam and spray.
When they raise their heads out of the water,
however, differences are at once seen. The
head of the sperm whale is as blunt and flat as
if the animal had, during untold ages, been in the
habit of striking its head on the bottom every time
it dove for food. The lower jaw is long and
slender. The head of the right whale is blunt,
but well rounded instead of flat on the end. It
is rather flat on top and the lower jaw or chin

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 165

is thicker than the top of its head. As each whale
expels the air held in its lungs while under water,
a single vapory jet is spurted up and forward
at an angle of 45 degrees from the forward point
of the sperm whale's head; the right whale throws
up two jets from the back part of its head, the
spiracles, as the breathing holes are called, being
located nearly above the angle of its jaws.

If the mouths of the two kinds of whales be
examined, most remarkable differences are found.
A single row of teeth is found on each side of
the long, narrow, lower jaw of the sperm whale,
the total number being from forty to fifty-six
in an adult. The largest of the teeth are nine or
ten inches long, and these weigh about a pound
and a half each. They are all pointed, and they
are placed far apart. There are no teeth in the
upper jaw. A hole is found in the upper jaw
opposite each tooth, and when the mouth is shut
the teeth set into these holes. The teeth are not
grinders; they merely serve to hold and break
apart the squirming food of these monsters,
which is to be described farther on.

The right whale has no teeth. Affixed to its

i66 The Story of the New England Whalers

upper jaw are slabs of a hornlike substance
called whalebone. In the largest whale, slabs
more than twelve feet long are found. Captain
David Gray, of Peterhead, Scotland, a noted
authority, counted 286 slabs of bone on one side
of the mouth of a whale he killed and 289 on
the other side. There seems to be no regularity
in the number of slabs; other whalers who have
counted them find a different number with every
count. When the whale's mouth is closed these
slabs are slanted back, lying like piles of thin
boards between the upper and lower jaws. When
the mouth is opened, the lower ends of the slabs
spring forward until they hang almost, but not
quite, perpendicular along the sides of the mouth,
where they form a screen. The inner edge of
each slab is frayed and split into many long
hairs and these cover over and fill in the spaces
between the solid parts of the slabs, thus con-
verting a coarse screen into a fine sieve. The
lower lip supports and holds in place the lower
edge of this sieve, while the upper lip is drawn
up in a horrible grin, that fully displays the huge
slabs.

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 167

The food of the right whale consists of a variety
of small animals that float in wide masses on the
sea, — crustaceans "not larger than a common
house fly," called "brit" by the whalers. When
the whale wishes to feed, it swims to and fro
with its mouth open through the floating brit.
Water and brit together float into and through
the unobstructed forward part of the mouth. The
water then flows out through the whalebone
sieves on each side of the mouth, while the brit
is caught by the sieves.

"The usual way in which a whale feeds,"
wrote Captain Gray, "is to choose a spot where
the food is plentiful and swim backward and
forward for two or three hundred yards with
the nose just under water. They invariably
swim from one side of the beat back again to
where they started from, with their mouths open.
Then they close their jaws and swallow the food
caught." After the mouth is closed the tongue
is raised and the remaining water is forced out,
leaving the crustaceans caught on the screen.
"They often go with the point of the nose so
near the surface that we can see the water running

168 The Story of the New England Whalers

over it just as it does over a stone in a shallow
stream. . . . Their course below the water can
often be traced by their eddy. This is caused
by the movement of the tail. . . . They turn
around before coming to the surface to blow,
and lie for a short time to lick the food off their
bone before going away for another mouthful."
Whales vary much in size even when adult.
According to Whales and Porpoises, by George
Brown Goode, Assistant Secretary of the Smith-
sonian Institution (p. 9), "The largest sperm
males measure from 80 to 84 feet in length, the
head making up about one-third of the whole.
The youngest sperm whale on record is one measur-
ing sixteen feet, taken near New Bedford in 1842;
its weight was 3050 pounds." The female sperm
is small, being from one-fifth to one-fourth the
size of the male. The record sperm whale re-
ported at New Bedford was captured by Captain
Owen H. Tilton. It produced 154 barrels of
oil. Captain C. Allen saved one that produced
150 barrels. The usual product is from forty
to fifty barrels, but many are taken that yield
from 80 to 100 barrels. The length of a com-
mon sperm whale is from forty to fifty feet.

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 169

The largest of the sperm whales — eighty-
four feet long — measure thirty-five or thirty-
six feet in girth at the thickest part, which is at
the neck, if a whale may be said to have a neck.
The body is deeper than it is broad at all points
from the head to the "small" (namely, where
the body joins the flukes), and at the small it is
round. The height (or depth) of the largest
sperm whale "at the forehead is eleven feet and
its width nine or ten feet," according to Davis,
author of Nimrod of the Sea. As one of these
monsters lies on the surface with its head out of
water its crown, or nose angle, is as high above
the surface as the roof of a one-story house.
When the animal is standing up with head out
of water scanning the horizon, the top of its head
may be not far from thirty feet up in the air, or
say as high as the roof of a three-story house.
It would not seem so high to a spectator on a
ship, because the immense expanse of the sea
dwarfs everything afloat. But if seen from
a whale boat alongside, it would seem much
larger, especially to a frightened landsman.

The tails of all whales are divided into two

170 The Story of the New England Whalers

flukes. The length of the largest, as measured
fore and aft, is from six to eight feet, while the
breadth across both is from twelve to fifteen feet.
These figures have a special interest when it is
known that many a venturesome whaler has
driven his boat in under the rising flukes, to a
place where nearly a hundred square feet of that
most deadly weapon rose above him.

It is said that the right whale received its name
through the custom of the early European whalers
in speaking of it as the right kind to capture.
The sperm whales were not pursued in the early
days, apparently. Whales that produced plenty of
oil and bone were the "right" whales to capture.
In time, however, it was observed that there
were several kinds of oil-and-bone whales. The
early whaler explorers who went hunting along
the polar ice found one that they named bow-
head, from the shape of the head as seen above
water. Another whale was named humpback
because of the shape of its back. It was noted
that the humpback had folds of skin under its
chin, and that its fins were of extraordinary
length. An examination of the records of

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 171

the fishery for the oil-and-bone whales shows
that the whalers did not always distinguish be-
tween the varieties. A table in Whales and
Porpoises says that Captain Devot, of New Bed-
ford, killed a right whale off Kadiak that yielded
290 barrels of oil. Captain Wood took one
that gave 280 barrels, while Captain Winston
got one of 270 barrels. The average yield of
whales taken on the North Pacific ground (The
Whale Fishery, p. 17) is or was "about 125
barrels each." It is the bowhead whale that
raises the average yield to this figure, and it is
not unlikely that the enormous yields recorded
above were from this variety of the right whale.
It is interesting to note that while bowheads
yield so much oil, they are never more than sixty-
five feet long. The large male right whales
are from fifty-two to fifty-three feet long, while
the females are from fifty-four to fifty-seven feet
long.

The humpback whale is still smaller. The
record yield from one of these was 145 barrels,
secured in 1848, from a humpback killed off
Monterey, California.

172 The Story of the New England Whalers

While the records do not, for obvious reasons,
contain the weights of adult whales, fair estimates
have been made. Scoresby calculated the size
or displacement of an Arctic whale at 81.5 cubic
feet, which would give a weight of about 114
tons. He estimated the weight of an ordinary
large right whale at seventy tons.

The horse-power exerted by a finback whale
in propelling itself through the water was es-
timated by Sir William Turner, Professor of
Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh, assisted
by Mr. John Henderson, a Glasgow shipbuilder,
in 1886. A whale of this kind was stranded
at Longniddry. It was 80 feet long, its estimated
weight was 74 tons, and the tail was from 18 to
20 feet wide across the broadest parts. To
attain a speed of twelve miles an hour, for whales
of this kind often swim at that rate, required
the exercise of "a propelling force of 145 horse-
power." (Scientific American, March 5, 1887.)

The records show that finbacks 120 feet long
have been killed. Sulphur-bottom whales (so
called because of the color of the under parts)
reach a length of no feet, according to Thf

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 173

Whale Fishery. Dr. James H. Weeks, of Ston-
ington, Connecticut, in a series of articles on
A Whale ship's History, printed in the Westerly,
Rhode Island, Sun, in 1900, in speaking of the
sulphur-bottom whale, says :

"Captain Frederick Smith has a section of
a backbone taken from this species in his yard
[on Elm, corner of Cutler Street, Stonington],
[that] was taken from a whale which, on the
beach, measured 150 feet."

Turning again to the life habits of the whales,
consider how they breathe. The sperm whale
comes to the surface, raises its head, and for
three seconds expels the foul air from its lungs.
The exhaled air is full of moisture, and when
this vapor settles on human skin it is so acrid
as to create pain. Fresh air is drawn in so
rapidly "that hardly an instant is required."
The exhalation and inspiration, or the "blow-
ings," are repeated sixty or seventy times at a
rising, the whole time devoted thus to renewing
the air of the lungs and aerating the blood being
twelve minutes on the average. Then the whale
dips its head under water, raises its tail until

174 The Story of the New England Whalers

it stands perpendicularly on its head, and drops
swiftly down. It remains out of sight, pre-
sumably searching or waiting for food, for an
hour or an hour and a quarter.

The bowhead whale, found along the Arctic
ice, when undisturbed, comes to the surface,
"spouts" from six to nine times, dips down and
pursues its food for fifteen or twenty minutes,
and then comes up again.

"They will go on in this way feeding for
an hour or more," said Captain Gray, already
quoted. "After that they will disappear under
the nearest ice and sleep there until they come
out for exercise or for another meal. Unlike
other warm-blooded animals they do not require
to breathe through their nostrils while asleep,
and they do not do so. Whales can sleep as
well under water as they do upon the surface,
as I have often seen them disappear under solid
ice and remain there for many hours at a time.
Sometimes they also fall asleep with their heads
down and only their tails out of water."

It is apparent from this that when sleeping
these whales do not inhale any air. Captain
Gray continues:

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 175

"Like all the inhabitants of the sea, whales
are affected by the tides, being most numerous
at the full and change of the moon, beginning
to appear three days before and disappearing
entirely three days after the change. Often
this will go on for months with the utmost
regularity, unless some great change in the ice
takes place. No doubt whales are seen and
often taken during any time of the tides; but if
a herd is hunted systematically, and they are
attached to a particular feeding bank, this is
their usual habit. Neither can this peculiarity
in their habits be easily accounted for; their
food is as abundant during the neap as it is in
the spring tides."

Davis, previously quoted, notes a similar pecul-
iarity in connection with the sperm whale fishery
of the Pacific. He says :

"The length of time that a whale can remain
under the surface is probably much greater than
has hitherto been allowed. Sometimes, notably
during the full of the moon, the whales abound
over the feeding ground, and many are taken.
But the busy season is followed by a period of

176 The Story of the New England Whalers

two weeks or more during which none will be
visible. Vessels will be spoken from all points
of the compass, and to the question, 'Have you
seen any whales ?' the answer will be, 'Not
for a week or ten days.' The busy and dull
seasons alternate uniformly over an area of 600
miles north and south by goo miles east and west.
Bull whales often appear as though they have
been reposing on a muddy bottom, and off the
coast of New Zealand they have been seen with
such barnacles on their lower jaws as are found
on a ship's bottom."

The brief length of time that whales are away
from their feeding grounds, as described by Gray
and Davis, forbids the idea that they migrate,
during that interval, to other feeding grounds ;
for there are no other grounds within reach.
The only explanation of their disappearance
that seems reasonable is found in the hibernat-
ing habit.

In connection with this idea of whale hiberna-
tion it is interesting to note a peculiarity of the cir-
culation of the blood in the whale. The amount
of blood in an adult is, of course, enormous.

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 177

The main artery leading from the heart is a
foot in diameter. The lungs are of corresponding
capacity. When the blood flows purified from
the lungs it does not go directly into the circu-
lation, as in other animals, but into a cellular
reservoir (called an arterial plexus, by one writer),
and there it is stored uncontaminated, to be drawn
into circulation as needed. It is agreed among
scientific writers who have described the whale
that in this storage reservoir (so to speak) of
aerated blood is found the explanation of the
ability of the whale to remain under water, even
when wounded, for more than an hour. The
bottle-nose whale (a small member of the sperm
family) remains under for more than two hours,
and then comes to the surface with enough speed
to carry it through the air in a graceful curve.
Now, in connection with these facts about the
whale, consider the condition of the woodchuck,
a land animal that has no storage reservoir of
aerated blood. As the writer has observed,
woodchucks while hibernating have been known
to live when their dens were entirely under water
for a period of at least forty-eight hours. This

178 The Story of the New England Whalers

long submergence had no injurious effect upon
them so far as any one could see, for they were as
lively as ever when revived by the return of spring.
If a woodchuck, having no reserve of aerated
blood, can endure submergence for such a length
of time, it is not unreasonable to suppose that
whales, with their enormous reserves of aerated
blood, might sleep under water for periods at
least as long as those during which they disappear
from their feeding grounds.

Most remarkable, and perhaps unexplained,
is the ability of the whales of a school to com-
municate with each other. In The Whale Fish-
ery (p. 266) is the following:

" It is worthy of remark that as soon as a whale
is harpooned the news is telegraphed through
some invisible agency to others of the same species,
though at a great distance; a general stampede
ensues, and with noses in the air they all rush
to windward."

Bennett, the author of A Whaling Voyage
Around the Globe, says in regard to this habit:

"It is a confirmed fact, and one often noticed
by southern whalers, that upon a cachelot being

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 179

struck from a boat others many miles distant
from the spot will almost instantaneously ex-
press by their action an apparent consciousness
of what has occurred, or at least of some untoward
event, and either make off in alarm, or come
down to the assistance of their injured companion.
But without attributing to the cachelot an ex-
traordinary acuteness of sight or hearing, or any
more mysterious sensibility, we may perhaps
find that the violent agitations of the sea produced
by the plunges of the harpooned whale, and the
more rapid and distinct conveyance of sound
in water than in air, are sufficient to account
for the above phenomenon."

Other observers have declared that distant
whales have been alarmed when the stricken
whale made no excessive noise or unusual dis-
turbance in the water, and that the alarm was
conveyed to windward as well as to leeward.
Thus Davis says:

"It is commonly conceded that whales have
a mysterious power of communicating with each
other, and instances are mentioned which, if
trustworthy, afford the strongest proof possible.

i8o The Story of the New England Whalers

Stationed at the mastheads of their vessels captains
have observed that when their boats were attack-
ing a whale to leeward a school several miles to
windward, and out of sight of the combatants,
would show signs of alarm and retreat the moment
the first blow of the harpoon was struck. Sound
was not the means of communication, as the
distance was too great, and furthermore it is
a well ascertained fact that whales only signal
by sound in the practice of 'lob-tailing.' In
'lob-tailing' the whale rises perpendicularly in
the water with its head downward. Thus poised
it will swing from side to side sweeping a radius
of thirty feet with awful violence. The con-
cussions of its tail with the water may be heard
for many miles, while the sea is a mass of foam,
and the air is filled with spray. The practice
is supposed to be intended for amusement,
but it is also a tocsin."

"The instant one is attacked every whale for
miles around springs up, shoots his head out of
water and listens," says another observer. In
connection with this unexplained method of
communication one should remember the habit

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 181

of the whale, brought down from the time when it
lived alongshore, of rising up with head far above
the water, as a woodchuck rises on the land to
look for danger.

It is further to be noted that undisturbed schools,
while spread out and while playing over several
square miles of the seas, will suddenly, and as
if answering a signal, all throw their tails into
the air and instantly and together disappear under
water. No trained soldiers ever stepped together
with greater precision than is shown by schools
of whales in this evolution.

Do whales have vocal cords ? Can they sing
and roar ? Manifestly the men who know the
whales best think so.

Herbert L. Aldrich, author of Arctic Alaska
and Siberia, in describing his experiences in an
Arctic whaler, says :

"One of the most interesting of the [gamming]
yarns was that about the singing whales. When
I first heard it I took it for a joke, intended for
me to bite at. But one day there was a rehearsing
of experiences and I found that the ship masters
really believed that whales do sing. Captain

182 The Story of the New England Whalers

Kelley, of the brig Eliza, was the first to discover
this singing, but he was laughed at for it. In
1882 several ships lay at anchor under Indian
Point. As usual the masters got together and
in the midst of their conversation Captain Kelley
broke in: 'There's a bowhead!' Everybody
laughed about * Kelley's band,' but he insisted
that whales were near by and he was going to
give chase. One master suggested that it was
the copper on the ship, another that it was seals,
another that it was the ice, and so on. But
when Captain Kelley took up anchor and set
sail every ship followed him. One whale was
caught. Soon more singing was heard. The
result was the capture of several whales. After
having attention thus forcibly called to the sing-
ing it was not long before the masters were on
the lookout for it. It is inferred that it is a sort
of call or signal for whales, when making a pas-
sage through Bering Sea, to notify each other
that they are bound north, and perhaps that
the straits are clear of ice.

"While Captain Wm. H. Kelley was right
whaling in the Japan Sea in 1881 he put his

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 183

ear to the line and heard the whale that he had
struck give a deep, heavy, agonizing groan, like
that of a person in pain. It had been known
for a long time that humpback whales, black
fish, devil fish and other species of whales sing,
and that walruses and seals bark under water,
and it is believed that all animals having lungs
and living in the water, as these do, have their
own peculiar cry, or as whalemen express it,
'sing.' Whenever a whale is struck by a harpoon
it is noticed from the masthead that every whale
in sight is 'gallied,' that is, frightened. Usually
they disappear, but occasionally they simply
jump, then settle back quietly to feeding or
whatever they may be doing. It is particularly
true that sperm whales take fright when one of
their number is struck. No reason has ever been
assigned for this sudden signal of danger except
this 'singing' theory. It is believed that when
a whale is struck its cry of pain is heard by
every other whale in sight from aloft.

"In January, 1887, one of the Eliza s boats
struck a sperm whale and instantly the whole
school, which was three miles or more off, started

184 The Story of the New England Whalers

for their wounded companion, and circling about
it huddled as if to ask, 'What's the matter?'
With bowhead whales the cry is something like
the hoo-oo-oo of the hoot owl, although longer
drawn out and more of a humming sound than
a hoot. Beginning on F the tone may rise to G,
A, B, and sometimes to C before slanting back
to F again. With the humpback whale the tone
is much finer, often sounding something like the
E string of a violin."

On page 212 of Goode's The Whale Fishery is
the following:

"Sperm whales travel the seas in great herds,
from one hundred to three hundred, and they
are said to acknowledge a leader, who swims
in advance and gives the signal of combat or
flight by uttering a peculiar roar."

In Notes on the Challenger by H. N. Mosely,
it is said regarding the "singing" of the southern
"finners, " "The expiratory sound is very loud
when heard close by, and is a sort of deep bass
snort, extremely long, loud and somewhat pro-
longed; it might even be compared to the sound
produced by the rushing of steam at high pressure
from a large pipe."

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 185

A description of the eyes and ears of the whales
should prove interesting in connection with what
has been written about the whale's powers of
communication. While the eye socket in the
skeleton of a whale might lead one to suppose
that the eye is of a size somewhat in proportion
to the bulk of the animal, this organ is in fact
small. Herman Melville, in Moby Dick, compares
the eyes of a full-grown sperm whale to those
of a colt. Moby Dick is a novel, but Melville's
descriptions of whales and whaling are accepted
at New Bedford. The eyes of all whales are
located far aft and well down near the angle
of the jaw. The whale, therefore, has an ex-
tremely limited field of vision. Melville says
that each eye covers no more than "some thirty
degrees of vision in advance of the straight side-
line of sight; and about thirty more behind it."
That the whale's eyes unite to portray a single
field of view upon the brain, as the eyes of a
man do, is of course impossible. It is reasonable
to suppose that the whale ordinarily sees and
comprehends two distinct fields of vision. When
he raises his head perpendicularly out of water

i86 The Story of the New England Whalers

and revolves slowly around to gaze in all directions,
he is confirming his previous impressions as well
as exploring new fields. When attacked without
previous warning the unfortunate animal is, of
course, too badly startled to take a survey of the
whole face of the sea, but it may — it frequently
does, in fact — see an enemy in each of its fields
of vision, while at times more than one is seen
in each. It is thus that the whale is "gallied,"
according to Melville, who says :

"It may be an idle whim, but it has always
seemed to me that the extraordinary vacillations of
movement displayed by some whales when beset
by three or four boats; the timidity and liability
to queer frights so common to such whales — I
think all this indirectly proceeds from the helpless
perplexity of vision volition in which their divided
and diametrically opposite powers of vision must
involve them."

Still smaller than the eye is the ear of a whale.
The external opening of the ear in the sperm is
near and behind the eye, "and into the hole itself
you can hardly insert a quill, so wondrously
minute is it." The right whale ear is not only

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 187

small but it has no external opening, being cov-
ered with a membrane.

To go on with the mysterious and unexplained
characteristics of whales :

"Another peculiarity of the whale," says Davis,
"is the 'glip.' When the sperm whale is alarmed
or alert against pursuit, it emits, on going down
for a run beneath the surface, a portion of oil or
its equivalent, which, for a considerable period
of time, causes a smooth, bright surface upon
the water. This is termed the glip or wake.
The mystery of the glip is in a real or supposed
communication between this smooth spot and
the whale making it. Should the boatheader
incautiously pull his boat into this glip or cross
the line between the whale and his glip, the effect
will be to gallic the animal."

James Templeman Brown, who contributed
a large portion of the matter found in Goode's
The Whole Fishery, after quoting the above
from Davis, says :

"This is maintained and substantiated by
whalemen generally." He also says (p. 261)
that the right whale possesses a similar power:

188 The Story of the New England Whalers

"An officer of a boat never follows the wake
of a right whale, for the moment the boat strikes
the 'suds' it is maintained that the whale is
immediately made acquainted with the fact
through some unknown agency and will be gallied
without fail, and soon widen the distance between
itself and the crew."

Frank Bullen (Cruise of the Cachelot), in de-
scribing the pursuit of the first whale (a sperm)
struck by the boat in which he pulled, says that
as they approached the whale the boat was sud-
denly stopped and allowed to drift.

"Now what's the matter, I thought, when to
my amazement the chief, addressing me, said:
'Wonder why we've hauled up, don't ye ?' 'Yes,
sir, I do/ said I. 'Wall,' said he, 'the fish hev
sounded, and ef we run over 'em we've seen the
last ov 'em.'"

Curiously interesting is the ability of whales
to sink swiftly at will. When the whalers ap-
proach a whale they drive their boat in forward
of the flukes until it lies "wood to blackskin,"
— in contact, or nearly so. As the boat is about
to strike the whale the harpooner throws his

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 189

weapon into the whale's body. If he is slow in
doing so, or if a passing wave drops the boat
unexpectedly in contact with the whale before
the harpoon is thrown, the whale usually sinks
as swiftly as if it were a mass of lead; the har-
pooner is never able to strike his weapon into
the whale after it has thus begun to sink.

Captain Davis described a peculiarity of the
right whale as follows:

"On the tip of the upper jaw there is a spot
of very limited extent seemingly as sensitive in
feeling as the antennae of an insect. However
swiftly the right whale may be advancing on
the boat, a slight prick on this point will arrest
his forward motion at once. I think it safe to
say he will not advance a single yard after the
prick is given. He will either pitch his head
and round down like a great wheel turning on
a fixed axis, or he will turn shortly to the right
or left according to the part of the nose which
is pricked. Sometimes he will throw his enormous
head straight into the air and settle backward
tail first, by this motion exposing his whole throat
to the thrust of the harpoon or lance; he may

igo The Story of the New England Whalers

take any course save the one directly forward.
. . . And it is also endowed with a backing
power which is simply marvellous when we con-
sider the enormous weight moving forward with
great speed."

It is told of the whale of the northwest coast
that it "practises a ruse de guerre by hollowing
its back, causing the blubber to become loose
or * slack/ as <t is termed, and preventing the
harpoons from entering. Many a boat steerer
has been dismayed by this manoeuvre, and al-
though the harpoon may have been thrown
with all the force that could be summoned, the
impetus was inadequate to penetrate the relaxed
blubber and flesh." (The Whale Fishery.)

Whales are gregarious and gather in vast schools,
as noted especially when migrating; that is to
say, they did so in the days when there were
enough whales to form such schools. In estimat-
ing the number of California gray whales seen
along the Pacific coast in the migrating season,
Scammon says (Marine Mammals of the North-
west Coast) : " It has been estimated approx-
imately by observing men among the shore

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 191

whaling parties that a thousand whales passed
southward daily from the I5th of December
to the first of February for several successive
seasons after shore whaling was established
[1851]. . . . Accepting this number without al-
lowing for those which passed offshore out of
sight from the land, or for those which passed
before the I5th of December or after the 1st of
February, the aggregate would be 47,000."

Sperm whales were often seen in schools esti-
mated in the thousands in the early days. Dr.
Thomas Beale (Natural History of the Sperm
Whale] says: "I have seen in one school as
many as five or six hundred." That was written
in 1839, at a time when whale ships by the
hundred had scoured the Pacific for more than
twenty years and had greatly reduced the num-
ber of whales on the grounds visited by Dr.
Beale.

The largest schools of sperm whales were com-
posed of females and their young, with from one
to three stalwart males in company, which were
known to the whalers as "schoolmasters." Like
land animals of similar habit, these lordly bulls

192 The Story of the New England Whalers

secured and maintained their positions by good
fighting, and their aggressive character was fre-
quently shown toward the whalers as well as
toward venturesome individuals of their own
kind.

The younger and smaller bulls — thirty-barrel
whales — also went in schools which were not
usually found near the larger schools of females.
Then as the whalers cruised to and fro, they
encountered big bulls, old and gray, that were
swimming solitary and alone, though two were
seen, now and then, heading the same course
but at some distance from each other. These
old bulls invariably showed the scars of battle,
for they had been driven from the schools of
females by younger and more vigorous fighters.

"Whenever a lone whale meets with a drove
[of females] he forthwith turns upon the male
of the group and gives him battle," said the
New Bedford Gazette, in 1837. "Their manner
of fighting is bold and destructive. They run
backward from each other several rods and then
rapidly advance, their great square heads meet-
ing with dreadful suddenness. The scene [of

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 193

a combat of the kind as described to the editor]
was one of awful display. The two monsters,
being among the largest of their species, advanced
upon each other with their jaws, which measured
sixteen feet in length, widely extended, exhibit-
ing huge rows of great teeth, and presenting the
most ferocious appearance. They cleaved much
of the flesh from each other's heads and left
deep marks of their teeth in other parts. In
the affray one of them had his jaw slewed around
and many of his teeth stove out, while the jaw
of the other was broken off so that it hung to
the head only by the flesh. It is said that these
battles are not uncommon; and the conqueror
always joins the drove of females and continues
the cruise."

It is a curious fact that when whales with
crooked jaws were killed by the whalers they
were found to be as well nourished usually as
the uncrippled whales; though Bullen notes
three such whales, killed during his cruise, that
were all "dry skins." How they could secure
their food when the lower jaw for a part of its
length could not be closed against the upper

194 The Story of the New England Whalers

jaw was a puzzling question, until son: con-
sideration was given to the feeding habits v^H-
servation convinced the whalers that the speim
whale lived chiefly on the sepia octopus, the huge
eight-armed creature that seamen called the
giant squid. When in their death flurry, sperm
whales often throw up the contents of their
stomachs. Pieces of sharks and other kinds of
fish have been ejected at such times, but pieces
of the arms of this octopus were usually seen
to the exclusion of other matter. As all fisher-
men know, the squid is attracted to any shining
substance, — like a metal plate, for instance, that
is lowered into the water. Now the mouth of
the sperm whale is lined with a satinlike mem-
brane that glistens with a metallic lustre when
exposed under water. Undisturbed whales have
often been seen lying at or near the surface with
their lower jaws hanging down so that the inside
of the mouth was plainly visible. Taking all
these facts together, the whalemen came to be-
lieve that the sperm whales go into the depths
where the giant squid usually passes its life,
and when there lie motionless with their mouths

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 195

open. On seeing the white lining of the whale's
mouth the squid, either from curiosity or in
the pursuit of what it supposes is food, swims
into the very jaws of its enemy. Thus even
a whale with but a part of a jaw might secure
prey. In support of this belief is the fact that
blind whales (a fungous disease sometimes blinds
the sperm whale) have been taken that gave
as much blubber as one in perfect condition.
The sperm whale should therefore be called a
trapper rather than a hunter.

The brain of the whale is but a small bit of
gray matter, if its size is compared with the bulk
of its body. The skull of the larger sperm whale
measures more than twenty feet in length. It
is wedge-shaped with the edge of the wedge for-
ward. The huge forehead that towers so high
above the water is composed chiefly of flesh,
gristle, and oil. Low down in the rear end of
this huge skull is a cavity "seldom exceeding ten
inches in length and as many in depth" that
holds the brain.

A small brain may be exceedingly active,
however, and all whalers are agreed that some

ig6 The Story of the New England Whalers

whales are more intelligent than others, and that
the more intelligent ones sometimes show as-
tonishing mental activity.

Of the mental characteristics of the whale
it is noted first of all that the mother sperm
(for example) shows a strong affection for her
young. That the bowhead mother is seldom
seen with her young nowadays is one of the
curious facts of whale life, and whalers sup-
pose that the young are brought forth under
the polar ice and are kept there until large enough
for weaning. When the whalers find a mother
sperm whale and her young, they attack the young
one first, if possible, knowing well that the mother
will not desert it, and they will be able to secure
her after killing the smaller one. The distress
of the mother at such a time is manifest.

"But for all the notice taken by the whale
she might never have been struck," says Bullen
in describing an attack upon a mother whale
with a calf by her side. "Close nestled to her
side was a youngling of not more, certainly,
than five days old, which sent its baby spout
every now and then about two feet into the air.

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 197

One long winglike fin embraced its small body
holding it close to the massive breast of the ten-
der mother, whose only care seemed to be to
protect her young, utterly regardless of her own
pain and danger. . . . While the calf con-
tinually sought to escape from the enfolding
fin, making alt sorts of puny struggles in the
attempt, the mother scarcely moved from her
position, although streaming with blood from
a score of wounds. Once, indeed, as a deep-
searching thrust entered her very vitals, she raised
her massy flukes high in air with an apparently
involuntary movement of agony; but even in
that dire throe she remembered the possible
danger to her young one and laid the tre-
mendous weapon as softly down upon the water
as if it were a feather fan. So in the most per-
fect quiet, with scarcely a writhe, nor any sign of
flurry, she died, holding the calf to her side until
the last vital spark had fled, and left it to a swift
despatch with a single lance thrust."

Many a mother whale has been killed while thus
striving to shield her young, for the whaler has
the same contempt for sentiment that is shown
by the butchers of wild animals on land.

198 The Story of the New England Whalers

The females almost always show sympathy
when one of their companions is attacked. They
gather around the stricken one and act, the whalers
say, as if anxious to render assistance. Through
this habit the whalers have often secured two
or three from a school of females. The cow
whales also remain with their male companions
in spite of danger. The first whale that Frank
Bullen struck, he says, was a big bull that had
a cow of small size for a companion. The cow
followed the bull as it fled for life, and finally,
after it was lanced mortally, she sounded with
it. In due time the bull came up to the surface
and died. Then Bullen found that his har-
poons had been withdrawn from the dead bull,
and yet the harpoon line was fast to something.
Finally the cow came up much exhausted and
it was easily killed. An examination cf her
carcass showed that the harpoon line was en-
tangled with her teeth, "as if she had tried to
bite in two the rope that held her consort," says
Bullen, " and only succeeded in sharing his fate.
I would not like to say that whales do not try
to thus sever a line."

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 199

Young bulls, however, are animated by no
such feeling. The moment one of their number
is attacked they stick their heads into the air
and seek a far country with all the speed they
can command. It is a smart crew that gets
more than one out of a "pod" of bulls.

That whales learn by experience, and very
rapidly at times, is well known to all whalers.
The bowheads have long since learned that a
ship is dangerous company, and they always
feed near the ice.

" Persecution has made them shy and instead
of roaming at large the whales only feed along
the ice fringe where they can bolt to cover beneath
the ice if attacked," says Captain Gray. "Now-
adays whales are like rats or rabbits, never to
be found far from their holes, particularly since
the introduction of steam; they will never lie
on banks where there is not sufficient ice to
shelter them."

An incident of interest in any study of the
mental characteristics of whales is an account
of a chase of a couple of humpbacks as given in
Bullen's book:

2OO The Story of the New England Whalers

" For a couple of days we met with no success,
although we had a very aggravating chase after
some smart bulls we fell in with. . . . They
went away gayly along the land, not attempting
to get seaward, we straining every nerve to get
alongside of them. Whether they were tantaliz-
ing us or not I cannot say, but it certainly looked
like it. In spite of their well-known speed we
were several times so close in their wake that
the harpooners loosed the tacks of the jibs to
get a clear shot; but as they did so the nimble
monsters shot ahead a length or two, leaving
us just out of reach. It was a fine chase while
it lasted, though annoying; yet one could hardly
help feeling amused at the way they wallowed
along. ... At last after nearly two hours of
fun they seemed to have had enough of it, and
with one accord headed seaward at a greatly
accelerated pace, as who should say, 'Well,
s'long, boys.' ... In a quarter of an hour
they were out of sight."

The stories of what has been done by the fight-
ing whales have seemed so remarkable that a
special chapter is devoted to them. Of the

Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 201

other notable characteristics of these monstrous
animals but one remains to be mentioned here.
Alert, swift, and mighty, some whales of the
fighting kind have defied for years the ablest
whalers of the seven seas. With each successful
resistance to attack such whales have seemed
to gain in skill, and to increase in ferocity. The
name of "Moby Dick, the White Whale," was
taken from a fighting whale that was known to
all whalers in the early part of the nineteenth
century as Mocha Dick. Nevertheless a time
came when a whale boat paddled up unawares
upon even the mightiest and wisest of the fighters.
The man at the bow was so skilful or so fortu-
nate that he drove both harpoons "to the hitches"
at a point where they, in part, at least, paralyzed
the fighting spirit of the veteran. The mate
then hurried forward, and before the animal
had recovered enough of its customary strength to
turn on the boat, the deadly lance was plunged
into its side, and its "life" was reached. Flinch-
ing and bellowing under the intolerable pain
it strove to fly, but the convulsions of death
soon seized upon it. In wild agony it flung itself

2O2 The Story of the New England Whalers

From side to side, while the clotted blood spouted
high from its spiracle until life was almost gone.
Then, with its last fleeting strength, it swam
feebly in a circle until its head was toward the
sun, and while lying thus — always with its
head toward the sun — it turned on its side,
" fin out," and died.

IX
HARPOONS, LANCES, GUNS, AND BOATS

THE earliest records of civilized whaling
show that the harpoons then used were
barbed spears something like those used
by the aborigines, but pointed with iron or steel
instead of stone or bone. A long line was at-
tached to the harpoon, and by it the whale boat
was kept connected with the whale into which
the harpoon had been thrust, unless, indeed,
the whale sounded, or dived, to a depth beyond
the length of the line or in some way broke loose.
When the wounded whale fled along the surface,
the civilized whalers from the earliest times
always strove to haul in on the line, until the
boat was brought near enough to enable one
of the crew to thrust a lance into the animal.
The lance was simply an unbarbed spear, one
that could be thrust in, and then withdrawn
and thrust again. The harpoon and lance were
ao3

204 The Story of the New England Whalers

better than the weapons used by the aborigines,
chiefly because made of better materials; the
form was not materially better. The civilized
weapons were, in fact, evolved from those used
by the aborigines.

The white men also used the aboriginal drag
on certain occasions. When the whale sounded
so deep that it was necessary to let go of the line,
a drag (called "drug," usually) was attached
to the end of it to impede, as far as possible,
the progress of the whale. Indeed, at times
"drugs" have been fastened to the line at inter-
vals as it was running out. These drags were
made of heavy plank.

Even in the use of the bow and arrow some of
the white whalers have followed the aborigines.
A letter from Captain Neils Juel, a whaler of
Bergen, Norway, to Professor Spencer F. Baird
(September 22, 1884), speaks of "the manner
in which the fishermen" of Norway "kill the
whale by means of arrows and cross-bow."
"When a whale enters a bay," he says, "the
passage is barred with a strong net and the whale
is shot. They let him go for two or three days

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 205

inside. The arrows contain no poison, but later
investigations have led to the discovery of a
peculiar bacillus that lives on arrows already
used, and which poisons the blood. Old arrows
(of iron) are only esteemed, and now we know
the reason why. After some days the whale
becomes dying and is despatched with knives
and harpoons."

-** Three kinds of harpoons have been popular
among American whalemen. One with two barbs
was called the "two-flued iron," another with
one barb the "one-flued iron," and the third
was the toggle-iron. The points and barbs of
all harpoons were made of steel and welded to
soft, tough iron shanks, except, of course, in
the case of the toggle-iron, where the point and
barb were made in one piece that was secured
to the shank in such a way that it could turn
around in the blubber, as the Eskimo toggle
turned, until it lay across the end of the shank.
The points and the forward or cutting edges
of the barbs were always tempered and then
sharpened to a razor edge. The boat steerers
whetted them on the finest hones and then

206 The Story of the New England Whalers

finished them on a strop, as one would put an
edge on a razor. When not in pursuit of whales
it was a common practice to put leather shields
over the cutting parts of harpoons and lances.

The shank of the harpoon was about 30 inches
long. The toggle of a toggle-iron was about
six inches long. At the upper end of every
shank was a socket into which a six-foot wooden
handle was set. A hickory sapling with the
bark on was much liked by able harpooners
in other days, because the bark gave a good
handhold. A short piece of the whale line was
secured to the shank just at the socket by turns
called hitches. It was then led halfway up the
handle, and fastened there at two points by
several turns of stout cord. When a whaler
said that a harpoon was "in to the hitches,"
he meant that the full length of the metal part
had been driven in.

Harpooners who had special pride in their
work, some of those, for instance, who wore the
chock pin as a badge of honor, had harpoons
made for their private use. Well-worn horse-
shoes and horseshoe nails were much used in

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 207

forging these special weapons, and razor steel
was used in making the cutting edges and points.

The first toggle-iron made for an American
whaler was forged by Lewis Temple, a negro
harpoon maker living in New Bedford. He
introduced it in the year 1848, and it has been
the most popular harpoon among American
whalemen since that year. (The Whale Fishery.)

In 1850 Captain C. F. Brown, of Warren,
Rhode Island, invented a harpoon that had
a chisel-shaped point. The sides of the chisel
were not sharpened to a cutting edge and the
barbs were both twisted to one side in a curve
like the thread of a screw. The forward edges
of ordinary harpoons were necessarily sharp
and they sometimes cut so large a hole in the
flesh of the whale that the harpoon drew out
when a strain was brought on it. The curved,
flangelike barbs of the chisel-pointed harpoon,
it was supposed, would engage themselves in
uncut flesh when a strain was brought on the
harpoon, and hold under all circumstances. The
conservative whalemen, however, never took a
fancy to this invention.

208 The Story of the New England Whalers

"I have seen the shanks of harpoons that have
been twisted into the most questionable shapes
by the actions of dying whales; some had com-
plete circles or loops bent into them, and none
of the instruments could be used again until
forged anew. When the whale is towing the boat
the shanks of the harpoons, usually the portions
known as the necks, are sometimes reduced in
diameter by tractile force. That the fibres of
cold iron can be drawn out in this manner has
been doubted by sceptics, but it does not seem
improbable to persons who are familiar with the
ductility of metals, or with the great strain brought
to bear upon the harpoon when a boat is towed
through a heavy sea, and more particularly
when a harpoon is fastened under the rib of a
whale. I have seen very interesting specimens
of this character, and in the fall of 1882 I sent
three stretched harpoons to the National Museum.
Sometimes the harpoon breaks, and the portion
which remains in the whale may be long after-
wards cut out by the crew of the same or another
vessel. Owing to the marks, the instrument
may be easily identified. The wound becomes

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 209

cicatrized, and perhaps after many years, by
attrition, the projecting shank may be worn to
a mere shred. A boat steerer belonging to the
Ansel Gibbs, of New Bedford, threw his harpoon
into a bowhead whale in Hudson Bay, and sev-
eral years afterwards the Cornelius Howland, of
New Bedford, captured the same whale in the
Arctic regions on the western coast. The whale
had traversed the great northwest passage, which
is yet unknown to man, and carried with it the
harpoon, which was branded with the names
of the Gibbs and of the blacksmith [Jireh Swift]
who made it." (James Templeman Brown, in
The Whale Fishery.)

All the harpoons belonging to every whale
ship were marked with names, letters, lines,
dots, etc., made with a cold chisel in such a way
that any one finding a harpoon in a whale could
tell not only what ship it was from, but also the
boat from which it was thrown. This was done
because of the whaler's rule of the chase which
said that "marked craft claims the fish, so long
as it is in the water, dead or alive."

The Whale Fishery says that "the books of

2io The Story of the New England Whalers

Mr. James Durbee, the veteran harpoon maker
of New Bedford, show that from 1828 to 1868
he made and sold 58,517 harpoons." During
that long period there were from eight to ten
other harpoon makers in that one port, and all
were kept busy.

Every whale boat that was lowered carried
two "live" harpoons, — the two that were secured
to the whale line ready for use. One of these
live irons was fastened to the end of the whale
line. The other one carried a short line the
loose end of which was looped around the main
line. The harpooner threw the first iron into
the whale. Then he picked up the second iron
and tried to throw that into the whale, also. If
he failed, he threw it overboard to get it out of
the way; for if jerked over by the plunging whale,
there was no telling what damage it might do
as it was going. Thereafter this harpoon rode
on the main line ; it was usually seen, dragging in
the water just under the bow of the boat, where
it justified the adjective "live" that was applied
to it.

Besides the live irons each boat carried two

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 211

or three spare ones. Each ship carried from
three to five boats ready for lowering when whales
were seen, and thus from twelve to twenty har-
poons were carried from the ship whenever boats
were lowered. Of course every ship carried
a supply of spare harpoons, and as there were
hundreds of whale ships in commission all the
time, it is easy to see how it happened that many
harpoons were made during the period mentioned
above.

•^"The lance was composed of a flat, oval-shaped
steel blade, sharp as a razor, welded to a tough
and stiff iron shank six feet long. A wooden
handle six feet, or thereabouts in length, was in-
serted in a socket at the upper end of the shank.
A whale line a few fathoms long was fastened
to the lance. As the whaleman drew in near
the flying whale that had been struck by a har-
poon, the man at the bow darted the lance at the
whale even when it were not possible thus to
reach a vital part; for every wound bled freely
and weakened the animal in its struggles. At
each throw the lance was drawn back by the
line for another dart, until finally the boat was

212 The Story of the New England Whalers

drawn within reach of the shoulder, when the
lance was thrust into the whale's vitals and
"churned" up and down.

Among the earlier colonial laws that now
serve to amuse the student of history was one
providing a penalty for every instance when a
whale was "foolishly lanced behind ye vitals."

Another weapon used in the earlier part of
the fishery was the boat spade. It consisted of
a flat, triangular, chisel-like blade, five or six
inches wide on the cutting edge, and perhaps
twice as long, which was secured to a six-foot
handle by means of a socket. It was provided
with a line by which it could be recovered if
dropped overboard. Nothing ever done by
American whalemen shows the reckless courage
of the race as well as the use of the boat spade.
For when, as the boat was drawn in alongside,
the man in the bow saw the whale raise its tail
in air for a dive, he slewed the boat in under
the uplifted flukes and drove the spade into the
root of the tail and cut off so many of the tendons
and muscles as utterly to disable the monster.

"There is one case on record," says James

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 213

Templeman Brown, "that has come under my
observation when an officer actually unjointed
the flukes by a tremendous and well-directed
blow of the spade. The whale was in a favor-
able position, the uplifted flukes producing a
tension, and the caudal fin, though still con-
nected, hung to one side."

"Spading flukes is one of the lost arts of the
fishery," he continues. " We should naturally
chink that it would be far preferable to stand
off at a safe distance and kill the huge floundering
cetacean with an explosive lance fired from a
gun. . . . Not so with the broad-chested, white-
haired whalemen of the old school, who regard
the modern gun as a travesty upon their fore-
fathers."

The warp in the early days was made of fine
hemp, but in modern days the manila fibre
has been preferred, because it is at once stronger
and more pliable. Says Melville:

"The whale line is only two-thirds of an inch
in thickness. By experiment its 150 yarns will
each sustain a weight of 120 pounds; so that
the whole rope will bear a strain nearly equal
to three tons."

214 The Story of the New England Whalers

"The whale line is laid in Flemish coils [i.e.
in flat, concentric coils, one on top of the other],
225 fathoms in the large tub and 75 fathoms in
the small tub, which each whale boat carries,"
says The Whale Fishery. "The upper and lower
ends of each line are exposed and provided with
eye-splices in order that one end of the line may
be made fast to the harpoon and the other end
to the other line when fast to a whale. Each
boat carries 300 fathoms of line, and if a whale,
by running or sounding a great distance, takes
it all out, another boat is signalled and assists
in the capture."

Scoresby tells of a Greenland whale that drew
out six miles of line, with fifteen harpoons attached,
and carried down a whale boat with all hands
before it was killed. Usually a whale takes
out no more than 200 fathoms — 1200 feet — of
line.

The most important weapon used in the modern
fishery is the whaling gun, of one of the forms
now to be described. Among the weapons used
on war-ships in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries was the swivel cannon. It was usually

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 215

made of cast iron with the bore large enough
to accommodate a one-pound, cast-iron ball.
Guns of this kind were mounted on the rails
of war-ships by means of swivels, and for short
range were convenient and fairly effective. Know-
ing all about these swivels, some whaleman, as
early as 1/31, invented a swivel from which a
harpoon could be fired at a whale. The art
of aiming cannon had not yet been acquired by
the seamen of the world, however, and when
the whalemen tried to aim this harpoon gun,
while the boat was dancing and plunging over
the waves, they found that they could not hit
the target. The use of slow matches (percus-
sion caps had not been invented) was another
drawback. Moreover the harpoon line proved so
much of a drag on the harpoon that the range
of the gun was limited. The frames of the whale
boat were not strong enough to bear the strain
of the recoil of the gun, and when the frames
were made heavier the whalemen were unable
to row the boat as swiftly as was necessary.
When two or more boats gathered around a
whale, and all began to fire at it, the chances of

2»i6 The Story of the New England Whalers

hitting one of the boats with the gun-thrown
harpoon were greater than the chances of hitting
the whale. The gun was therefore soon dis-
carded, and when in 1771 and 1772 it was tried
again, it proved as unpopular as before.

In the nineteenth century the swivel gun for
throwing a harpoon was again offered to the
whalers. N ties' Register of May 24, 1817, men*
tions the use of such a gun by the whalers of
Bermuda. A British gunmaker named Greenet
and a Norway inventor named Svend Foyn
made guns that were mounted on the bows of
whale boats in such a way that they could be
pointed in any direction speedily. Greener's
first guns had the old flint-locks. Foyn added
an explosive bomb to his harpoon, and it was
arranged so that it would explode after it had
penetrated the whale and not before.

The harpoon for use in a gun is made entirely
of metal. The end of the handle is a disk that
fits in the bore of the gun resting on the powder
charge. The handle is in two parallel parts, and
a ring, to which the harpoon line is attached,
slides freely to and fro in the slot thus formed.

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 2^7

When the harpoon is placed in the bore of the
gun, the ring slides to the head of the harpoon.
When the gun is fired, the harpoon carries the
ring with the line trailing away behind. If the
gunner fails to hit the whale, or if the first har-
poon fails to kill the animal, other harpoons
are at hand ready for more shots as opportunity
may offer. On the coast of Norway and in the
Iceland waters the harpoon guns, as invented
by Foyn, are popular. Foyn himself made a for-
tune using his own gun. On the Pacific coast
of the United States the Greener gun has been
used. The range of these swivel guns is placed
as high as 84 yards. In America, however,
the harpoons thus used had no bomb attached.
The bombs are fired from another kind of gun.

In 1847 the following, from the Nantucket En-
quirer, went the rounds of the newspapers printed
in the Atlantic ports:

"We saw yesterday at the store of Captain
E. W. Gardner a very curious contrivance for
killing whales. It is a short gun weighing some
twenty-five pounds — the stock being of solid
brass — from which a harpoon is to be fired into

218 The Story of the New England Whalers

the animal. The handle of the harpoon goes
into the gun about a foot, and a line is fastened to
it, of course outside the gun, by which the whale
is to be held.

"There is also a bomb lance for the purpose
of killing the animal. The instrument is loaded
with powder, and a slow match is led from the
magazine to the end which goes into the gun.
When the lance is fired into the whale the slow
match ignites; and in about half a minute the
fire reaches the powder which is in the head of
the instrument, which instantly explodes, killing
the animal outright. At least, this is what the
article is intended to do.

"The whole apparatus is certainly very in-
genious; whether or not it is really an improve-
ment on the present mode of killing whales is
more than we are able to say. That is a ques-
tion that must be settled by the whalemen them-
selves."

Any study of the history of the sea shows that
sailors and shipowners are the most conservative
people in the world. It was thirty years after
Fulton made a success on the Hudson before

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 219

steamers for crossing the ocean came into use.
The compound engine was in use on the Great
Lakes before 1850, but salt-water owners refused
to adopt it until after 1870. Ericsson made a
practical screw propeller before 1840, and men-o'-
war used it within five years; but the merchant-
ship owners were building side-wheel Atlantic
liners until after 1860. The gun that could be
fired from the shoulder to throw a bomb into a
whale was to come into universal use only after
the whaling business had died down to a small
fraction of what it was when the gun was intro-
duced.

The muzzle-loading gun described in the Nan-
tucket paper is now known as the Brand gun,
and it is still popular on Cape Cod, though about
as much out of date as the hand lance. Three
sizes have been in use in the fishery, the bore
being from seven-eighths of an inch to an inch and
a quarter in diameter, and the weight of the gun
from 23 pounds down to 18. The charge of
powder was but three drams. C. C. Brand of
Norwich, Connecticut, was the inventor of the old
smooth-bore shoulder gun.

22O The Story of the New England Whalers

The bomb lance to be fired from a shoulder
gun was invented by Robert Allen, also of Nor-
wich, Connecticut. It was merely a long metal
tube, filled with powder and fired by means of a
time fuse. As it was fired from a smooth-bore
gun, and was unprovided with wings or feathers
of any kind to keep it travelling end-on, it was
quite likely to strike the whale "broadside to,"
and fail to penetrate far enough. It was not
only ineffective in such circumstances, but it was
likely to prove dangerous to the whalemen by
exploding as it lay on the surface of the whale,
and throwing pieces of the metal in all directions.

In 1852, however, Brand improved the bomb
by giving it feathers such as the Indians used to
affix to their arrows, only rubber was used in-
stead of feathers from a fowl. As thus improved,
the bombs are now used.

A curious accident occurred in connection with
the use of the bomb harpoon of Norway. In
1895 a dead whale, into which more than one
harpQon had been fired, was brought alongside
the little steamer on which the gun was mounted.
The steamer was to tow it to the beach near the

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 221

try-works. When the whale had been well se-
cured to the steamer, a live bomb that was in the
whale's blubber suddenly exploded. The explo-
sion opened a hole in the vessel, which sank so
quickly that the crew had barely time to escape.

In May, 1877, the New Bedford Mercury had
the following:

"During last year Captain Eben Pierce, the
well-known manufacturer of bomb lances, and
Selmar Eggers . . . perfected ... a breech-load-
ing whaling gun varying from the ordinary
weapon as much as a modern sixteen shooting
rifle does from the flint-lock shot-gun of our
ancestors.

"The great superiority of this weapon lies in
the manner of loading. The old guns were loaded
with loose powder, and were more dangerous to
handle when charged; the powder would also
become dampened with flying spray when in a
boat that was going through the water at a lively
rate, and it has often occurred that when the
pursuers had arrived within easy range of their
prey they would find the charge moistened, and
the weapon consequently useless. Mr. Eggers'

222 The Story of the New England Whalers

gun is so constructed that by touching a spring
in the butt, a chamber in which the barrel ter-
minates is opened. Into this a cartridge is in-
serted. It is charged with 2^ drams of powder,
or about half the quantity used to load the ordi-
nary guns. The chamber is then closed. Upon
pulling the trigger the hammer strikes a sharp
blow upon a cap in the end of the cartridge, and
the piece is discharged. The whole operation of
loading, firing, and reloading can be accomplished
in two minutes' time. . . . The gun is much
surer and safer, as these cartridges can be kept
in the pocket until needed ; and no water can
lessen their power after they are placed in the
chamber. With the breech-loader, a lance can be
sent with destructive effect over 750 feet, if fired
at a slight elevation. The weapon is constructed
of gun metal and is thus almost impervious to
wet."

Cunningham and Coogan, a New Bedford firm,
brought out another breech-loader, with a bomb
lance for a projectile. Each style of gun has its
friends. It is said by whalers that all three kinds
of guns herein described are effective, and that all

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 223

of them "kick" with amazing power whenever
fired. It is, therefore, customary to use a lan-
yard to secure every gun to the boat in such a
way that if the gunner should be kicked over-
board, the gun can be recovered !

Bomb lances, in late years, have been made
from 17 to 19 inches long, and from a pound and
a quarter to two pounds in weight. The burst-
ing charge is about two ounces of powder. In
using these bomb guns the whale is first struck
with a harpoon thrown by hand, the boat is drawn
up within range as soon as possible — within
from 30 feet to 30 yards — and then a lance is
fired into the animal.

^ The darting gun is the latest style of bomb-
throwing weapons. It was invented by Captain
Eben Pierce and Patrick Cunningham, of New
Bedford. A gun barrel is attached, with its
muzzle end down, to a harpoon. The gun barrel
is provided with a trigger in the shape of a rod of
metal that projects beyond the muzzle. Having
loaded the gun, the combination of harpoon and
gun barrel is thrown at the whale. The harpoon
sinks into the whale and holds the boat to the

224 The Story of the New England Whalers

animal by means of a line, as usual. As the har-
poon is thus made to penetrate the whale, the
metal-rod trigger strikes against the skin of the
whale, discharges the gun, and the bomb lance is
thus fired into the whale. The Whale Fishery
says that "were it not for this kind of gun, ice
whaling could not be successfully pursued."
That is to say, that the whales found along the
ice fields are now so shy, and hover so close to
the ice, that if struck by an ordinary harpoon
they would escape under the ice before a bomb
could be fired into them from an ordinary gun.
•V Still another weapon — the whaling rocket —
was invented by Patrick Cunningham. Cunning-
ham is known to most seafaring people as the in-
ventor of a line-carrying rocket used by the life-
saving stations for carrying lines to stranded
ships. This rocket was modified so that a barbed
harpoon point was fixed to the head. A gun
barrel loaded with a bomb lance was attached
beside the rocket, and the combination was so
arranged that the rocket in its flight would strike
the whale, the harpoon would penetrate, and the
gun would then fire the bomb into the whale.

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boat? 225

The rocket gun has been found useful chiefly in
the alongshore fisheries, where boats larger than
the ordinary whale boat are desirable.

The use of a net for taking whales has been
mentioned. In 1848 Captain Josiah Ghenn,
master of the schooner Council, while cruising off
the coast of Labrador, made a net 150 fathoms
long by 8 deep, and set it as a trap near the beach,
hoping to catch a bowhead in it. A bowhead
entered the trap, but on becoming somewhat en-
tangled, it swam away out to sea.

"And I have never seen that whale or net
since," said the captain, in relating the story to
the writer of The Whale Fishery.

In an essay on Whale Fishing in the Faroe
Islands, Mr. S. H. C. Muller described to the
International Fisheries Exposition (Glasgow,
1882) a net that is used in those islands for tak-
ing blackfish, as the grind or pilot whale is called.
This net is usually 200 fathoms long by 8
deep, and is made of nine-yarn rope. It has been
found very useful in holding the small whales
within narrow waters until the fishermen can go
among them and use the lance.
Q

226 The Story of the New England Whalers

These blackfish are only twenty-two feet long
at most At one point on the coast of New Zea-
land a station has been established for the express
purpose of taking right whales with a net. The
following, regarding this station and its net, was
written by Mr. Allen Kelly, and published in
Forest and Stream on July 21, 1906:

"Wangamumu is a little bay on the east coast,
a few miles south of a prominent cape which juts
out to the northeast and might easily be mistaken
for the northeastern extremity of the North
Island. During May and June the Antarctic
whale migrates north into warmer waters, and it
seems probable that there is some set of currents
around the headland of Wangamumu which de-
ceives him into seeking a passage to the Tasman
Sea by boring into the shore at that point. What-
ever may be the cause, the fact is that schools of
whales hug the shore and pass very close to a
great jutting rock at Wangamumu.

"Straight out into the sea from the point of
rocks is stretched the whale net, made of three-
quarter inch wire rope in six-foot mesh, each
mesh being formed of separate sections of rope

Entangled Whale Diving

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 227

attached to iron corner rings, taking the places of
knots. The top edge of the net is held close to
the surface by barrels serving as buoys. A whale
cruising along the shore gets his head through a
mesh, and instead of attempting to back out, he
rushes forward and entangles himself hopelessly
in the net. . . . From a lookout station on the
top of the headland a watcher signals the ap-
proach of whales, and the boats put off and lie
in wait. An entangled whale carries away the
net with a rush, but the great weight of the wire
rope and the drag of a long line of buoys impede
him, and instead of heading out to sea and going
away with the whole outfit, he thrashes about
and soon gets fins and flukes entangled, when the
boat approaches and the whalers finish the busi-
ness with the lance as in the old days."

Plans for poisoning whales with prussic acid
were evolved in England in 1831. The Scientific
American of September 8, 1860, says:

"A paper has just been published in England
by Professor Christison on the result of some
experiments suggested as long ago as 1831, by.
W. & G. Young of Leith, for the capture of

228 The Story of the New England Whalers

whales by means of prussic acid. The subtile
poison was contained in tubes, in quantity about
two ounces. Among other difficulties one was to
discharge the poison at the right time. After
various trials the plan fixed upon was to attach
firmly to each end of the harpoon near the blade
one end of a strong copper wire, the other end of
which passed obliquely over the tube, thereby
securing it in its place; then through an oblique
hole in the shaft, close to the upper end of the
tube, and finally to a bight in the rope where it
was firmly secured. By these means the rope
could not be drawn tight (as it would be when
the harpoon attached to it struck the whale)
without crushing the tubes; the poison would
then enter the whale and death ensue. Messrs.
Young sent a quantity of the tubes charged with
poison by one of their ships engaged in the Green-
land fishery, and on meeting with a fine whale
the harpoon was deeply buried in its body; the
leviathan immediately 'sounded,' but in a very
short time the rope relaxed and the whale rose
to the surface quite dead. The men were so ap-
palled by the terrific effect of the poisoned harpoon
that they declined to use any more of them."

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 229

The Whale Fishery, in speaking of the use
of prussic acid, says that "American whalemen
unanimously attribute the inauguration of this
enterprise to the French." Nile*' Register, on
September 2, 1843, sa^ triat a French naval
surgeon had invented a tube-carrying harpoon of
a design that would spill the poison into the
wound, and it adds that such a method had been
proposed in Baltimore as early as 1837. F. C.
Sanford, of Nantucket, is authority for the state-
ment that the ship Susan, that sailed from Nan-
tucket on November 17, 1873, carried poisoned
harpoons. They were not used by the crew, how-
ever, according to the mate of the vessel, Mr.
Charles E. Allen, also a resident of Nantucket.
Mr. Samuel Tuck, of Williamsburg, Brooklyn,
New York, who was agent for the Susan, told Mr.
James Templeman Brown that the harpoons were
forged on Nantucket with slots in the head where
slender tubes of poison could be placed. Two
harpoons made in this fashion are now displayed
in the National Museum.

Captain William Adams, a Scotch whaler,
wrote to Professor Baird as follows:

230 The Story of the New England Whalers

"During the winter of 1861 a large two-grooved
rifle was made by Messrs. Dixon, of Edinburgh,
from plans and instructions of Mr. James Miln,
of Murie. The weight of the rifle was 28 pounds.
Shells were made for it and filled with one-half
ounce concentrated prussic acid and a small
charge of powder fired by a ten-second fuse."

On May 12, 1862, one of these shells was fired
into a whale. "She went under for four or five
minutes, and on coming up another was fired
into her. She then seemed quite helpless. Three
gun harpoons were then fired into her as she lay
on her side. At 12:30 P.M. she was quite dead.
We had no difficulty with the men in regard to
the poison, but we never got another chance to
use it."

An official list of patents issued by the United
States Patent Office for the week ending March
30, 1852, shows that Dr. Albert Sonnenberg and
Philipp Rechter, of Bremen, Germany, had secured
a patent for an "electric whaling apparatus."
"We claim," said the inventors, "the application
of electric galvanic current by a conductor to an
instrument which is thrown into sperm and right

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 231

whales, as well as other animals of the sea, in
order to secure them." The whale boat for this
machine was made longer than the ordinary one.
A "magneto-electric rotation machine" was pro-
vided to supply the current, and a wire from this
machine through the whale line to the harpoon
conveyed the current into the whale. Having
struck the whale with this harpoon, the boat's
crew were to grind away merrily on the machine
while it transmitted "eight tremendous shocks or
960 strokes per minute, so formidable a power
that no living being can resist the same." The
current was to return through the water, the
bottom of the boat being coppered to facilitate
the flow.

Last of all to be described in connection with
the weapons is a reel used on the Norwegian
steam whale boats for "playing" a whale after it
has been struck with the harpoon that is fired
from a swivel gun. 'The harpoon line used there
is of soft hemr> and about as thick as a man's
wrist. All of the line, except the necessary slack
that is coiled beside the gun, is wound on the
spool of a steam winch. When a whale is struck

232 The Story of the New England Whalers

by a harpoon, but not killed by the attached
bomb, the wounded animal plunges to the bottom
or swims away at its utmost speed. At this time
the man at the winch pays out as much line as
he must, but keeps a heavy strain on it. When
the whale slackens its speed, or in any way eases
the strain, the line is wound in, but only to let it
out again, if the whale makes another plunge.
The man at the winch literally plays the whale as
a rod fisherman plays a trout or salmon, until it
is finally brought within reach of another bomb.

As the models of harpoon and spear were de-
veloped from the arrow and the spear of the abo-
rigines, so, it may be said, the whale boat is but a
larger and stronger birch-bark canoe. The first
civilized whalers of America used such boats as
were carried by the ships that crossed the sea.
But from Long Island to the coast of Maine the
colonial whalers had ever before them the light-
weight canoes, sharp at both ends, that were
used by the red whalers. The Indians in their
canoes dashed in alongside the whale, plunged
home their weapons, and then, with a stroke of
the paddle, turned away, dodging the flukes and

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 233

escaping immediate danger, only to return again
for another attack. In speed and handiness the
canoe model was not excelled by any then known
to the white men. Therefore, in spite of race
prejudice, inherited from the brutal days when
every man's hand was against his neighbor, the
white whalers adopted the red man's model.

The whale boat was sharp at both ends and
could be driven astern as readily as ahead. Giving
the boat great sheer — building the bow and stern
high out of water — enabled it to throw off the
waves of a rough sea, and also made it less likely
to turn over when struck by a flaw of wind.
Then, still following the canoe model, the floor
was made nearly flat so that the crew could turn
the boat swiftly and dodge the onslaught of a
wounded whale much as the Indians did. Oars
were used by the white whalers from the first, but
they also adopted the Indian paddle, because
paddles made less noise and disturbance in the
water. Finally sails were added to the boats of
the white whalers, partly because a sailing boat
could run on to a whale without disturbing it, and
partly because sailing saved the work of rowing.

234 The Story of the New England Whalers

Since 1860 the usual length of the whale boat
has been 28 or 29 feet. A 28-foot boat is 20 feet
long on the keel, 5 feet 8 inches wide, and 26 inches
deep. The keel is "4 inches in rocker"; it is
bent in the shape of a bow. The sheer or up-
ward curve of the rails was 15 inches above the
horizontal plane amidships in former days, but
it is made less in these days. All framing is made
of white oak and the planks are of cedar. The
ribs are but half an inch deep. Inch-pine boards
are used for thwarts. A mast is stepped through
a hole in the forward thwart. Centreboards are
located where needed. The stem rises above the
rail, where it is shaped like a Y, in the bottom of
which is a brass roller or a lining of lead to form
a smooth fairway for the whale line. A shallow
box is built something like a forecastle deck in
the bow of the boat. On this are coiled the spare
ends of the whale lines that are attached to the
"live" harpoons. At the stern of the boat a
stout timber head rises from the keel up through
a short deck, and it is well supported by knees.
The whale line is taken from the tub to this
timber head, around which two or. three turns are

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 235

taken in order to bring a strain on the line when
a struck whale is sounding. The friction of the
line flying around this timber often sets it on fire,
and it is necessary to throw water over it. The
weight of a whale boat ready for the ship is from
500 to 550 pounds. One in the National Museum
with its load of weapons, lines, etc., weighs 1528
pounds. The boat is usually steered with a
19-foot oar, but a rudder is carried. The oars
range from 9 to 16 feet in length, and the shortest
is placed at the bow. The 28-foot boat formerly
sold as low as $90, but the prices are now far
above $100.

The ordinary whale ship of what was called
the Golden Era of the nineteenth century car-
ried four boats on the davits, — one aft on the
starboard side, called the "captain's" or the "star-
board" boat; one aft on the port side, called the
"larboard" boat; one on the port side abreast
the mainmast, called the "waist" boat; and one
forward on the port side, called the "bow" boat.
The first, second, and third mates had charge of
these boats on the port side in the order named.
The harpooner of the captain's boat took charge

236 The Story of the New England Whalers

of it when the captain wished to remain on the
ship.

Every whaler carried two or three spare boats
and plenty of lumber for making repairs. Some
modern whalers carry from five to seven boats on
the davits ready to lower, but they keep the star-
board waist clear because it is there that the
whale is secured when its blubber is to be saved.
The small schooners that now haunt the Atlantic
grounds carry two or three boats on the davits,
and a spare one on "the tail feathers," as the
davits at the stern are called. The davits are
made of stout bent timbers, that rise about ten
feet above the rail in order to hold the boat above
the waves. Iron davits have been tried, but they
were not approved. Whale boats are usually
worn out in one voyage, even when they are not
destroyed by the whales. They are thrown vio-
lently against the side of the ship when lowered
in a seaway; the race to reach the whale is some-
thing of a strain, and the race after the whale is
struck, when they are dragged through — literally
through — the waves at a speed of from six to
twelve knots an hour, is a greater one. When the

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 237

whale sounds, the strain on the line lifts the stern
high in the air while the bow is depressed until
the rail is just awash. After the racking of a
cruise of forty months, no one cares to use the
boats for a new voyage.

The original deep-water Nantucket whaler was
a sloop of thirty to forty tons, — a vessel of the
size of .the oyster sloops that are to be seen in the
Atlantic ports. Such vessels as these, and even
larger ones, were built back in the woods, at times
a mile from the water. When ready they were
lowered down on huge sleds and drawn by a
hundred yoke of oxen to the water side. The
men who built the ship manned it. Nantucket
men (or women) also wove the canvas for their
sails, beginning in 1792, and a newspaper item
of that time says that the looms employed more
hands than the five ropewalks that were then in
existence on the island. The cost of the small
whale ships of the eighteenth century was nomi-
nally from £3 to £5 per ton register.

During the nineteenth century the Pacific
whalers were from 200 to 450 tons register, usually.
A ship like the Charles Pbelps, built at Westerly,

238 The Story of the New England Whalers

Rhode Island, for Stonington owners, and regis-
tered at New London on August 23, 1842, was a
favorite size. As described by James H. Weeks
in the Westerly Sun (January 2, 1900), she was
107.5 feet long by 27.5 wide and 13.75 deep.
She measured 362^ tons. Such a ship and her
outfit cost from $60 to $70 a ton. In 1847 a
writer in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine boasted
that New London owned "the largest and the
smallest whalemen in the world, — the ship Atlan-
tic being 699 tons burden, while the schooner
Garland is only 49 tons." The Atlantic lost her
captain, William Beck, during that voyage, but
she saved a cargo worth nearly $80,000. Though
the largest whaler in the world, she was yet
shorter than the sloop yachts that have in recent
years sailed for the America s cup in the races off
Sandy Hook.

The first steamer employed in the whale fishery
was the Innuit. She left Peterhead, Scotland, for
the Greenland grounds in 1857, and came back
at the end of three weeks with 150 tons of oil.
This good luck led the owners of many steamers
to venture into the Arctic whale fishery; but out

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 239

of fifty-two vessels that were so employed during
the next two years, so many were lost in the ice
that steamers went out of style almost as rapidly
as they had risen in favor. Then the work of
building steamers, especially for the fishery, was
begun, and ever since that time steam has had a
firm hold on the whalers of the world.

The first American steam whaler was the bark-
rigged Pioneer of 212 tons register. She had
been built for a transport during the Civil War.
In 1865 Williams and Havens, of New Bedford,
rebuilt her and sent her to Davis Straits. She
reached home on November 14, 1866, with 340
barrels of oil and 5300 pounds of bone. In her
next cruise she was crushed in the ice. (The
Whale Fishery.") The first steam whaler to make
a notable success was the Mary and Ellen, built
by William Lewis and others, of New Bedford,
especially for the purpose. She measured 508
tons. She sailed September 9, 1879, for the
North Pacific, under Captain L. C. Owen, and
on October 10, 1880, reached San Francisco with
265 barrels of sperm oil worth $28 per barrel,
2350 barrels of whale oil worth $16 per barrel,

240 The Story of the New England Whalers

and 45,000 pounds of bone worth $2 a pound.
She was afterward sold to the United States for
use in the search for the survivors of the 'Jeanette
Expedition, and was accidentally burned on No-
vember 30, 1 88 1. The success of this ship, and
that of another which her owners built to take
her place, made the use of steamers popular for
the Arctic fishery. The American whale fleet of
1880, including outfit and steamers, was valued
at $70 a ton.

Perhaps the most interesting novelty adopted
by American whalers was a steam whale boat.
The noise made by a propeller was the chief
objection to such a craft. Whales were and are
so wary that they are sometimes frightened by
the approach of a boat under sail; that a boat
with a whirling screw under its stern should ever
get alongside a whale seemed impossible. Never-
theless, in 1882, at the suggestion of Lieutenant
Z. L. Tanner, U.S.N., the firm of J. H. Bartlett
and Sons, of New Bedford, sent a 28-foot steam
cutter, of the navy pattern, but fitted to burn
"scrap," with their bark Rainbow, Captain Ber-
nard Cogan. Aldrich, previously quoted, saw the

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 241

launch in use in the Arctic fleet during the year
1887.

"Eight vessels, two steamers, and six sailing
vessels were at anchor in the bight under Cape
East, Siberia," he wrote. "Immediately after
dinner, one day, the lookout on the southernmost
vessel raised the cry of 'b-l-o-w!' The echo
of his call had scarcely died away before the whale
boats of this vessel dropped from the davits into
the water, set sail, and scattered about to watch
for the next appearance of the whale. Boats from
the other vessels were not far behind, and within
five minutes from twenty-five to thirty white sails
were darting over the water, each boat's crew
hoping to be nearest the spot where the whale
should rise to blow. ... A great shout came
from all sides, and a ' b-1-o-w-w' sounded from each
crow's nest as the whale's head appeared above
the water within striking distance of the Lucretias
boats. There was a quick manoeuvre, the boat
steerer darted his harpoon into the whale, and
'fast boat!' resounded from every vessel. It
was a magnificent sight as the whale milled about
and started out to sea at a high rate of speed,

242 The Story of the New England Whalers

towing the boat after him. The boat steerer
had struck the whale abaft the vitals ... so
that it was yet far from certain whether he would
be captured.

"The whale went out to sea two or three miles,
towing the boat at such speed that it did not
ride over the waves but cut through them, throw-
ing spray like a torpedo boat. Then he turned
about and doubling his wake sought the protection
offered by the shore ice near the ships. The
instant the whale headed shoreward four of the
captains and I took the only steam whale boat in
the fleet and joined in the chase, as there was
little hope of saving the whale unless more bomb
lances could be shot into him, and as yet not one
of the other boats had had opportunity to shoot
him.

"At the north end of the floe was a bight in the
ice. The whale passed in under the ice and
suddenly appeared in this bight to blow. . . .
Before he could sound our boat had steamed
into the bight and was alongside of him. The
captain of the Lucretia stood in the forward end
of the boat with shoulder gun in hand ready at

Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 243

the proper instant to shoot; and the master of
the Eliza stood amidships, also with gun in hand.
It was only for an instant that we saw the whale
as we steamed past at a high rate of speed. But
the captains were alert. There were two loud
reports that almost deafened us, and that made
the boat tremble from stem to stern. The whale
gave a sweep of his flukes through the air as the
bombs exploded, and rolled over dead."

Captain Cogan, who carried out this boat,
in his report regarding its work the first year,
said that it was "used to advantage towing boats
to windward and towing whales to ship in light
winds. Found her most useful in chasing wounded
whales that got loose. It is hard for a whale
to get away from her in open water, and she always
got fast second boat. We used the darting gun,
hand lance, and bomb lances. We got two whales
with her, and saved one wounded whale that we
would have lost if we did not have her. . . .
Used properly, one steam launch is a big advan-
tage to a ship."

SKETCHES AFLOAT WITH THE
WHALERS

THAT the original deep-water whaling ves-
sels were manned by the men who had
built and owned them has already been
noted. On the return of such a ship to port the
crew received lays or shares, in proportion to the
work each had done, and then the remainder
of the catch was divided in proportion to the
share each owned in the ship. When oil was
at its lowest such a crew could live by their fishing,
and when it was high they might grow rich. The
energetic and ambitious poor man never had a
better chance to get on in the world than in the
early days of the American whale fishery. Nat-
urally the ambitious poor flocked to the whaling
ports, and the population of those ports grew in
more ways than one with the growth of the fishery.
Thus the ships were then supplied with excellent
244

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 245

crews. Later it was necessary for the captains
to reach out to the near-by towns to complete
their crews.

"Captain Isaiah West, now eighty-six years of
age, tells me that he remembers when he picked
his crew within a radius of sixty miles of New
Bedford; that oftentimes he was acquainted,
either personally or through report, with the
social standing or business standing and qualifi-
cations of every man on his vessel, and also that
he remembers the first foreigner, an Irishman,
that shipped with him, the circumstance being
commented upon at that time as being a remark-
able one." (James Templeman Brown.)

Later still neither the whaling ports nor the
near-by towns could furnish men, and the whaler
captains perforce applied to the crimps (men who
made a business of supplying crews to ships)
of all the Atlantic ports for men. They sailed
short-handed and touched at the Azores or the
Cape de Verdes for Portuguese sailors, all of
whom were whalers accustomed to an alongshore
fishery. They reached down on the coast of
Africa and gathered whom they could find, such

246 The Story of the New England Whalers

as the marooned crews of slavers and other out-
casts of the earth. In the Pacific they stopped at
the Islands and recruited among the beach comb-
ers,— white degenerates who preferred life among
the cannibal islanders, but were willing to make a
voyage now and then.

In the columns of the New York Sun, on July
14, 1839, appeared the following advertisements:

"Wanted immediately, 100 enterprising young
men, Americans, to go on whaling voyages in
first-rate ships. Carpenters, coopers, and black-
smiths also wanted. The present is a very desir-
able opportunity for those who wish to take a
voyage to sea to learn navigation or nautical
improvement. All clothing and other necessary
articles furnished on credit. Apply to S. & J.
N. Luckey, 106 South Street, upstairs."

"Wanted, thirty young men for the three ships
at New Bedford, twenty-five men for two ships
at Fairhaven, twelve men for a ship at New
London, ten men for a ship at Sag Harbor. By
applying immediately at Thomas Lewis' clothing
store, No. 15 James Slip, they can have their
choice of ships and places. All clothing furnished
on credit."

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 247

It was an advertisement something like one of
those that drew to the sea J. Ross Brown, whose
Etchings of a Whaling Cruise was once a "best-
seller" among sea stories. He had grown tired
of the work of a Washington reporter, and on
coming to New York thought to see the world
from the deck of a whale ship.

"You think we'll do?" he asked timidly after
he and a companion had applied to a crimp.

"Oh, no doubt about it," replied the crimp.
"I'm willing to risk you though I may lose some-
thing by it. If you are determined to make a voy-
age, I'll put you in the way of shipping in a most
elegant vessel, well fitted, — that's the great well-
fitted Vigilana, and activity will insure your
rapid promotion. I haven't the last doubt but
you will come home boat steerers. I sent off six
college students a few days ago, and a poor fel-
low who had been flogged away from home by
a vicious wife. A whaler, gentlemen, — a whaler
is a place of refuge for the distressed and perse-
cuted, a school for the dissipated, an asylum
for the needy. There's nothing like it. You can
see the world — you can see something of life."

248 The Story of the New England Whalers

In this way the "greenhorns" were tolled to the
ship. Like Frank Bullen in later years, Brown
signed for the voyage although he had no idea
of what he was to receive or where he was going.

When the crew had been gathered they were
taken to the ship, and she was usually found at
anchor well out in the bay, lest some of the men
desert as soon as they learned her destination.
In the early days it was the custom among New
Bedford owners, at least, to go on board the de-
parting whalers with a company of friends and
give the ship "a send-off" by sailing down the bay
in her, and serve all hands with a fine dinner and
something to drink. But that would never do
in later days. The anchor was got up as soon
as possible after the crew came on board. No
one of the whaler writers speaks of singing a
"chanty" at the windlass, but Melville says in
Moby Dick that as the Pequod reached out to sea
"lank Bildad as pilot headed the first watch and
ever and anon as the old craft deep dived into the
green seas, and sent the shivering frost all over
her, and the winds howled and the cordage rang,
his steady notes were heard :

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 249

" Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood,

Stand dressed in living green,

So to the Jews old Canaan stood,

While Jordan rolled between."

The first work on every whaler, after reaching
open water, was the training of the raw hands.
Some whaler captains allowed them to rest in the
forecastle until the inevitable seasickness had
worn off, but as a rule they had to work it off.
Bullen says of his first evening on a whaler :

"Seven stalwart men were being compelled to
march up and down on that tumbling deck,
men who had never before trodden anything less
solid than the earth. The third mate, a waspish,
spiteful little Yankee, with a face like an angry
cat, strolled about among them, a strand of rope
yarns in his hand, which he wielded constantly,
regardless of where he struck a man. They fell
about, sometimes four at once, and his blows
flew thick and fast, yet he never seemed to weary
of his ill doing. . . . Such brutality I never
witnessed before." The next day, however, "in
spite of their treatment, perhaps because of it,
some of the poor fellows were beginning to take
hold of things man fashion."

250 The Story of the New England Whalers

While one of the mates trained the "green-
horns," the men who could do a sailor's work
rigged the crows' nests, — little platforms on
which a man could stand high up above the sails
on each mast. Seats were fitted on some of these
platforms, and all were provided with stout hoops
within which the lookout could stand safely.
On each mast two men were usually kept through-
out each day, on the lookout for whales, and their
eyesight was sharpened by an offer of ten pounds
of tobacco, sometimes five dollars, as a reward
to the one who first announced a whale that the
crew succeeded in saving.

The boats were also prepared for service. In
each were placed three or four harpoons, two
lances, a boat spade, a short-handled axe or two,
and a stout knife or two. The harpoon lines were
carefully coiled into the tubs which were put into
the boats. The oars and the mast and sails were
laid in ready for instant use and then a keg of
water and one of bread, a lantern with candles,
a bucket for dipping, a dipper for the same pur-
pose, and a small flag for signalling were added.
In modern boats, at least one gun is carried with
sufficient ammunition.

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 251

The crews were divided into two divisions called
watches, — "starboard" and "larboard." "Star-
board" and "port" are the designations on ordi-
nary merchantmen. The mates also picked crews
for their boats, four men for each, each mate
picking a man in turn, beginning with the first
mate.

As soon as the boats were ready and the weather
would serve, the ship was hove to, — a part of
her sails were placed so that the wind would pre-
vent her going ahead, — and then the boats were
lowered to teach the crews how to row. A log
was sometimes allowed to drift at the end of a
line, and the boats were rowed close to it in order
that the inexperienced might have a chance to
throw dummy harpoons at it. In these drills the
ambitious youngsters of the old days took part
with an eager zest that soon made them whale-
men; but the landsmen who had been "bam-
boozled" on board, and the merchant sailor who
had shipped through a misunderstanding, always
looked upon them with disgust.

If lucky, additional drill was had when a school
of "blackfish" appeared. These small whales

252 The Story of the New England Whalers

did not yield much oil, but the chase was more
realistic than rowing aimlessly around the ship
and harpooning a log. Moreover, the flesh of
these whales is very good eating, and fresh meat
is a treat at sea.

Meals were served at 7 130 A.M., at noon, and at
5 P.M. Meat, usually boiled, and bread were
dumped in bulk into pans and carried from the
galley, or cook room, to the forecastle, where the
men divided it and ate it from small pans. For
drink they had tea and coffee sweetened with
"longlick" — molasses. On the better class of
ships the cooks made scouse, a mixture of hard-
tack (soaked in water) and meat; or of beans,
hardtack, and meat; or potatoes, hardtack, and
meat. The memory of scouse whets the appetite
of every old sailor long after he leaves the sea.
Duff was a mixture of flour, lard, and some kind
of cheap fruit, such as dried apples. The mixture
was boiled in a bag and then served with molas-
ses. "Plum duff" was stuffed with raisins — and
served in the cabin. The meat of blackfish and
porpoises was often boiled with "doughboys,"
or dumplings that were not afflicted with any-

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 253

thing to make them light, but they were always
eaten with avidity. The men ate their food sit-
ting on benches in front of their bunks in the fore-
castle. Young gentlemen accustomed to table
elegancies found forecastle conversation and eat-
ing habits deplorable at times, until custom had
changed their habits of thought.

Finally a day came when a lookout saw the
spout of a whale, or the form of a whale breeching,
or the tail of a whale lashing the water, and
straightway he roused the ship by bawling :

"There she b-1-o-w-s ! Blows! B-1-o-w-s !
There she breeches! There she white-waters!"

The crews hurried to their boats and the captain
climbed to the main crow's nest. The ship was
headed for the whale, the "pod," or the "school,"
as the case might be, and then when the captain
thought her near enough, he ordered the boats
away. The mate in each boat took the steering
oar, and the harpooner the bow oar. The light-
est man in the crew had the stroke oar and also
attended the sheet of the mainsail. His oar was
formerly 12 or 14 feet long, but may now be no
more than 9. The oarsman forward of the

254 The Story of the New England Whalers

stroke had charge of the line tub and pulled a
heavy oar, — 12 to 16 feet long. The next oars-
man had a still longer oar, — formerly as much
as 1 8 feet long, — while the man forward of him,
who was called the bow oarsman, had a shorter
oar and was required to attend to stepping the
mast and taking it down. The harpooner, called
boat steerer usually, pulled a light oar. The
mate steered the boat with an oar from 19 to 22
feet long. The long oars formerly used went out
of fashion because it was found that they wore
out the men in any but the shortest pulls.

With sail alone in a good wind, with oars and
sail in a light wind, and with oars alone in light
airs and up wind, the boats headed away for the
whale. When approaching under oars the men
put them away, and took paddles as they drew
near the whale. The ship was usually left in
charge of the captain, the cook, the cooper, and
an idler or two. If the captain "lowered," the
cooper was ship keeper.

The wildest boat races the world ever saw were
those made in chase of whales by boats from rival
ships, — especially from ships of different nation-

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 255

alities. With English, French, Portuguese, and
Americans pulling for one whale, every man worked
with all his might for the honor of the flag; and
that is a fact worth considering. In one race —
the story is a classic among American whalemen
— an English and an American boat chased a
whale in Delagoa Bay. The Englishmen were
able to cut in between the whale and the American
boat, but as they drew up beside the whale, and
the Englishman at the bow reached for his iron,
the American harpooner leaped to his feet and
"pitchpoled" his harpoon clear over the English
boat and struck the whale.

To "pitchpole" is to throw a harpoon with
both hands through a high curve to a long range.
In "pitchpoling" the harpooner generally rests
the top end of the harpoon handle in the palm
of his right hand and then, steadying the weapon
with the left hand, gives it a toss.

As the harpoon in the Delagoa Bay race struck
the whale, the harpoon line fell across the English
boat. The English crew were placed in deadly
peril, but they managed to get clear of the line
before a strain came upon it. Then the Ameri-

256 The Story of the New England Whalers

cans went on and killed the whale. The writer
has been unable to find an account of any race in
which Americans were beaten ; apparently beaten
Yankees were too much ashamed of themselves
to record their experiences.

To the "greenhorn" the row to the whale was
often a period of painful terror.

"Y'r a smart youngster, an' I've kinder took
to yer," said the mate to Frank Bullen as he pulled
toward his first whale; "but don't ye look ahead
and get gallied, 'r I'll knock ye stiff wi' th' tiller;
ye hear me ? An' don't ye dare to make thet
sheet fast, 'r ye'll die so sudden y' won't know
where y'r hurted."

It was a necessary warning, for green hands
have been known to jump overboard in a panic
on finding themselves alongside a whale. By
sailing as well as rowing, Bullen's boat reached
the whale.

" * Stand up, Louey !' said the mate softly. . . .
Suddenly there was a bump; at the same moment
the mate yelled, 'Give 't to him ! Give 't to him !'
and to me, 'Haul that main sheet, naow haul,
why don't ye?' I hauled it flat aft and the boat

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 257

shot up into the wind, rubbing sides as she did so
with what, to my troubled sight, seemed an enor-
mous mass of black india rubber floating."

The whale up tail and sounded. The men
made haste to take down the mast with its sails
and stow the bundle aft by sticking the heel of
the mast under the afterthwart and allowing two-
thirds of the bundle to project beyond the stern
of the boat. The mate went forward and the
harpooner came aft and took up the steering oar,
thus becoming the boat steerer and earning the
name by which he was known on the ship.

As the line ran out, the boat steerer threw turns
around the post standing in the stern until the
strain made the bow of the boat plunge down
to the water's edge while the stern rose high. It
was in this manner that whales were usually
struck.

The custom under which the boat steerer struck
the whale and then went aft, while the mate went
forward to lance the whale, seemed to be foolish
and dangerous to Herman Melville. He thought
the mate should both strike and lance the whale.
As the whalers saw the matter, however, the most

258 The Story of the New England Whalers

experienced man was needed at the steering oar
until the whale was struck, and then he was needed
at the lance. Moreover, placing a man of less
experience at the harpoon gave him a good train-
ing. Young men of agility were often promoted
to the rank of harpooner during their first voyage.
Bullen was promoted still higher — he became
fourth mate. The ambitious youth could have
his chance at all times in the whale fishery, even
in ships commanded by hard men, indeed, per-
haps sooner in them than in others.

Of the incidents and accidents that have fol-
lowed the striking of whales, so many extraor-
dinary stories have been told that one comes to
think that the extraordinary is the ordinary event,
if such an expression may be allowed. It is in-
teresting to note, too, that in nearly every story
of the kind some one of the boat's crew appears
in the character of hero. Consider as an example
a tale told of Amos C. Baker, who was third mate
of the bark Awashonks in 1864, and afterward
for many years keeper of Clark's Point light-
house, near New Bedford. On October 13 of
the year mentioned, the Awashonks raised two

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 259

whales off the coast of Patagonia. Three boats
were lowered, including that of Mr. Baker, and
they took the whales head and head. The mate
got fast first, and then Mr. Baker, after a vain
effort to reach the other whale, pulled in where his
harpooner threw two irons into the mate's whale.
In the usual course Mr. Baker then went forward
and used his lance, but at the instant he shoved
the steel home the whale caught his boat with
its tail, and the next thing Baker knew he was
lying in a half of the boat. The other half had
been reduced to splinters, and one of Baker's
legs had been broken above the knee. After
saving the whale (Baker's lance thrust killed
it) the other boat took the young man to the ship,
where he lay in his bunk for eighty days. When
at last he was able to walk on crutches, he hap-
pened to be on deck when a whale was raised.
All the boats having been ordered away, Baker
took his place in spite of the remonstrances of the
other officers, and leaning on the heavy steering
oar in place of a crutch, he put his boat where his
harpooner was able to give the whale first iron.
Among the classic tales of the whale fishery is

260 The Story of the New England Whalers

that of the loss of the Ann Alexander, of New
Bedford. This ship was on the "Offshore
Grounds" — west of Chili and Peru — when on
August 20, 1850, a "pod" of whales appeared
and three boats were lowered, Captain John S.
Deblois going in one of them. The mate's boat
soon struck one of the "pod," but the monster
instantly turned with jaws open and the men
fled overboard just in time to save their lives.
A moment later the whale bit the boat to pieces.
Such a disaster as this, though shocking enough
to a "greenhorn," was a common experience
among the whalemen. Captain Deblois at once
pulled in, picked up the boat's crew, and shifted
a part of them to the second mate's boat. Then
both the captain and the second mate started to
attack the whale, which had been busy, meantime,
biting at the pieces of the boat it had destroyed.
In the usual course a whale thus engaged would
not have noticed the approach of the boats for a
second attack; but this one had its eyes open,
and it turned to meet the enemy more than half-
way. Rushing forward with a speed and agility
that no boat could escape, it grasped the second

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 261

mate's boat, as it had that of the mate, and liter-
ally bit it into kindling wood.

Captain Deblois was a fighting man; the fact
that he had gone afloat where it was the whaler
custom for a captain to remain on the ship and
allow the mates to do the fighting, proves that he
was a man of aggressive courage. But when he
had once more picked his men from the sea (they
had escaped as before by jumping overboard), he
headed for the ship, and when there he sent the
mate to gather up the oars and such other debris
as might have escaped the fury of the whale.
In his view it was his duty to fill his ship with oil,
and not to "whale for glory," as persistence in
fighting a whale of this kind was sometimes called.

The mate, however, was of more reckless dis-
position. He gathered the debris as ordered, and
then, when returning to the ship, managed to get
within range of the whale and thrust a lance into
it. Unfortunately, however, he failed to reach
a vital point, and the whale, ignoring the small
boat, made a dash at the ship, striking her abreast
the foremast and crushing in her side. She sank
so rapidly that the crew were unable to secure

262 The Story of the New England Whalers

more than three gallons of water, and they would
have perished speedily in their open boats but for
the fact that they were picked up by another
whale ship.

Of course whale-ship owners always cautioned
their officers not to do such reckless things; they
all said that needless risks were to be avoided;
but the fact was that if the mate had succeeded
when he made that last attack he would have
sailed on his next voyage as a shipmaster, and
very well he knew it.

Memorable in a different way was Captain
Sparks, of the Provincetown whaling schooner
Edward Lee. During the afternoon of May 14,
1 88 1, Captain Sparks and his mate lowered their
boats in pursuit of whales. By good luck and
good work the mate soon killed one which he
secured alongside the schooner and then began
the usual work of cutting in the blubber. Cap-
tain Sparks went after a whale that was shy, and
it led him such a race that when he at last gave
up all hope of securing it, and tried to find his
way back, he was, through some error of his own
or upon the schooner, unable to do so.

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 263

Captain Sparks and his men were adrift in the
torrid zone, a thousand miles from land, in an
open boat twenty-eight feet long. The keg of
water which they had taken with them when
leaving the ship had been emptied before the pur-
suit of the whale was abandoned. For six days
they sailed toward the land with no food nor any
water except a little saved during rain squalls.
Then a school of whales appeared. To the mind
of any ordinary whaler, knowing, as all do, the
ugly disposition of the bulls usually found with
such schools as this was, the whales were to be
avoided by a crew in the condition of Captain
Sparks and his men. To the captain, however,
they seemed to offer a chance for life, and he and
his men, rising superior to the weakness that
weighed them down, pulled into the school and
killed a whale that they might eat its flesh. Later
they were picked up and brought to land.

In a Diary of a Whaling Cruise, by Victor
Slocum, published in the Forest and Stream, in
December, 1907, is a story that describes a not
uncommon experience of the whalemen after
striking a whale. It says:

264 The Story of the New England Whalers

"We jumped the boat ahead and darted two
irons, which started him off at a high speed to
windward, and the people on the ship told us after-
ward that we literally skipped from one sea to the
next. All we were conscious of was the fact that
the boat simply rested on her keel and the spray
flew over us in great sheets.

"At last he slacked up and gave us a chance
to put in a bomb lance. He made a rush to lee-
ward, to where we had left the dead whale, —
straight as a die and right over him, — dragging
us over, too, of course, all the time spouting blood.
Then he dove under us and came up with his
blow-hole right under the nose of the mate, who
was looking over the side for him, and he got the
spout of thick blood right in the face at less than
a yard distance. Of course it spattered all of us,
and when we hauled alongside with our two
whales we all looked as much like murderers as
anything else."

More men lost their lives through the flying
harpoon line than in any other way. As the
sounding whale dragged out the line a coil very
often caught around a man's body or limb and

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 265

carried him down. Cases where a man was taken
down so swiftly that the crew did not see it done
are on record. Sometimes the line jammed in
the crotch in the bow of the boat and carried
boat and all down. Sometimes the whale came
to the surface, striking the bottom of the boat
through accident. Men were kicked overboard
by the bomb-throwing guns. Bullen suffered
this mishap, and then, in trying to save himself,
he unwittingly dragged himself up on top of the
whale he had shot just as it was going into its
death flurry. He managed to cling to the harpoon
during the flurry, but was laid up for three weeks
after he was rescued.

An interesting story of a whale boat lost from
a ship is that told by Captain Roland F. Coffin in
An Old Sailor s Tarns. Coffin was in the captain's
boat, and the captain held on to a whale that ran
away all one night. They killed the whale in the
morning, "waifed" it, and then started to sail
back and find the ship.

"We missed the ship some way. Arter runnin'
till noon the next day and seein' nothin' of her,
the old man made up his mind that we had run

266 The Story of the New England Whalers

by her; that she was a-workin' up to windward
to look for us, and had reached so far over our
track as to be out of our sight when we passed her.
'So/says he, * 'tain't no use to run off any further,
and 'tain't no use pullin' to windward, and the
best thing we can do is jist to lay still, and she'll
cruise about till she finds us/

"Well, we laid still for twenty-four hours longer,
and then our grub was very near all used up,
and things was a-lookin' bad for us; so we set
sail and concluded we'd reach back and forth on
a wind, and we done so ... till near six o'clock,
when just as we was a-goin' round one of the
chaps who had stood up for to git a good look
sings out 'Land ho!' Up we all jumped in a
jiffy, and there, sure enough, about two p'ints
on the lee bow, was a small island."

They landed on the island at daylight the next
morning. It was one of the coral reefs common to
certain parts of the Pacific, and one not found on
the charts.

"What we wanted jist then more than anythin'
else was somethin' for to drink. We hadn't had
no water for nearly twenty-four hours. You may

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 267

jist imagine, then, how glad we was when one of
the party by the name of Tom Bunker — he
belonged to Nantucket — sung out, * Here's a
spring ! ' You see, sir, there was six of us all told,
and the old man had made us separate as far
apart as we could and yet be within hail, and so
go across the island for to survey it like and try
for to find wood and water. At Tom's hail,
hows'ever, we all come to at once and ranged up
to him, and sure enough, here was a little spring
of beautiful clear water. If you want to know
what first-class tipple is you must try spring water
arter you've been in a boat twenty-four hours"
without any. Tom told us that afore he come
up with the spring he seen the whole ground alive
with some kind of creepin' animal, but what they
was he couldn't tell. Well, we didn't hyst that
in exactly, but we thought that maybe Tom's
bein' so long on the water without anythin' for
to drink had made him kind of loony, and so
he imagined he seen animals when he hadn't.
'What's funny about this here island,' says the
old man, 'is that there ain't no birds onto it.
I've landed on plenty of islands afore which didn't

268 The Story of the New England Whalers

have no natives onto 'em, and there was always
thousands of birds; and here, exceptin' some gulls
a-flyin' over the reef, we ain't seen a bird.'

"Talkin' about inhabitants,' says one of the
chaps, just then, 'what do you call that thing
yonder ?' We looked where he p'inted and there,
sure enough, was a native. He appeared for to
be kind of frightened at us, and kept at a respect-
ful distance, and as we advanced he retreated.
So the old man, he says, 'You stay here, my lads,
and I'll go for'ard alone, and then maybe it won't
be so much afeerd.' So we sits down and the
old man he goes on ahead, puttin' his hands onto
his breast, and a-makin' all sort of motions for
to show that he didn't mean no harm; and finally
the savage seemed to understand, and stopped
still for to let our old man come up. But it seemed,
as he told us arterward, when he got within hailin'
distance, all of a sudden the native, as we had took
it to be, runned toward him, and with a kind of
a yell like jist tumbled down all into a bunch
at his feet. Well, we heerd the yell the critter
gave, and we rushed up to where the old man was,
and if ever I see a man flabbergasted completely,

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 269

it was that old man. 'Boys/ says he, 'that ain't
no native; it's a woman and a white woman at
that; and how on earth she got here beats me
entirely.'

"Well, she soon come around to herself, and
if ever you see a critter delighted for to see any-
body that there critter was delighted for to see
us. And the first words she said when she come
to was: 'It ain't no dream; you are real. Thank
God, I am saved ! '

"Well, as to that, marm,' says our old man,
'of course we'll do anythin' for you that's in
our power; but whether you be saved or not,
there's different opinions about, but there ain't
no doubt of the fact that we are lost.'"

The lone woman was the wife of the captain
of a whale ship that had been lost with all hands
except her on the reef. She had been washed
ashore and then had managed to save enough
from the wreck to make herself comfortable so
far as living was concerned, and there she had
remained for five years.

"Well, it was a good job for us, anyway. When
we got to her hut she says to our old man, 'Now

270 The Story of the New England Whalers

you and your men sit down here behind the house,
and I'll go to work for to cook you a breakfast. Of
course I didn't expect company, and so I haven't
got none ready at present; but there's plenty
here and I won't be long a-gittin' of it.' Well,
she takes a stick that looked somethin' like a
boat's tiller and away she went into the grove
of cocoanuts, and we seen her a-runnin' back
and forth a-strikin' at somethin' on the ground,
but whatever it was we didn't know, and to tell
the truth we didn't care. Fact was we was all
pretty well tuckered out, and gittin' where all
things was comfortable and a good breakfast
promised us, we jist give up and stretched down
onto the grass and went to sleep. The old man
sot the example, and I heerd him a-borin' pump-
log afore I dropped off. I was woke up by
one of the finest smells of cookin' I ever smelt,
and it fetched me right up onto my feet to onct,
and I went along to where the woman had her
fire, — jist some stones with a fire built onto
'em, — and found that what I smelt come from
a big sasspan whicrushe had over the fire. 'Wait
a few minits,' says she; 'it's a'most done; and if

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 271

you don't say it's a good stew, then call me a bad
cook.' The smell had waked up the rest of the
chaps by this time, and we was all ready for our
meal when she dished it up. Well, sir, I never
eat anything like that stew in all my born days.
I s'pose it was because I was hungry, partly, but
then it really was extremely nice as she made it,
for we had it often after that when we wasn't so
sharp set.

"The woman she looked on quite delighted
for to see us eat, and a-fillin' each chap's dish
as fast as it was empty; but arter she had helped
us all around for the sixth time . . . says she,
Til bet you don't any of you know what you've
been eatin'.'

"Well, marm,' said our skipper, 'that 'ere
was jist the question I was a-goin' for to ask you;
this here's a powerful good stew, and shows that
you're a fust-class cook, — but that of course
you would be, comin' from Nantucket, — but
I hain't seen no birds onto the island, and I can't
jist judge from the taste what sort of a animal
you've made it of.'

"Well,' says she, 'that there was a rat stew,

272 The Story of the New England Whalers

and rats is now about the only livin' thing there
is upon the island except ourselves, and I begun
to think that if they increased much more they'd
eat me as they have everythin' else/"

The rats had come from the wrecked ship,
"the numerous eggs in the birds' nests provin'
a great temptation," and they had driven the
birds from the reef. They had then begun to
clear the cocoanut trees, and the lost sailors found
themselves face to face with the problem of con-
trolling the increase of the rats under penalty
of starvation. But while they were working
at the problem in sailor fashion — "we had rat
to eat all ways, roast rat, broiled rat, fried rat,
rat fricassee, and rat stew" — the ship to which
they belonged arrived off the island and took
them away, leaving the rats in full control.

In the usual course, after a whale had been
harpooned it sounded and then, on returning
to the surface, went swimming away as if in
search of a far country. The crew then faced
forward and grasping the line hauled in and
pulled the boat closer to the whale, if possible.
If the speed of the whale was so great they could

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 273

not do this, they waited until the whale became
tired and slackened speed, say from ten or twelve
knots down to five or six. As the boat was then
hauled near it was steered out around the thrash-
ing tail. The mate sometimes reached out for-
ward of the bow of the boat, clutched the line,
drew it aft by main strength, and handed the
bight to the bow oarsman, who held it, leaving
the mate free. If the harpoon was planted well
forward, it was not necessary to do this. In any
way possible the boat was drawn up until the mate,
standing in the bow, was able to reach out with
the lance and drive it into the vitals of the whale.

To this day the old hand lances are used in
open water, for who would throw away a five-
dollar bomb when the hand lance would serve ?

Having killed the whale the carcass was usually
towed to the ship, though it often happened that
the ship could be sailed to the carcass. Towing
a whale was the hardest work known to the sea;
for nothing wilts a man like plying the oars when
he cannot see that the boat is making any progress.

Right whales very often sank as soon as dead,
and sperm whales did so sometimes. In her

274 The Story of the New England Whalers

first voyage the Charles Phelps saved five sperm
whales and twenty-nine right whales. Ten others
were killed, only to have them sink. The lines
parted when six others were struck (an unusual
proportion, showing that she had cheap warp),
and from twelve that were struck the irons drew
out, showing that she did not carry toggle-irons.
Her record was that of the average of her day.
In shoal waters like those of the Okhotsk Sea,
sunken whales were sometimes buoyed and
watched until the gases of decomposition brought
them to the surface. A special harpoon was
invented for raising sunken whales from shoal
depths. This harpoon had enormous barbs and
it was of extraordinary weight, — made so with
cast iron. It was fitted with rings that, when
slipped over the taut-drawn harpoon line which
had gone down with the dead whale, would serve
as guides or fair-leaders to keep the instrument
pointed at the whale as it dropped down through
the water. Such a harpoon, sliding down the
warp, would often sink into the carcass and hold
there until the stout line that was always fastened
to it could be wound around the ship's windlass,

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 275

and lift the carcass to the surface "like a speared
sucker," as a whaleman said to the writer.

Sometimes a boat abandoned, for the time,
a whale that it had killed in order to pursue an-
other near at hand. When two whales were
killed by one boat's crew they sometimes left
one afloat where it died while they towed the
other to the ship. In every whale left adrift
the men planted a signal flag called the "waif."
The "waif" was to guide the searchers who
always went after the carcass.

When the boats were lowered, the men remain-
ing on the ship kept a careful lookout, watching
the whales and the boats. If the whales were
not instantly found by the boats' crews, these
lookouts signalled the location of the whale by
waving a flag kept at the masthead for that pur-
pose, and by manipulating the sails in various
ways. Every ship had its own private code of
signals for such occasions, and the display, when
the boats of several ships were following one
whale, was sometimes wildly exciting.

After towing a dead whale to the ship the crew
secured it alongside by means of a chain that

276 The Story of the New England Whalers

was looped around the "small" and then taken
in through a port in the bow of the ship and made
fast to a stout timber-head provided for the pur-
pose. By keeping the ship under easy sail the
body of the whale floated close alongside. A
staging or scaffold was rigged out from the side
of the ship in such a way that the body of the
whale floated between it and the ship, and yet
at some distance below it. On this staging the
first and the second mates usually worked with
spades — chisels with handles from twelve to
twenty feet long — to cut the blubber from the
carcass. A stout railing on the side next to the
ship was provided, and against this the officers
leaned as they worked at the whale. Two huge
tackles were suspended from aloft and a "blubber
hook" at the bottom of one of these was inserted
into a hole that was cut into the whale between
the eye and the fin. When this had been done
the whale's head was cut off and allowed to float,
at the end of a stout line, astern of the ship while
the blubber was stripped in a long spiral from the
body. In stripping the blubber the men hoisted
away on the tackle that had been hooked into the

Cutting in a Whale

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 277

blubber near the eye, and the officers cut through the
blubber in such a way as to release a long strip.
When the tackle had been run up as high as
possible another one was hooked into the blubber
at the level of the scaffolding and then the part
above this tackle was cut loose with a long-
handled, long-bladed knife, called a boarding
knife. The big pieces of blubber thus secured
were called blanket pieces, and they were from
three to six feet wide by perhaps twenty feet
long. They were lowered into the hold as fast
as secured, until the body was stripped. The
head was then cared for. The head of the sperm
whale was peculiar. The lower jaw was long
and slender. The part above the mouth was
composed of a tough gristle called "white-horse."
Above that was a boneless layer of blubber called
the "junk," and above that a huge cell — really
a great tank — that was filled with a superior
quality of oil in a liquid condition. The entire
head of a small sperm whale was hoisted in on
deck and there cut up. The lower jaw of a large
sperm whale was taken in first of all; then the
"white-horse" and "junk" were separated and

278 The Story of the New England Whalers

hoisted, each by itself, on deck. The "case,"
as the huge tank in the head was called, was
then hoisted in if possible ; if too heavy for that,
the case was hoisted, neck end up, as high out
of water as possible, after which a hole was
opened into the tank, or case, and the oil was
bailed out with a bucket.

In cutting up the heads of the bone whale,
it was customary to cut off the lips, which were
full of oil, and then take pains to get on deck the
upper jaw with the bone attached.

When the more valuable parts of the whale
were on the ship, the lean carcass was allowed
to go adrift, — food for the sharks that always
swarmed around a whale ship that was "cutting
in." The fact is that the sharks sometimes
got so much of the blubber that the crew were
kept busy to save any quantity worth while,
and this was especially true when three or more
whales were brought alongside at once, as some-
times happened. It is said that the sharks never
attacked the men who, in the course of the work,
were obliged to get down on the whale's body.
Nevertheless, the officers on the cutting stage

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 279

usually jabbed their spades into every shark
that came within reach, because of the quantity
of blubber taken. Killing or wounding a shark
always attracted the near-by sharks to it, and it
was devoured by them.

The blanket pieces of blubber were cut into
chunks as large as a man could handle — each
say as long as the blanket was wide, and a foot
or so wide. These were laid one at a time on
benches called "horses" and slices were cut,
something like the slices from a loaf of bread, only
the slice was not quite severed from the main
chunk. As these slices were connected together,
something like the leaves of a book, they were called
"books" and "bibles." The "books" of blubber
were pitched into the try-pots, which were huge iron
kettles, two or three in number, supported in
a brick furnace placed on deck abaft the fore-
mast. An iron pan full of water was placed
under the furnace as a precaution against fire.
The furnace was heated by burning "scrap,"
the fibrous remainder left after the oil was ex-
tracted from the blubber. When a ship returned
home, it always carried enough scrap to start

280 The Story of the New England Whalers

the fires on the next voyage. As the oil came
from the blubber, it was dipped into tanks to
cool and then run into the barrels and stowed
in the hold.

Steam whalers have been fitted with tanks
heated by steam to try out the oil. In the Nor-
wegian fishery the lean parts of the whale are
steamed to extract the oil, and the refuse is made
into fertilizer.

At all times, cutting in a whale was hard work.
It was work that had to be done as rapidly as
possible, too. Trying out the blubber was not
so hard, though on a ship where the master was
overbearing and cruel it could be made most
disagreeable.

Slocum, previously quoted, says of the work:
"Cutting in and trying out the blubber is a prosy
job, and nasty is no name for it. All hands
strip down to a shirt [he was in a warm-water
whale ship], a pair of overalls rolled up to the
knees, showing a pair of bare shins and sockless
feet in large brogans, and in we go — grease
from head to foot — day and night until the
whale is all cut safely on board. It gives you

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 281

a funny sensation at first to get into a deckful
of blubber, with the slimy stuff around your
exposed cuticle, and oil squashing out of your
shoes at every step."

As a rule, the men found some pleasure in dip-
ping their hardtack into the boiling oil, and thus
recooking it into a sea dainty. The flesh of the
young whales was eaten, especially that of the
humpback. In some ships a barrel of flour
was brought on deck and the cook was kept
busy making doughnuts while the boiling was
in hand. Sailors from ships commanded by the
strong men of the fishery — men who did not feel
obliged to resort to cruelty to preserve discipline
— always spoke of boiling out the oil as a "squan-
tum," which is the Nantucket word for a picnic,
and they were known to call the boat ride which
was taken when a struck whale towed the boat
far from the ship a "Nantucket sleigh ride."

In foul weather no master could make the work
of cutting in anything less than a terrible hard-
ship, especially if the ship were in high latitudes.
And the boiling, which had to be done on deck
without shelter, was of course also a hardship.

282 The Story of the New England Whalers

The bark Java, that sailed from New Bedford
on Octobers, 1872, carried a donkey engine on
deck for use in all hoisting work, and especially
when cutting in. The modern steam whalers
have steam winches for the same purpose.

"Scrimshawing" and "gamming" alone remain
to be considered in the life of whaler crews.
"Gamming" was simply visiting from ship to
ship whenever opportunity offered. A boat from
each of two ships meeting in fair weather would
be lowered to carry parties to and fro. It was
a hard ship indeed where the crew was not al-
lowed such a bit of recreation, and the men
who thus got together told stories, sang, and
danced to their hearts' content. "Scrimshaw-
ing" was the work of the whaler artists. In
all but the worst ships the men were allowed
at least half of each twenty-four-hour day to
themselves. On some ships they had more than
half. This leisure was allowed, of course, only
when there was no whale in sight or alongside.
The men could not sleep all of their watches
below and there were no circulating or other
libraries on whale ships. To pass away the

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 283

heavy hours, the men made many kinds of fancy
things for friends at home. The teeth of the
sperm whales were saved and carved into picture
frames, brackets, and many other devices. Canes
were made from the sperm jawbone, from whale-
bone, and from the backbones of a shark strung
on an iron rod. The heads of these canes were
generally carved from teeth of the sperm whale.
Strange woods were secured at the islands where
the ship called, and these were made into writing-
tables, work-stands, work-boxes, etc., and they
were often inlaid with tooth ivory and shells
and woods of different colors, making designs
of striking beauty. Strange fibres were woven
into mats and rugs. The tools used by the
"scrimshanders," as these workers were called,
were usually as rude as those used by the aborigines,
but, like the aborigines, the sailors had no end
of time, and a look into the parlors of the old-
time whalers shows that artists were developed
among the men who killed whales for a living;
the product of their skill was really the expres-
sion of the love they had for the work they were
doing.

284 The Story of the New England Whalers

Said a writer in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine,
November, 1840:

"The appearance of most whalemen when
they return from a voyage is hardy and robust
in the extreme; the substantial food and bracing
air, afforded by the circumstances in which they
are placed, as well as their violent exercise, serv-
ing to give remarkable vigor and animation
to their constitution. The class of men acting
in the capacity of masters cannot be regarded
with too great respect. As a body they are men
who have combined in their character the most
valuable traits; cool, determined, and brave,
they bear the weight of duties and encounter
hazards which could hardly be appreciated upon
the land. A striking difference exists, however,
in the success of different masters. Some appear
always endowed with good luck, while others
are as uniformly unfortunate in their expeditions.
Doubtless the different success of these captains
may be attributable to a diversity in skill, energy,
knowledge, and prudence; yet it is often owing
to circumstances which are known only to the
Omniscient. We have in our eye one of these

Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 285

men who, although yet comparatively young,
is distinguished for his energy and his uniform
success. Spare in his form, there is a restless-
ness in his eye and frame which seems to indicate
that his soul is absorbed in his pursuit and con-
quered by his ambition to succeed. ... He
has worked his way by degrees to the station
of principal owner in a large ship, starting as
he did a common sailor, and by his own efforts
has already earned a considerable fortune. . . .
This man has been a source of vast profit to his
employers, and while we are writing is probably
hurling the harpoon into a whale upon waves
so high and beneath clouds so dark that other
mariners would deem it prudent to lay to for pres-
ervation from the winds."

The whalemen were the frontiersmen of the
sea. Their life was at least as rude and as dan-
gerous as that of the home makers who built
log huts between the villages of hostile savages
in the West. And on the whale ship as on the
frontier, the man who had ambition and energy
and endurance always won out at last.

WORK OF THE FIGHTING WHALES

SAID Captain Benjamin Worth in writing
his autobiography for use in Macy's His-
tory of Nantucket:

"I began to follow the sea in 1783, being then
fifteen years of age, and continued until 1824.
During this period of forty-one years I was ship-
master twenty-nine years. From the time when
I commenced going to sea until I quitted the
business I was at home only seven years. At
the rate of four miles an hour while at sea I have
sailed more than 1,191,000 miles. ... I have
assisted in obtaining 20,000 barrels of oil. . . .
While I commanded a vessel not one of my crew
was killed or even had a limb broken by a whale."

It sometimes happened that way. Some cap-
tains loaded their ships, voyage after voyage,
with never a mishap of any kind, but in the usual
course the whalemen had fierce combats with
whales during every cruise. Among the many
286

Work of the Fighting Whales 287

stones told of the fighting whales none is more
graphic than that related by J. T. Brown in
Stray Leaves from a Whaler s Log (as printed
in the Century Magazine for February, 1893),
about the death of a Portuguese-American boat
steerer known as Vera.

"Vera had been ordered to rig up one of the
spare boats, and devoted most of his night to strap-
ping irons and getting his boat into shape for
lowering, whistling and humming snatches of
songs to himself as he worked industriously
about the windlass bitts. Early the next morn-
ing a lone sperm whale was descried on the
horizon, and the larboard and bow boats were
again ordered down.

"I think you'd better play loose boats to-day,
and let Mr. Ashford get fast,' said the captain
to Mr. Braxton [the mate in charge of the lar-
board boat, Mr. Ashford, the third mate, having
command of the bow boat] as the boats pulled
away from the ship.

"'All right, sir,' replied the mate, and away
sped the boats through the silent water under
double motive power of sail and oar.

288 The Story of the New England Whalers

" The bow boat, according to orders, got in first,
but the whale turned flukes and sounded. Both
boats lay off for the rising, and for further develop-
ments. The boat stee'rer of the bow boat had
been reported ill before leaving the vessel, and
Vera had taken his place. . . . The stroke
oarsman [of the larboard boat — it was Brown,
the writer] was retained at his own oar, and at
the time we now speak of was in excellent position
to witness the magnificent spectacle of harpoon-
ing a large sperm whale, provided Mr. Ashford's
boat should strike it first.

"Vera was standing in the bow of his boat
with his harpoon well in hand, his head swathed
in a party-colored handkerchief, his shirt collar
turned well back, exposing the bronze of his pow-
erful neck, and his nervous, restless eye covering
the sea about him. There was a deathlike still-
ness about the scene, broken only by the swashing
of the restless waves as they beat against the
sides of the boats, and by the gurgling noise of
the tide-rips as they played mischievously with
the steering oars which trailed astern.

"Suddenly there seemed to be a commotion in

Work of the Fighting Whales 289

the bow boat, Vera uttered a cry in Portuguese,
and, like a terrific bolt of fire from the clear sky
of a midsummer day, the immense, glistening
lower jaw, armed with two rows of polished
teeth, flashed from the water, and the gigantic
whale leaped into the air, carrying with it the head
of the boat, which had been snapped asunder,
and the unfortunate Vera, whose head and long
arms were suspended from the corner of the
monster's mouth, the body and legs being con-
fined within the iron vice. The sportive hump-
backs, those clowns of the cetaceous order, often-
times bolt clear of the water; but it is seldom the
horizon is outlined between a sperm whale and
the sea. The eyes of the stroke oarsman of the
larboard boat were directed to poor Vera's face,
— the rapidly changing expression of that face,
which afterwards appeared to him in his dreams
in the forecastle and in his lonely vigils at night.
First it indicated surprise and indignation; next
it seemed to implore help; but the lips spake
not and not a muscle moved. A calm resigna-
tion now settled upon the blanched features,
but it soon gave way to utter despair and help-

290 The Story of the New England Whalers

lessness, which were rapidly succeeded by facial
contortions indicative of the most intense physical
suffering. The whale closed its mouth upon the
victim's waist, and disappeared beneath the
boiling waters, carrying with it the wretched
sufferer, whose life blood tinged the foam-crested
waves.

"Two other men, the bow oarsman and the
midship oarsman, were never seen again. No
one knows whether they were killed outright or
drowned. The remaining three, all more or less
cut or bruised, though not seriously, were fished
up from the floating debris, the officer, Mr. Ash-
ford, being hauled up by the hair of his head
in a fainting condition. Not a word was uttered
except by Mr. Braxton, who said in a low, soft
tone of voice:

"'Come, boys, let's head her for the ship."5
Some of the stories of the fighting whales in-
dicate that when an old sperm had been attacked
and had escaped serious injury he was always
ready thereafter to force the fighting at sight
of a whale boat. For example, consider the story
of the Barclay, Captain William Barney, Jr.,

Work of the Fighting Whales 291

of Nantucket. She sailed for the Pacific on
October 9, 1832. The story of her adventures
was never told in detail, but before the end of
the month, while off the Azores, she sent her
boats after a sperm whale, and the mate's boat
soon struck it with both irons. When the mate
had gone forward to apply the lance, however, the
whale turned and killed him, after which it made
good its escape. A few days later the ship Hector,
Captain John O. Morse, of New Bedford, met
the same whale. Captain Morse was one of the
fighting skippers and lowered with his mates
for the attack, only to find that the whale was
coming to meet them all at least halfway. It
selected the mate's boat for its first rush. The
mate by a quick turn escaped its first attack
and managed to throw a harpoon into it as it
passed; but the next instant the whale struck
the boat, no one knows how, and made basket
work of its bow.

The whale then turned, apparently to attack
the boat with its jaw, and it would have gone
hard with the crippled boat but for the presence
of the captain, who pulled in and attracted the

292 The Story of the New England Whalers

attention of the monster. As the whale turned
toward the captain's boat the mate shouted:
"Look out, sir; it's a fighting whale!"
"All right; I've got a long lance and want
to try it," replied the captain. But before he had
poised his boasted lance the whale grabbed the
boat by the bow, lifted it entirely out of the water
and shook it to pieces, scattering the crew and
implements far and wide over the water. The
crew were all picked up, leaving the whale busily
searching the water for fragments of the broken
boat. These, as he found them, were all bitten
and crushed into matchwood, save only a keg
that had been in the boat. That danced over
the waves, escaping the rushes of the whale in
a way that seemed to exasperate the monster;
at any rate, it soon left all other objects to pursue
the keg with steadily growing vigor.

On seeing, after reaching the ship, the whale's
interest in the keg, the mate (his name was
Norton, but his first name was not recorded)
offered to pick a crew and lower once more.
He was allowed to do so. As he drew near to
the whale, however, it lost interest in the keg

Work of the Fighting Whales 293

and turned on the boat with such vicious dashes
that the crew literally fled for life. For half a
mile they pulled and turned and backed water
with all their might. Several times they escaped
from the snapping jaws by less than a foot, and
they were rapidly reaching a condition where they
could not make another stroke of the oar when
the whale suddenly turned over (it had been
fighting as sperm whales usually do with its belly
up), in order to get its nose out of water and inhale
a breath of fresh air.

As it happened, the boat was at that moment
within easy reach, and Mr. Norton, who had
never for a moment lost his head, was able to
drive his lance into the "life," killing it almost
instantly. On cutting in the blubber the har-
poons from the Barclay were found in its body,
thus proving beyond dispute that it was the whale
that had killed the Barclay's mate.

The stories of the ability of the fighting whales
to endure punishment are almost beyond belief.
The bark Emerald, Captain Abraham Pierce,
that sailed from New Bedford on July 15, 1857,
fell in with a fighting whale in the North Pacific

294 The Story of the New England Whalers

that kept all her boats busy for nine hours. Dur-
ing that time it was struck by five harpoons, and
seven bombs were exploded in it ; yet it destroyed
three boats, meantime, and then, when it was
at last killed, it sank in forty fathoms of water
and the crew got nothing for their labor.

More extraordinary still was the experience
of Captain Malloy, of the Osceola 3d, of New
Bedford. The waist boat and the captain's
boat were lowered for a lone bull. Both struck
the whale, which in turn stove in both of the boats.
A sweep of its tail cut the bottom out of the
captain's boat; the other boat was merely crushed.
The waist boat, in the meantime, had fired a
bomb into the whale, but without any effect
whatever, so far as the men could see.

As all hands had been thrown into the water
by the attack of the whale, the ship had to come
and pick them up. When this had been done
Captain Malloy headed the ship toward the whale
and stood, gun in hand, ready to fire a bomb
as soon as a convenient range should be reached.
It was supposed that the whale would be so busy
crushing the fragments of the broken boats that

Work of the Fighting Whales 295

it would not heed the approach of the ship. Never-
theless, as soon as he saw the ship coming (it
was when she was about three hundred feet away)
the whale turned on its side and made for the
ship, with its mouth open, as is the habit of the
species in making an attack. The whale struck
the vessel on the bluff of the bow, knocking off
the cutwater. The ship trembled from stem
to stern, and so great was the concussion that
many articles on board, such as crockery and
glassware, were dislodged from the places where
they were usually kept. As the whale crossed
the bow two hand lances and a bomb were thrown
into it. The vessel was headed for the whale
the second time, but it kept off. All this time
the two tow lines and a portion of the stove boat
were fastened to the whale, the lines being en-
tangled about its body. Captain Malloy with
a picked crew finally approached the whale and
killed it after a desperate battle of twelve hours.
(The Whale Fishery.}

Starbuck says that thirty-one bombs were
fired into this whale before it was killed. It
yielded 115 barrels of oil.

296 The Story of the New England Whalers

Davis, in his Nimrod of the Sea, tells about
the work of another fighting whale which made
such a terrific onslaught upon the boats that the
crew of the ship were entirely demoralized, and
the captain felt obliged to make port in order to
give the men a chance to run away, — a privilege
of which they availed themselves promptly.

Right whales also fight back, though but rarely.
A Long Island captain, whose name is not given,
relates a story of a fight with one of these whales
(it can be found in Starbuck's history) that seems
well worth quoting verbatim:

"My second mate had fastened to a large whale
that seemed disposed to be ugly; so I pulled up
and fastened to her also. I went into the bow
and darted my lance, but the whale rolled so that
I missed the life and struck into the shoulder
blade. It pierced so deep into the bone (per-
haps through it) that I could not draw it out; the
whole body of the whale shivered and squirmed as
if in great pain. Then turning a little, she cut
her flukes, taking the boat amidships. The broad-
side was stove in, and the boat rolled over, the
crew having jumped into the sea. I cut the line

Work of the Fighting Whales 297

in the chocks at the same moment to save being
run under with a kink. The crew were soon
safely housed on the bottom of the upturned
boat, or swimming and clinging to the keel. The
second mate wanted to cut his line and pick us
up, but I foolishly told him to hold on and kill
the whale. But I bragged too soon. Just then
the whale came on the full breach, and striking
the boat he went right through it, knocking men
and wreck high in the air. Next its great bulk
fell over sideways, right in our midst, and spite-
fully cut the corners of her flukes right and left.
In the surge and confusion two poor fellows
went down ; we saw no sign of them afterward,
and the water was so dark — stained with blood
— that we could not see into it.

"As the whale came feeling around with her
nose she passed close by me. I was afraid of
the flukes and got hold of the warp or something
and towed a little way until she slacked speed
a little. Then I dove under, so as to clear the
flukes, and came up astern of them. I was in
good time, for having felt the boat she turned
over and threshed it with a number of blows

298 The Story of the New England Whalers

in quick succession, pounding the wreck into
splinters. She must have caught sight of me,
for she came up on a half breach and dropped
her head on me, and drove me, half stunned,
deep into the water. Again I came up near
the small, and again dove under the flukes. From
this time she seemed to keep me in sight. Again
and again she would run her head in the air and
fall on my back, bruising and half drowning me
as I was driven down in the water.

"Sometimes I caught hold of the line or some-
thing attached to the mad brute, and would hold
until a sweep of the flukes would take my legs
and break my hold. The second mate's boat had
cut long ago, and watched her chance to pick
up the surviving crew, but had not been able to
reach me; for when the whale's eye caught the
boat she would dash for it so wickedly that the
whole crew became demoralized. . . . To hus-
band my strength I gave over swimming, and,
treading water, I faced the danger and several
times by sinking avoiding the blow from her head.
As a desperate resource, I strove with the point
of my sheath knife to prick her nose. . . . Thus

Work of the Fighting Whales 299

for three-quarters of an hour that whale and
I were fighting; the act of breathing became
labored and painful; my head and shoulders were
sore from bruises and my legs had been pounded
by her flukes ; but it was not until I found myself
swimming with my arms alone, with my legs
hanging paralyzed, that I felt actually scared.
Then it looked as if I couldn't hold out much
longer. I had seen the ship close beside me and
the second mate's boat trying to get in to me and
throwing me lines; but I had failed to reach
them. Now these things seemed very far ofF;
that was the last I remembered until I came to
aboard ship.

"I was afterward told that the first mate, in
answer to a signal from the ship, had come up;
and seeing me feebly paddling with my hands
and not answering his hail he put straight into the
fight. The whale saw them coming and made for
them. The men sprang to their oars, and the
mate had time to seize my collar while they
pulled their best to escape the furious whale.

"The mate had true pluck. Leaving me to
the care of the crew on board, he put back for

300 The Story of the New England Whalers

the whale. As he afterward said, 'she was too
dangerous a cuss to run at large in that pasture
field.' Watching a chance he got a set on her
over the shoulder blade and sent the red flag into
the air. This tamed her; she lagged around for
a time and settled away dead. The mate then
came on board and reported sunk whale. It was
several weeks before I was able to take my place
in the head of my boat again."

Still more remarkable than these stories are
those of the whales that left off fighting the small
boats to make a deliberate attack upon the ship
from which they had come. Many ships have
collided with whales and many whales have
struck ships with destructive effect through pure
accident, because unable to see what is directly
ahead of them; but the interest in this chapter is
confined to the fighting qualities of the monsters.

Of the stories of the ships that have been
struck by whales making a deliberate attack, the
most noted were those of the loss of the Ann
Alexander, already told, and of the sinking of the
Essex, of Nantucket.

The bark Katblene, Captain Thomas H. Jen-

Work of the Fighting Whales 301

kins, of New Bedford, was sunk by a whale a
little north of the equator in the Atlantic, on
March 7, 1902, and the newspapers of the day
wrote an account of the disaster in which it was
said that the attack by the whale was premedi-
tated. The facts, as related by Captain Jenkins
in a book printed in New Bedford during the
same year, show that when the whale had arrived
near the ship it plunged down and tried to go
under the ship, but he was so near and was
coming so fast he did not have room enough to
get clear of her. Another ship, the Pocahontas,
of Holmes Hole, was attacked by a whale that
left off fighting her boats and made a dash at her.
It struck a glancing blow on the bow that opened
several of her plank ends. She put into Rio
Janeiro, leaking at the rate of 250 strokes of the
pump per hour.

In addition to what has already been said about
the loss of the Ann Alexander, it may be worth
telling that five months after the disaster the
Rebecca Sims, of New Bedford, killed the whale
that had sunk the unfortunate ship, as was proved
by finding the irons which the men of the Ann

302 The Story of the New England Whalers

Alexander had thrown into it, together with sev-
eral pieces of timber that had been embedded
in its head when it broke in the side of the ship.
The injuries thus sustained had tamed its spirit,
and it made no fight when struck by the Sims.

The Essex sailed from Nantucket on August
12, 1819, under the command of Captain George
Pollard, Jr., who, by the way, was already some-
what distinguished through having been one of
the crew of Fulton's Clermont in her first voyage
up the Hudson. The Essex followed the usual
course around the Horn, and when, on November
20, she was in latitude o° 40' south and longitude
119° west, whales were raised. Three boats were
lowered. The mate's boat got an iron into a
whale, but at the next instant the animal struck
the boat with its tail, and opened a hole so large
that the mate was obliged to cut the warp im-
mediately. By stuffing their clothes into the hole
the crew of the boat managed to keep it afloat
while they pulled back to the ship for repairs.

On reaching the ship the mate saw that the
captain and the second mate were fast to a whale,
and he headed the ship down toward them.

Work of the Fighting Whales 303

Then, as he was about to begin the work of re-
pairing his own boat, the mate saw a huge sperm
whale come to the surface of the water about
twenty rods away. It lay for a moment ap-
parently having a look at the ship, and then it
settled just beneath the surface, after the manner
of whales when making an attack, and headed for
the ship. The mate ordered the wheel hard up,
but the ship was moving so slowly that she was
unable to dodge, and the whale struck her on the
bow, giving her "such an appalling and tremen-
dous jar as nearly threw us all on our faces. The
ship brought up as suddenly and violently as if
she had struck a rock," so said the mate. The
whale then passed under the ship, scraping her
keel as he passed, and came to the surface about
a hundred yards away, where he lay thrashing
the water with his tail and "snapping his jaws as
if in a great fury."

Meantime the ship began to sink, and the mate
(Mr. Owen Chase, who wrote an account of the
disaster that was printed in book form) at once
started the pumps and set a signal to recall the
boats. A little later, as he was getting some

304 The Story of the New England Whalers

provisions ready to put in the boats, one of the
crew shouted :

"Here he is; he is making for us again !"
"I turned arqund and saw him about a hun-
dred rods directly ahead of us," wrote Mr. Chase,
"coming down with apparently twice his ordinary
speed, and to me it appeared with tenfold fury
and vengeance in his aspect. The surf flew in all
directions and his course toward us was marked
by a white foam of a rod in width, which he
made with .a continual violent thrashing of his
tail. His head was about half out of water, and
in that way he came upon and again struck the
ship. I called out to the helmsman, 'Hard up!'
but she had not fallen off more than a point
when we took the second shock. I should judge
the speed of the ship to have been at this time
about three knots and that of the whale about
six. He struck her to windward, directly under
the cathead, and completely stove in her bows.
He passed under the ship again, went off to lee-
ward, and we saw no more of him."

The spare boat was now hurriedly launched
overboard and the ship's compasses were put into

Work of the Fighting Whales 305

it. When the other boats that had been in pur-
suit of the whales returned to the ship, the cap-
tain cut away her masts. Thus relieved, she sank
more slowly, and the crew were able to get from
her 600 pounds of bread, 200 gallons of water,
a musket, a small canister of powder, two files,
two rasps, two pounds of boat nails, and some
meat. Each boat was fitted with a jib and two
spritsails, and while lying beside the ship, which
remained for some time afloat with her deck
awash, the sides of the three boats were built up
with spare plank so that they would be less
likely to ship water in a gale. Finally a consulta-
tion was held. The nearest land was the Mar-
quesas Islands, and next to them the Society
Islands. But the crew feared to head for those
islands because in those days the natives were
savages who had not been well treated by such
ships as had visited them. Accordingly it was
determined, on November 22, to steer for the
coast of South America.

One of the boats (that commanded by the
mate) was old and patched, having been knocked
partly to pieces several times in fights with whales.

306 The Story of the New England Whalers

To it only six men were assigned. The other two
carried seven men each. It was agreed that the
daily allowance of each man should be one hard
biscuit and a half pint of water. It was while
thinking of the condition of himself and shipmates
as they thus began their passage toward the main-
land that Mr. Chase wrote :

"The dark ocean and swelling waters were
nothing; the fears of being swallowed up by some
dreadful tempest, or dashed upon hidden rocks,
with all the other ordinary subjects of fearful
contemplation, seemed scarcely entitled to a
moment's thought; the dismal-looking wreck
and the horrid aspect and revenge of the whale
wholly engrossed my reflections until day again
made its appearance."

On December 16 the allowance of food and
water was reduced one-half. To quench their
thirst the men then began going overboard to
soak in moisture, as they supposed, and in doing
this they discovered a number of barnacles on
the bottoms of the boats. These they cleaned off
and devoured. Four days later land was seen, —
Ducie's Island.

Work of the Fighting Whales 307

On landing a cave was discovered near the
beach, and it was immediately examined. Lying
on the floor the searchers found eight human
skeletons, and a board in which had been cut
with a sailor's knife the words, "Ship Elizibetb of
London."

As the island afforded water, with a little
peppergrass, and as it was possible to catch fish
on the reef, three of the castaways determined to
remain in spite of the manifest fate that had
overtaken the men from the Elizabeth. The
others renewed their supply of water and sailed
away once more.

In a storm on January 12, 1820, the mate's
boat was separated from the other two. Two
days later, when he had been away from the
island about two weeks, Mr. Chase wrote in his
diary (as published; it was, of course, a much-
edited diary, for no whaleman was ever guilty of
using such language) :

"We were as yet just able to move about in
our boat and slowly perform the necessary labors
appertaining to her; but we were fast wasting
away with the relaxing effects of the water, and

308 The Story of the New England Whalers

we daily almost perished under the torrid rays of
a meridian sun; to escape which we would lie
down in the bottom of the boat, cover ourselves
with the sails, and abandon her to the mercy of
the waves. Upon attempting to rise again the
blood would rush into the head and an intoxicat-
ing blindness come over us."

Six days later still, he said: "We were hardly
able to crawl about the boat. Our ounce and a
half of bread, which was to serve us all day, was
in some cases greedily devoured, as if life was
to continue but another moment; and at other
times it was hoarded up and eaten crumb by
crumb, at regular intervals during the day, as if
it was to last forever."

To add to their misery, the men usually dreamed
of eating at tables loaded with food.

On February 8 one of the men, Isaac Cole, sud-
denly leaped to his feet, hoisted the jib, shouted
that he would not give up, and that he would live
as long as any of them. Then he fell down and
died. Chase told the survivors that they ought
to use the body for food.

"We separated his limbs from his body and

Work of the Fighting Whales 309

cut all the flesh from the bones; after which we
opened the body, took out the heart, and then
closed it up again, sewed it up as decently as we
could, and committed it to the sea. We now
first commenced to satisfy the immediate cravings
of nature from the heart; after which we hung
up the remainder, cut in thin strips, about the
boat to dry in the sun ; we made a fire and roasted
some of it to serve us during the next day."

They lived on the flesh of the dead man until
the morning of the i8th, when at 7 o'clock one of
the men shouted, "Sail ho !" It was no delusion;
the brig Indian, of London, was at hand. She
picked them up and carried them to Valparaiso.
They had reached latitude 33° 45' and longitude
81° 3'. The Indian arrived at Valparaiso on
February 25.

The captain's boat and that of the second
mate were together until January 28. Their pro-
visions were exhausted and three men died of
starvation. The flesh of these men was divided
between the two boats and eaten. On February I
the men in the captain's boat, being once more
without food, drew lots to see who should die

310 The Story of the New England Whalers

and who should be the executioner. Owen Coffin
drew the death lot and Charles Ramsdale the
other. When the lot had fallen, the captain
begged Ramsdale to kill him instead of Coffin,
who was Pollard's cousin; but Coffin refused to
permit this to be done. Coffin's flesh was eaten.
On February n Barzilla Ray died of exhaustion,
leaving Pollard and Ramsdale alone in the boat.
They were found in a delirium by the whale ship
Dauphin, which arrived with them at Valparaiso
on March 17. The boat of the second mate was
never heard from. The men left on Ducie's
Island endured terrible suffering, but were rescued
by a British vessel before life was gone.

"The story of the Essex's loss and of the dire
necessity to which the survivors were reduced,
preceded Captain Pollard to Nantucket. Eye-
witnesses of the scene on his return say that the
cliffs and wharves were lined with spectators, and
that he walked to his home through an awe-
struck, silent crowd." (Gustav Kobbe, in Cen-
tury Magazine.}

Pollard sailed in command of the ship Two
Brothers in 1821, but she was lost on a coral

Work of the Fighting Whales 311

reef in the Pacific, and the captain, although all
hands were saved, gave up the sea. He was for
many years on the police force at Nantucket, and
died there in 1870, aged eighty-one years. Owen
Chase became a successful whaler captain.

XII
WHALING AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE

THE counting-house hero of the American
whale fishery was a man who deliberate-
ly took his life in his hand in the hope
of making a large profit, and succeeded. His name
was Captain W. T. Walker, of New Bedford.

In 1847 Captain William C. Brownell, of New
Bedford, bought an old ship named the Envoy,
intending to break her up for the metal in her
hull. In her career the Envoy had always been a
lucky ship. She was built in the booming year
of 1833 for Amherst Everett, of Providence, and
she was registered at 392 tons, the size of the
ordinary Pacific whaler of her day. She sailed
from home December 26, in the year she was
built, under Captain J. C. Clark, and she re-
turned four years later — January I, 1838 — •
with 2100 barrels of sperm oil, worth $57,887.
And that is to say, her first cruise paid for the
312

Whaling as a Business Enterprise 313

cost of ship and outfit, and left a large sum as
clean profit in addition. In her last cruise, which
ended in February, 1847, she brought home a
cargo worth $56,000, and in the meantime she
had done so well that she had cleared well up
toward $200,000 for her fortunate owner, or say
$12,000 a year during the fourteen years, on an
original investment of perhaps $35,000 all told.

But now the ship was far gone, worn out in
"bucking" the gales off Cape Horn, and the ice
beyond Bering's Strait. Captain Everett was rich
enough to retire from whaling and the ship was
sold, as said, to the owner of a "nautical bone
yard."

When the Envoy reached New Bedford, how-
ever, Captain W. T. Walker took a look at her.
Captain Walker wanted a ship. During a pre-
vious voyage he had purchased on speculation, at
Wytootacke, a thousand barrels of oil that had
been saved from a wreck, and he wanted a ship,
first of all, to carry that oil to market. In addition
to the freighting venture, however, he also wished
to try whaling again. The Envoy was certainly
a hard-looking specimen of a ship, but Captain

314 The Story of the New England Whalers

Walker thought she would last for one more
cruise. He was willing to "take a chance," at
any rate. And when he offered to take her, it
was not in the nature of any owner to refuse to fit
her out.

All told, including the ship, the expense of a
few repairs, and the outfit of food and whaling
apparatus, the Envoy cost just $8000, when ready
for sea. Application was then made for "a good
fat lump of insurance, to cover the risk on the
way," but the underwriters without exception
asked to be excused. This refusal of the insur-
ance companies to risk a dollar at any premium
shows to a seafaring man better than anything
else the condition of the old hulk, and it was the
entire willingness of Captain Walker to sail on a
ship as rotten as she was that makes him the
chief counting-house hero of the fishery.

There is, of course, another point of view. He
was risking not only his own life but the lives of
his crew, and it is certain that not one of the
forecastle men had any idea of the risk he was
taking when he signed for the voyage. To ship
a crew in a rotten ship was never considered

Whaling as a Business Enterprise 315

reprehensible among shipowners, and that is a
fact of some importance, perhaps, in any account
of any branch of sea commerce.

The Envoy sailed from New Bedford on July 14,
1848. Going to Wytootacke, she carried Cap-
tain Walker's oil to Manila, whence it was shipped
to London, and sold at a profit of $9000. Then
the Envoy went cruising, and in fifty-five days
took 2800 barrels of whale oil besides bone. Re-
turning to Manila, Captain Walker shipped 1800
barrels of the oil and 40,000 pounds of the bone
to London, where it was sold at a net profit of
$37>5°°- Meantime on going for another cruise
Walker had the extraordinary luck to secure 2500
barrels of whale oil and 35,000 pounds of bone.

As the old ship was now loaded in every nook
and hollow, Captain Walker headed for San
Francisco, where he arrived in 1851. Here oil
and bone were sold to the value of $73,450;
bone that netted $12,500 was shipped to New
Bedford, and then, to end all, he sold the ship for
$6000. On an investment of $8000 the Envoy
made $138,450.

The records show that as early as 1616 — in

316 The Story of the New England Whalers

the days of Champlain and Hudson — whale oil
was exported from New England. Most of this
oil was probably obtained from whales that
floated dead to the beach, for the early court
records are full of troubles arising from opposing
claimants to such whales. Nevertheless the peo-
ple of every settlement alongshore were prepared
to go afloat in pursuit of whales seen from the
beach, and it is interesting to note that the people
of Salem, for going as far as Cape Cod in search
of whales, were counted extraordinarily venture-
some. Of the profits made on Massachusetts
Bay and Long Island by the alongshore whalers
in the early days, no definite record exists. The
records of Nantucket are more satisfactory.
Thus, in 1715 six sloops that averaged 38 tons in
size secured 600 barrels of oil and 11,000 pounds
of bone, the value of the whole being £1100. At
first thought this seems a small take for a year's
work of six sloops, but it must be remembered that
these sloops were not constantly at sea; the
owners, who were also the crews, were, as already
noted, farmers who worked their land besides
going whaling. They, at least, produced their

Whaling as a Business Enterprise 317

own food between cruises. Moreover, in that era
of low wages £183 per vessel seemed vastly larger
than such a sum seems now. In 1730 twenty-five
vessels secured 3700 barrels of oil, and in 1745
the island shipped 10,000 barrels of oil to Boston
alone. Small as the average income of a ship may
seem, the business was growing. Further than
that, the vessels did not fare all alike. Some
came home "clean," — without a barrel of oil, —
while others saved large quantities in short
periods. Naturally, the good luck of the few
kept the many trying.

Two interesting business facts are related of
the fishery in those early days. In 1706 one
Thomas Houghton secured from the New York
authorities a monopoly of the lean parts of whales,
which, in the usual course of the fishery, were left
at the water's edge to decay. He set forth in his
petition to the authorities that he intended to
carry the meat and bones to Boston, where he
was to treat the material by a secret process.
What the product was to be is not stated, but it
appears by inference that he was to make salt-
petre by burying the material in the soil, where,

318 The Story of the New England Whalers

as is now known, the nitrate of potash would be
formed by bacterial processes.

In 1750 an Englishman, named Benjamin
Crabb, obtained from the Massachusetts authori-
ties a monopoly for making sperm candles during
a period of fourteen years. The Crabb monopoly
failed. No capitalistic monopoly of the early
days ever succeeded, though backed by legal
enactment, as have the monopolies of modern
days which have, in some cases, been maintained
contrary to statute.

The extent of the whaling business in the years
before the Revolution has been set forth in figures.
Large as was the business then done by Nantucket,
the extent of the fishery at other ports was of
small moment. After the American seamen, by
good fighting afloat during the War of 1812, had
secured the right to cross all seas unmolested
by foreigners, the business spread to other ports
rapidly. Thus in 1815 the total number of
whalers that went to sea after peace was restored
was: from Nantucket, 50; from New Bedford,
10; from Sag Harbor, Long Island, 3; from
Fairhaven, Massachusetts, 2; from Hudson, New

Whaling as a Business Enterprise 319

York, 2, and from Westport, Massachusetts, I.
While fourteen of these ships returned to port
"clean," more than half of them brought home
full cargoes, and it was in 1817, when those of
the fleet which had gone to the Pacific were com-
ing into port, that the recorded catch of sperm
for the first time rose above 1,000,000 gallons,
the actual amount being 1,028,475, worth 72 cents
a gallon. The take of whale oil was 561,830,
which then sold for 60 cents, and this, with 19,444
pounds of bone that sold for 12 cents a pound
(it was hardly worth saving at the price), brought
the total income of the whalers for that year up
to $1,091,576.88.

Fewer ships had been fitted for the fishery in
.1816 and 1817 than in 1815, but the success of
the Pacific ships that arrived in 1817 started a
growth of the fishery which continued practically
unchecked for about thirty years.

A curious feature of this growth was the in-
terest taken by capitalists in out-of-the-way ports.
Two ships sailed from Hudson in 1817, following
those of 1815 to the Pacific, and one, the Eliza
Baker, Captain Paddock, was long remembered

320 The Story of the New England Whalers

because she was overhauled by a pirate that
robbed her crew of all the clothing they had. In
1818 Philadelphia tried whaling with indifferent
success. A year later New York City sent out
two. Perth Amboy tried the fishery in 1824;
Edenton, North Carolina, in 1831; Poughkeepsie,
in 1832; while Gloucester, Massachusetts, the
home of the cod-fishery, turned to whaling in
1 833. The next year Newburgh, New York, joined
the whaling fleet, and Portland and Wiscasset,
Maine, came in during the same year. If one
may judge by the names of the captains of these
outport ships, the business was started in them
by migrants from old Nantucket and New Bed-
ford, just as ship-building was undertaken on
the Ohio River by migrants from Massachusetts.
For the outport captains were usually Coffins,
or Starbucks, or Husseys, or Paddocks, or others
with names familiar on the island.

The increase in the number of whaling ports
(there were 32 all told in 1835) was indicative
of the growth of the fishery. Prices were gradu-
ally increasing, while the enterprising shipmasters
were going farther afield and discovering new

Whaling as a Business Enterprise 32!

grounds where whales were numerous and not
easily frightened. In 1835 the whalers brought
home 5,181,529 gallons of sperm oil, which sold
at 84 cents. The take of whale oil was 3,950,289
gallons, which sold at 39 cents. This was less than
the price of 1817, but, in the meantime, the price
of whalebone had increased to 21 cents a pound,
and the take was nearly a million pounds. Two
years later the take of whale oil passed that of
sperm, — 6,385,995 to 5,319,138 gallons.

In 1829 the American whaling fleet numbered
203 vessels; in 1834, 421; in 1840, 552. In 1846
there were 680 ships and barks, 34 brigs, and
22 schooners, a total of 736 vessels, hunting for
whales under the American flag. That was the
flood-tide year for the number of vessels. The
fleet measured 233,262 tons, and the estimated
investment was $21,000,000, or say $28,000 per
vessel. It is certain that this estimate is high
enough, for shipowners have always had the
habit of appreciating their own possessions. New
London owned the largest ship of the fleet, the
Atlantic, measuring 699 tons, and the smallest as
well, the schooner Garland, of 49 tons, that was
at work on the coasts of Desolation Island.

322 The Story of the New England Whalers

While many outports had entered the trade,
the principal part of the growth of the fleet had
been in Buzzard's Bay. In 1822 Nantucket sent
40 whalers to sea; New Bedford sent 33. In the
next year Nantucket sent 19 and New Bedford
26, — the sceptre had departed from Nantucket for-
ever. Though no people ever loved home better
than did the inhabitants of Nantucket, the incon-
veniences of a shallow harbor compelled them to
move. New Bedford was, at an early date, the
port of chief importance on the mainland, and
the refining business increased there with greater
rapidity than at Nantucket, because Nantucket
owners had found it convenient to carry their oil
to Buzzard's Bay, even while they fitted their
ships at their home port. Moreover, New Bed-
ford's whale fishery had been built up, as noted,
by men who, for various reasons, had emigrated
from Nantucket in the days before the shoal
water on Nantucket bar had become a crying
evil.

Being a growing port, New Bedford naturally
benefited by the ups and downs of the fishery
at the outports. The merchants who made the

Whaling as a Business Enterprise 323

sporadic ventures elsewhere and succeeded were
often glad to sell out and retire; those who
failed retired perforce, and in each case New
Bedford was ready with the cash to buy the ships.

The fishery reached high water in Buzzard's
Bay in 1857, when New Bedford owned 329
whale ships, and those owned at the other ports of
the bay, including Fairhaven, Dartmouth, West-
port, Mattapoisett, and Sippican, brought the Bay
fleet up to 426 vessels. New London, Connecti-
cut, and Sag Harbor, Long Island, were consid-
erable ports. They sent seventeen and thirteen
vessels to sea in the "boom" year of 1846.

In 1835 the value of the product of the whalers
exceeded for the first time $6,000,000. In 1845
the sperm-whale fishery reached its highest point
in amount of product, the total import being
4,967,550 gallons. The price was then 88 cents
a gallon. In 1855 the price was $1.772 per gallon,
but the amount saved was only 2,288,443 gallons.
Whale oil reached record figures in 1840, when
the take was 11,593,483 gallons. The price,
then 33 cents, rose above 73 in 1855; but the
amount then saved was only 5,796,472 gallons.

324 The Story of the New England Whalers

In 1853 the product of bone reached 5,652,300,
the record amount. The price was then 34^
cents; it had been 50 during the year before.
The highest income received by the whalers in
any one year was in 1854, when the take sold
for $10,802,594.20. That was therefore the flood-
tide year of the fishery. The catch of 1857 sold
for $10,491,548.90, and the years 1853 to 1857,
inclusive, paid the whalers $51,063,659.59. The
catch of each year sold for about 50 per cent of
the estimated investment in the fleet.

In the year after the Superior showed the way
to the fishery north of Bering's Strait, 154 ships
entered those waters. Starbuck estimates that
this fleet was worth $4,650,000; the catch sold
for $3,419,622.

Among the more profitable voyages noted in
the record are the following:

The ship Sarah, Captain Frederick Arthur, of
Nantucket, sailed for the Pacific on May 26, 1827,
and reached home on April 19, 1830, with 3497
barrels of sperm oil, the largest amount ever
brought home by a Nantucket ship in a single
voyage. It sold for $89,000. In 1838 the New

Whaling as a Business Enterprise 325

Bedford ship William Hamilton, Captain William
Swain, brought home 4060 barrels of sperm oil,
the record of all sperm voyages. She had sent
home, meantime, 121 barrels, so that her total catch
amounted to 4181 barrels, then worth $109,269.

The largest single cargo of whale oil ever
brought to port was 5300 barrels in the South
America, Captain R. N. Sowle, of Providence,
Rhode Island. She also brought 200 barrels of
sperm oil and 50,000 pounds of bone. She was
away from home only 26 months. In 1851 the
George Washington, Captain Edwards, sailed from
New Bedford, and in the course of her voyage
took 7000 barrels of whale oil, 75 of sperm, and
50,420 pounds of bone. She sent home a large
part of the catch by freighters.

While the Envoy made, as told, the record per
cent profit on the original investment, the people
of New London claim the honor of bringing in
the cargo that sold for the highest price and gave
the largest profit above the cost of the outfit.
The Pioneer, Captain Ebenezer Morgan, sailed
from that port on June 4, 1864, and returned on
September 18, 1865, with 1391 barrels of oil and

326 The Story of the New England Whalers

22,650 pounds of bone. Small as this take was,
it sold for $151,060. The cost of the outfit was
$35,800; but if from the gross income the wear
and tear of the ship be deducted instead of the
whole cost of the ship, the net receipts were above
those of the Envoy. If the return per annum on
this voyage be compared with that on the Envoy,
the showing is still better.

The voyage of the little schooner Watchman,
Captain Charles W. Hussey, of Nantucket, which
sailed in September, 1857, and returned in August
of the next year, is worth mention. For while she
saved only 41 barrels of sperm and 386 of whale
oil, she brought in a quantity of ambergris that
sold for $10,000.

Ambergris is a secretion found in the bowels
of the sperm whale. It is supposed to be the
result of disease. It has been found afloat at sea
and washed up on beaches, in various parts of
the world, but usually it has been secured from
whales not in good condition. "It is used in the
preparation of fine perfumery, having the property
of thoroughly uniting the ingredients." It sells
for more than its weight in gold. In 1878 the

Whaling as a Business Enterprise 327

Adeline Gibbs, of New Bedford, brought home
132 pounds that sold for more than $23,000. In
1836 the bark Wade, Captain Charles B. Ray, of
Dartmouth, Massachusetts, secured 50 barrels of am-
bergris, according to Starbuck. Between 1836 and
1880 the American whalers saved 1667! pounds.

To show how a lucky voyage paid the owners
and crew of a whaler, the record of the Charles
Phelps, of Stonington, Connecticut, may be given.
The Pbelps sailed on August 29, 1842, and re-
turned March 30, 1844. The following figures
are from a history of the ship written by James H.
Weeks, of Stonington, and printed in the Westerly,
Rhode Island, Sun, in 1900:

"In all thirty-four whales have been captured and
thirty-three were taken by the various boats as follows:

"Larboard boat, 16; waist boat, 7; starboard boat,
7, bow boat, 3; found dead, I.

"Of this number five were sperm and the remainder
(29) right whales. The boats were fast to six others,
but the lines parted and they were lost. From twelve
the irons drawed, and ten after being killed sunk and
were not recovered. The number of irons lost during
the voyage was thirty-four. Captain Palmer Hall made
his report and manifest at the Stonington custom house

328 The Story of the New England Whalers

on April i, 1844, and it shows the cargo of the Charles P.
Phelps to have been as follows :

"2600 barrels of whale oil, 140 barrels of sperm oil,
and 2600 pounds of bone. The following value is placed
on the entry of merchandise by Charles P. Williams,
to whom it was consigned :

2600 barrels of whale oil at $11 per barrel . $28,600
140 barrels of sperm oil at $29 per barrel . 4,060
2600 pounds of whale bone at 33^ cents per

pound • 8,710

Total $41,370 "

One paper of unusual interest is the following under
the head of "Amount paid officers and crew of ship
Charles Phelps on her first voyage, April, 1844:

Captain P. Hall $2,544.59

Gilbert Pendleton, Jr 1,624.56

Thomas Burtch, Jr 942.29

John C. Nichols 661.36

Amos P. Wendleton 453-88

C. W. Austin 44I-33

S. Fletcher 449-3 l

A. Verhoff 625.08

E. P. Berry 255.22

William Greenman 297.64

William Cole 234.05

Silas Fitch 453.88

Gurdon Hall 371.16"

Whaling as a Business Enterprise 329

Not to fill the page with a list of forgotten
names, it may be said that the smallest sum re-
ceived by any one of the crew was $56.23. He
was a young boy, presumably. One sailor,
Harry Baker, received $125.12. The total amount
paid to the crew was $13,289.77. The owners
took $28,120.33, or more than twice as much as
the entire crew who did the work. Charles W.
Austin was a boat steerer, one of the men on
whom the ship depended to fasten the small
boats to the whales, yet his pay, $441.33, amounted
to less than 76 cents a day for the voyage. It is
to be noted that no man except the captain re-
ceived in cash the sum set to his name. Every
man had been obliged to buy clothing out of the
"slop chest," a chest of goods carried by the
captain for sale to the crew, and most of the men
had had some money and an outfit advanced to
them on entering the ship.

The pay of a skilled man like Austin seems
extraordinarily small now, but the record shows
that he shipped for the next voyage at a lay of
only one seventy-fifth. The pay of the captain
was only $4.36 a day for the voyage, — less than

330 The Story of the New England Whalers

mechanics are receiving now (1908) in New York
City.

All that has been said about the "lay" system
of pay being the fairest ever devised for seafar-
ing men might be repeated here. The pay of the
common sailors on the Phelps was as good on
the average as that of seamen in any service
at that time, and their work was usually much
easier. Moreover, as already noted, the common
sailor had a better chance for promotion.

Yet the fact remains that the owners of the ship
— and of every ship of that day — took more
than a fair share of the product of the labor of
the crew.

This brings us to a consideration of what may
be called the forecastle view of whaling in the days
after the fishery had grown to a point where it
was no longer possible to man the ships from
among the young men of the ports and the vicin-
ity of the ports, when the refuse of all ports had
to be taken to fill up. The following statements,
written by United States Consul F. M. Ring-
gold, from Paita, Philippine Islands, and published
in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, must certainly

Whaling as a Business Enterprise 331

be without exaggeration because this magazine
was the organ of all merchant-ship owners of that
day (September, 1849):

"All hands are huddled on board without a chance
of looking at their chests, for the contents of which they
have given a receipt which is to be deducted from their
share or 'lay.' Each sailor is charged upon the owner's
books with an average outfit of seventy dollars. By
many owners interest is charged on this outfit from the
day of sailing until the return of the vessel. When the
sailor opens his chest he feels as we may suppose the
man did who 'fell among thieves.' He finds that
the contents of the chest are insufficient for his comfort,
and that they are not worth twenty-five dollars in all.
To compensate for this want of comfortable clothing,
he may procure supplies from the owner's slop chest,
which has been placed on board, by paying a hand-
some profit [100 to 200 per cent].

"The lay or share of a green hand is from a one
hundred and eightieth to a two hundredth; that is, one
barrel of oil out of every one hundred and eighty or two
hundred that are taken. But from this, ten per cent is
to be deducted for leakage, and frequently three per
cent for insurance, although, if the vessel is lost, and is
fully covered by insurance, the owners recover all and
the men get nothing, because the charge is not made
upon the men until the vessel gets home. The owner

332 The Story of the New England Whalers

plays an open and shut game. If the vessel gets home
the sailor pays the insurance, but if she is lost the
owner pays the insurance and pockets the profits.

"The following is the result of one seaman's voyage
for four years :

Sailor's share reduced to money $262.25

Less fitting, shipping, and medicine chests . 10.00

Ten per cent discount on $265.25 .... 26.22

Three per cent insurance on $262.25 . . . 7.86

Money originally advanced 70.00

Interest on same . 16.80

Cash advanced during voyage 30.00

Interest on same one per cent a month . . . 7.20
Clothing which he was compelled to draw

owing to his bad outfit 40.00

To be deducted from sailor's share .... $208.03
Amount to be received at the end of the voyage $54.17

" From 3000 to 4000 young men yearly sail from the
United States and, becoming disgusted, desert, and
either from shame or moral corruption never return.
The cause is small pay and bad treatment."

Francis Wayland, the eminent educator and
author, in a lecture delivered before the New
Bedford Port Society, on November 20, 1842, a
lecture which was preserved in pamphlet form,

Whaling as a Business Enterprise 333

and is now before the writer, confirms almost
every statement of the robbery of the sailors
which was made by the consul quoted above.
"Grossly imposed upon in the matter of outfit"
and "the man at the close of his long service
finds himself as poor as at the beginning" are
some of the expressions used by Wayland in his
discourse (p. 18).

Bluntly stated, the whale-ship owners, who were
receiving from 25 to 50 per cent per year, clear
profit, on their investment in the ships of that
period, were willing to increase their gains by
sheer robbery of the men whose work brought
the gains. In what was called the Golden Era
of whaling this robbery was the rule; the owners
disposed to do the fair thing were apparently the
exception. There is no reasonable doubt that
some of the men to whom Wayland was talking,
some of the members of the Port Society, were
chief among those robbers, and their support
of the Society was only an evidence of their
hypocrisy.

Nor is that all. At this time, when the fore-
castle life was unendurable, the berth of the high-

334 The Story of the New England Whalers

est officer on the ship became something scarcely
worth seeking; for in the latter part of the Golden
Era (1854), when ships were bringing in on an
average $16,000 a year each, the captains were
paid on an average an eighteenth, or about $900
a year. The matter is worth recalling because
the custom of robbing seamen was common
throughout the merchant service, and had its in-
fluence upon the loss of American prestige upon
the high seas.

In every work upon the American whale fishery
much stress is laid upon the effect of the Civil
War in destroying the industry. It is noted that
many ships were burned by Confederate cruisers
fitted out in England, and that forty ships were

purchased by the government and sunk in the
channel at Charleston. As the government paid
a large price (too large, in some cases) for each
of the forty, and as the British government event-
ually paid something for the ships which the
Confederates destroyed, it is not proved that
the fishery was ruined to any extent by either
the Confederate cruisers or the Stone Fleet. At
worst, the owners as a class were as well able to

Whaling as a Business Enterprise 335

begin the fishery anew at the end of the Civil
War as they were at the end of the War of the
Revolution.

It may be noted, too, in passing, that other
American ship merchants were also in good finan-
cial condition at the end of the Civil War to renew
their trade upon the sea, if they had wished to
do so; that is, there was no lack of capital for
sea purposes. Yet the whaling fleet which had
numbered 508 vessels in 1860 numbered only
226 in 1865, and the number in 1866 was only
199, although the prices of products were then
higher than in 1865.

Figures are prosy, but it should be interesting
to recall that the prices of all whale products in
the period of twenty years immediately following
the Civil War were, on the average, higher than
they were during the twenty years immediately
before that war, and that the price of whale-
bone increased enormously during the later period.
Thus sperm oil was selling at 73 cents in 1842
and at 82 in 1886. It was $1.45! in 1860 and
$2.55 in 1866. Bone sold for 20 cents in 1841,
8o£ in 1860, $1.71 in 1865, and $2.68 in 1885.

336 The Story of the New England Whalers

The average yearly income per ship during the
twenty years after the war was greater than that
during the twenty years preceding the war. The
total sales of products in the year 1846 amounted
to $6,203,115.43, or $8428 for each ship in the
fishery; the income per ship in 1885, $15,550.
The average income per ship in 1854 was some-
thing over $16,000, while the average in 1905 was
about $19,000.

With individual receipts higher on the average,
the number of ships steadily decreased, but the
seeming paradox is easily explained. The prices
of oils have been maintained at the figures noted
solely because the number of ships in the fishery
was decreasing. The substitution of petroleum
for whale oils as illuminants, and in part as lu-
bricants, has destroyed the market for whale oils,
or nearly so. The development of the cotton-
seed oil business also affected the fishery. If
the price of whalebone had not increased during
the years since the Civil War, it is likely that the
whale fishery would have been abandoned long
ago.

The competition of the new oils was not the sole

Whaling as a Business Enterprise 337

cause of the decadence of whale fishery, however,
as a glance at the other branches of the American
merchant marine will show, for American ship
merchants as a guild have been steadily losing
their sea habit. They have turned from invest-
ments afloat to those on shore, save only as some
have found profits in alongshore trades.

In connection with this change of habit, consider
the effect of forecastle life upon the young Ameri-
cans, as already described, and the effect of the
disgust of the young men upon the ship-owning
guild. For it is manifest that when the supply
of young Americans failed in the forecastle, the
supply of men for the cabin decreased, and with
the failure of the supply of American officers
there was a failure in the supply of new blood
that should have been infused into the counting
room. The young men who might have brought
enterprise and enthusiasm, as well as knowledge,
into the counting room to keep up the needed
evolution, were riding the line on Texas cattle
ranches or "booming" town sites in Kansas, or
sinking prospect holes in the Rockies. The old-
time shipowners learned the business astride of

338 The Story of the New England Whalers

the weather-topsail yard-arm. They looked the
gale in the eye. Too many of the modern ship-
owners learned the business sitting astride of a
tall stool, whence they looked a slow-moving clock
in the eye. To such men the spinning business
and speculating in stocks seem naturally more
attractive than any kind of over-sea trade.

In the old days we had and we had to have,
sailors before we had ships. The glory of the
Golden Era of the Yankee clipper, as of the Yankee
whaler, was due to the superiority of the Yankee
sailor, — the young men who waded barefooted
through the snow in order to secure opportunity
for a career that began in the forecastle and
ended in the counting room. And the American
flag will never regain its old-time place upon the
Seven Seas until the ambitious, adventurous young
American can find a more attractive career afloat
than ashore.

Brief space will serve to tell about the modern
uses of whale products. Sperm oil, as brought
from the sea, is purified and then separated into
two products, — oil and spermaceti. The sper-
maceti is used in making candles, in giving a gloss

Whaling as a Business Enterprise 339

to linen in the laundry, and to some extent in
medicine. Sperm oil is used as a lubricant and
in softening leather in the tanneries. Crude whale
oil when refined yields oil and a substance called
whalefoots. Whale oil is used in ropewalks,
and it is mixed with black lead and paraffin to
make a lubricant. Some of it is used in making
a soap that is used by gardeners in destroying
insects; but most of the so-called whale-oil soap
is made of inferior fish oils. The whalefoots is
used by tanners. As all women know, the whale-
bone is used in corsets to give distinction to the
human form. Steel stays are in common use,
but no metal has yet been found that will take
the place of the ever elastic whalebone. The
best whips are made with a heart of whalebone.
On the whole, the uses of whale products are
few in number, but each has thus far held a place
which nothing else could fill.

XIII
THE MUTINEERS AND SLAVERS

AFTER the time came when whaler cap-
tains went to the "crimps" for crews,
mutinies often occurred in the fishery.
That is to say, many crews became so discon-
tented for various reasons that they broke out
in open rebellion, refusing to do duty, deserting
the ship, etc.

The causes of these mutinies are not far to seek.
Testimony that must be believed shows that the
officers were often brutal in their treatment of
the men, and were willing to increase the profits
of the ship by robbing and, sometimes, starving
them. Starving crews was certainly uncommon
in the whale fishery; but legalized robbery was,
as said, common even in Wayland's day.

The ordinary mutiny was nothing more than
what is now called a strike. The men fled ashore
340

The Mutineers and Slavers 341

when opportunity offered, and on other occasions
made protests to the captain in a body. Usually
a strike was ended by a free use of fists, belaying-
pins, or such other weapons as the officers could
get hold of. The officers stood together; the men
rarely did so.

Of these lesser mutinies nothing more need be
said here; but two uprisings, in which the fore-
castle men triumphed through a slaughter of some
of the officers, are memorable.

The ship Junior, Captain Archibald Mellen,
Jr., sailed from New Bedford on July 21, 1857,
bound for the Pacific by way of the Indian Ocean.
On the following Christmas day the ship was in
south latitude 37° 58' and east longitude 166°
57'. The log of the ship, as printed in the New
Bedford Mercury, says of the day :

"At sundown shortened sail to maintopsail and
foresail. Middle part, strong gale. Latter part,
heavy gale from southward. Lying to at sun-
down."

After shortening sail, Captain Mellen gave
each man a small glass of grog because it was
Christmas, and then in the usual course the deck

342 The Story of the New England Whalers

was left in charge of the boat steerers while cap-
tains and mates turned in for the night.

At one o'clock the next morning, while the gale
was raging with undiminished violence, five of
the crew, Cyrus Plummer (the leader), John
Hall, Richard Cartha, Cornelius Burns, and
William Herbert, all armed with loaded guns,
entered the cabin, leaving five others on deck to
guard the entrance to the forecastle and keep the
other members of the crew, all of whom were
in ignorance of the plot, from coming on deck.
The captain and all three of the mates were sleep-
ing soundly. Pointing their guns at these officers,
and taking the word from Plummer, all fired to-
gether. Apparently the guns wabbled, for not
one of the officers was killed outright. The
captain, rising up, said:

"Oh, my God! What is this?"

Plummer at once seized him by the hair, and

saying, "G d you, it is me!" struck

him several blows with a hatchet and killed him.

As the third mate strove to rise, Cornelius Burns
stabbed him with a boarding knife, the sword*
like weapon used in cutting up blubber, and

The Mutineers and Slavers 343

killed him. Meantime Cartha struck at the second
mate with a similar weapon, but missed him,
and then fired a pistol at him. Before he could
finish the work of killing this officer, however,
all the mutineers were called on deck to overawe
the forecastle men who had been aroused by the
shooting, and the first and second mates were
left in the cabin, wounded, but still able to walk.
The first mate, Nelson Provost, then escaped to
the hold while the second mate went on deck,
where he found Plummer in full control.

Under Plummer's orders the men now threw
the dead officers overboard and then the second
mate was put in irons. Some of the mutineers
wanted to kill him, but Plummer would not
allow it. The ship was then headed toward
the Australian coast, where the mutineers intended
to land, and the first mate was left in the hold to
shift for himself. On drawing near to land,
however, the need of a navigator, who, like the
mate, was acquainted with the coast, led the mu-
tineers to hunt him out. The mate himself said
afterwards that when they brought him up on
deck his hair literally stood on end through fear

344 The Story of the New England Whalers

that he was to be killed. Of course he readily
agreed to serve as pilot.

A landfall was made at Cape Howe. Heaving
the ship to, the mutineers loaded two whale boats
with such plunder as the ship afforded and pulled
ashore. Before leaving, however, Plummer, who
knew that the ship would be taken to some civ-
ilized port as soon as possible, wrote the story of
the mutiny in the log book in order to clear those
left on board from all suspicion of having had any
part in the revolt. As that was an unheard-of
proceeding, the document is worth giving in full.
William Herbert wrote at Plummer' s dictation
as follows:

"This is to certify that we, Cyrus Plummer,
John Hall, Richard Cartha, Cornelius Burns,
and William Herbert, did, on the night of De-
cember 25th last, take the ship Junior and that
all others in the ship are quite innocent of the
deed.

"The captain and third mate were killed, and
the second mate was wounded and taken prisoner
at the time. The mate was wounded in the
shoulder with the balls from a whaling gun. At

The Mutineers and Slavers 345

the time we fired we set his bed on fire, and he
was obliged, for fear of suffocation, to take him-
self to the lower hold, where he remained until
Wednesday afternoon.

"We could not find him before that, but we
undertook a strict search and found him then.
We promised his life and the ship if he would come
out and surrender without any trouble, and so
he came out. Since he has been in the ship he
has been a good officer and has kept his place.
We agreed to leave him the greater part of the crew
and we have put him under oath not to attempt
to follow us, but to go straight away and not
molest us. We shall watch around here for some
time and if he attempts to follow us or stay
around here, we shall come aboard and sink the
ship.

"If we had not found Mr. Nelson the ship
would have been lost. We are taking two boats
and ten men and everything we want. We did
not put Mr. Nelson in irons on account of his
being wounded, but we kept a strict guard on him
all the time.

"We particularly wish to say that all others

346 The Story of the New England Whalers

in the ship but we five aforementioned men are
quite innocent of any part in the affair.

"(Signed) CYRUS PLUMMER.

JOHN HALL.

"Witnesses: RICHARD CARTHA.

" HUGH DUFF. CORNELIUS BURNS.

HENRY T. LORD. WILLIAM HERBERT.

HERMAN GRAF."

The ship made port at Sydney. The author-
ities captured eight of the mutineers, including
Plummer. They were placed on the Junior,
where each was confined in a heavy hard-wood
cage lined with iron, and a guard of six well-armed
men was stationed over each cage. A new crew
was shipped and then she sailed for home.

As the story was told by the officers, the mutiny
was unprovoked, and Starbuck speaks of it as a
"diabolical atrocity." When Plummer and his
associates were put on trial, however, Benjamin
F. Butler, the noted Civil War general, took up
the defence with such effect that Plummer only
was found guilty of deliberate murder. The facts
of the mutiny were not disputed, but it was testi-
fied that the men had been driven to desperation

The Mutineers and Slavers 347

by hard fare and ill treatment on the part of the
captain. The judge charged the jury that all
of the eight men were equally guilty of the death
of the two officers, but the jury, believing the story
of the ill treatment of the men, cleared four of
the accused, found three guilty of manslaughter,
and Plummer, as said, guilty of deliberate murder.
Plummer was sentenced to die, but when the facts
in his case were placed before President Buchanan,
the sentence was commuted to imprisonment
for life. Plummer died in prison. The three
convicted of manslaughter were in time released.
There is but one mutiny known to the annals
of the whalers in which there was no provocation,
and that was the one on the Globe, Captain Thomas
Worth, of Nantucket. The Globe sailed from
Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, for the Pacific
on December 15, 1822. She had been a lucky
ship ; she was the first that ever brought in a cargo
of 2000 barrels of sperm oil. Rounding the Horn
in March, she reached Oahu in May, 1823, anc^
there the first symptom of trouble appeared in
the desertion of six men. The reader will re-
member the old missionary hymn that described
the Pacific islands as regions

348 The Story of the New England Whalers

"Where every prospect pleases
And only man is vile."

On hearing those words sung at the bethel
chapels of civilized ports, many sailors of sinful
habits — especially such as found slave ships
attractive — made haste to ship on whalers in
order that they might thus reach those wondrously
beautiful and wicked islands. The six men who
deserted from the Globe were of this character.

Having had none too many men before these de-
serted, Captain Worth picked up on the island six
to take their place, of whom four were white men,
one was a negro, and one a native of the islands,
as follows : Silas Payne (formerly of Sag Harbor,
Long Island), John Oliver, Anthony Hanson,
Thomas Liliston, and William Humphries (negro,
from Philadelphia), besides the native. These
men were known to be of the class called beach-
combers. They were lazy vagabonds who had
deserted from other ships to live the life of the
savage natives, and had become weary of it so
far that they were willing to ship for a time in
order to secure some of the products of civiliza-
tion not readily to be obtained in the islands.

The Mutineers and Slavers 349

From the day the Globe left Oahu to go cruising,
the new recruits were lazy and insolent. To make
them work well was impossible. In spite of, or
perhaps because of, the character of these men, a
boat steerer, named Samuel B. Comstock, became
very friendly with them, and especially with
Payne. Comstock, after the usual fashion, lived
in the cabin, where he had been well treated; the
third mate, Nathaniel Fisher, had been too kind
to him. For Comstock had challenged Fisher
to a wrestling match at a time when men from
another ship were visiting on board, and after
Fisher had proved himself the better wrestler,
Comstock struck him. For this Fisher threw
him to the deck and held him until the appearance
of anger passed away, and then let the matter
drop.

In time the tales told by the beach-combers
about their life among the savages led Comstock
and some of the other members of the original
crew into a conspiracy to kill the officers, and then
sail to the Malgraves and there abandon them-
selves to such joys 'as they might find.

Accordingly, on the night of January 25, 1824,

350 The Story of the New England Whalers

while Comstock was in charge of the deck, the
conspirators armed themselves for the attack.
With Comstock in the lead, and the negro Hum-
phries carrying a lamp to light the way, they found
Captain Worth asleep in a hammock. Comstock
hit him on the head with an axe, killing him
instantly. Payne then made a thrust with a
boarding knife at William Beetle, the mate, but
the blow failed, and the mate, leaping up, seized
Comstock by the throat. This attack made
Comstock drop his axe, but Payne placed a board-
ing knife in his hand and with that he knocked
the mate, seriously wounded, into the pantry.
Comstock then stabbed him with the knife, dis-
abling but not killing him.

Turning from the mate, Comstock now locked
the door to the room occupied by Second Mate
John Lumbard and Third Mate Nathaniel Fisher.
His movements had been so quiet, thus far, and
withal so swift, that neither of these officers had
been aroused. Having secured them in their
room, Comstock now loaded two muskets, each
of which had a bayonet affixed to it. Pointing
one of the muskets toward the door in such a way

The Mutineers and Slavers 351

as he supposed would enable him to hit one of the
officers, he fired.

"Was either of you hit ?" said he.

"Yes, I am shot in the mouth," replied Fisher.

At that Comstock opened the door and thrust
a bayonet at Lumbard, but slipping in the blood
on the cabin floor, he fell headlong. Fisher at
once picked up the musket and he was pointing
it at Comstock's breast, when the mutineer prom-
ised to spare the lives of the remaining officers.
Fisher foolishly accepted the promise and gave
up the musket. But no sooner did Comstock
get the weapon into his hands, than he thrust
the bayonet repeatedly into Lumbard and then,
turning upon Fisher, he reminded him of the
wrestling match, and said :

"You have got to die !"

"If there is no hope, I will at least die like a
man," said Fisher, and then added, "I am ready."
Comstock shot him through the head, killing him
instantly. A little later the mate and Mr. Lum-
bard, though both were yet alive and conscious,
were thrown into the sea. Lumbard clung to
the rail as well as he could, when they shoved him

352 The Story of the New England Whalers

overboard, and for a time he swam beside the ship,
begging to be taken on board.

Having obtained full possession of the ship,
the mutineers headed her for the Malgraves. On
the 28th the negro, Humphries, was seen loading a
pistol, and when asked why he was doing so, he
said he had heard two of the sailors plotting
to retake the ship. The two denied the charge,
of course, and Comstock ordered that they and
the negro be tried by a jury. The negro, when
arraigned, answered a few questions in a low and
hesitating voice, and then without further pro-
ceedings, Comstock, who had presided as judge,
said :

"It appears that William Humphries has been
accused of a treacherous and base act, in loading
a pistol for the purpose of shooting Mr. Payne
and myself. Having been tried, the jury will
now give in their verdict, whether guilty or not
guilty. If guilty he shall be hanged to a studding-
sail boom rigged out eight feet upon the foreyard,
but if found not guilty Smith and Kidder shall
be hung upon the aforementioned gallows."

Smith and Kidder were the men Humphries

The Mutineers and Slavers 353

had accused. The negro was at once pronounced
guilty. He was then seated on the rail beneath
the foreyard, and a noose was placed around his
neck. At this moment he said, "Little did I think
I was born to come to this — " and then, before he
could say more, he was hoisted to the end of the
studding-sail boom, the entire crew hauling on
the line.

On February 14, the Globe anchored at the
Malgraves. To govern his crew Comstock had
issued, meantime, a decree which he called the
law, as follows:

"If any one sees a ship and does not report it
immediately, he shall be put to death. If any
one refuses to fight a ship, he shall be put to
death ; and the manner of their death is this :
They shall be bound hand and foot and boiled in
the try-pots of boiling oil."

All hands signed these "laws." Comstock
went ashore to live as soon as possible. A con-
siderable quantity of provisions and plunder (in-
cluding a Bible, curiously enough) was taken
ashore. Tents were made from sails. In a few
days Payne and Comstock quarrelled. Oliver

354 The Story of the New England Whalers

and the other beach-combers sided with Payne,
and with loaded musket hid near Comstock's
tent in order to shoot him as soon as he should
appear. When Comstock came into view he saw
the gang, and drawing a sword, he started toward
them with menacing motions. When they aimed
their muskets at him, however, he shouted :

"Don't shoot me! Don't shoot me! I won't
hurt you."

In spite of this pleading four muskets were
fired, and he fell, pierced through the breast and
the head with bullets. He was dead before his
body reached the ground; but Payne, through
fear that the shooting had not killed him, chopped
his head almost off with an axe.

Having sewed the body in canvas, Payne or-
dered a grave dug exactly five feet deep. In this
the body was buried. A chapter of the Bible
was read and muskets were discharged by way
of a funeral service.

Comstock was killed on February 17. That
night the ship was left in charge of Gilbert Smith,
a boat steerer, and five other men. As soon as
night came these men cut the cable and sailed

The Mutineers and Slavers 355

away to Valparaiso, where they delivered the ship
to Michael Hogan, the American consul.

The flight of the ship left Silas Payne, John
Oliver, Thomas Liliston, Roland Coffin, William
Lay, Cyrus M. Hussey, Columbus Worth, and
the Sandwich Islander on the beach. For
several days Payne and his chums ruled the
camp by terror. They tried to rule the natives
in the same way, and to this end they brutally
flogged two women and put one man in irons.
For this, on February 23, the natives began throw-
ing stones at the camp. Payne, seeing what he
had brought upon himself and associates, strove
to pacify the natives, but it was now too late.
They continued the attack, and all but Lay and
Hussey were soon killed. Why these two men
were saved was never definitely learned. Each
was adopted by a native family, and they were
well treated until the United States war schooner
Dolphin, Lieutenant Commander John Percival,
reached the island on December 29, 1825, anc^ to°k
them away.

The story of the whale ships that were used in
carrying slaves from Africa to a market in the two

356 The Story of the New England Whalers

Americas has never been written. In Starbuck's
list of the sailings of whalers from different Amer-
ican ports it is said that the bark Margaret Scott,
Captain Oliver S. Cleaveland, belonging to Rod-
ney French, of New Bedford, and the Fame,
Captain Mitchell, belonging to William Tate,
of New London, were diverted to the slave-trade,
the former on a voyage begun September 16,
1857, and the other during a voyage begun on
June 1 8, 1844. Of the circumstances, nothing is
told. The New Bedford Mercury, in speaking of
the Stone Fleet that was fitted out to block the
port of Charleston, South Carolina, during the
Civil War, says:

"Among the craft purchased was the Margaret Scott,
a vessel which had been seized a short time previously
by a United States marshal on the grounds that she
had been fitting for a voyage in slave-trading. Her
commander and owners were found guilty of the charge,
and the Scott was sold at auction, and acquired for the
Stone Fleet."

The whaler Herald, Captain Samuel Barker,
that belonged to Charles P. Williams, of Stoning-
ton, Connecticut, is mentioned by Starbuck as
follows :

The Mutineers and Slavers 357

"Sold at Rio Janeiro ( ? ), 1848, by captain.
Also 600 sperm."

The story of the Herald, as told in a message
from President Polk, with accompanying docu-
ments (dated March 2, 1849), shows that the cap-
tain, after selling the oil, made a slave voyage
and then disappeared with the ship.

The Laurens, Captain Eldredge, belonging to
Tiffany & Halsey, of Sag Harbor, was seized in
the harbor of Rio Janeiro in 1841 by Com-
modore Storer, U.S.N., on a charge of fitting
out for the slave-trade. The document just
quoted also declares that another whaler had been
fitted out at Bahia, and that it was supposed to
be the Cynosure, Captain Simonds, belonging
to J. F. Trumbull, of Stonington, Connecticut.
Of this whale ship Starbuck says that she was
"sold in Bahia." It is reasonable to suppose that
slave-traders bought her with the understanding
that she was to be sailed under the American flag,
and by the American captain and crew, to the
slave coast. This done the captain was to deliver
her to the new owners as soon as he learned that
the slaves were on the beach ready to embark.

358 The Story of the New England Whalers

The flag thus protected the ship to the last
moment.

Of the noted whaler bark Augusta, that was
fitted out for the slave-trade by Appleton Oakes
Smith, a son of the poetess Elizabeth Oakes
Smith, it is recorded that she was sold to Smith
before she was fitted out. It is worth noting
perhaps that the price received by the owners
was $7000, a fact that has some bearing on the
cost of fitting out ships for the whale fishery.

When certain peculiarities of the whale-ship
are considered in connection with the needs of a
ship in the slave-trade, it is seen that all whalers
were very well adapted to carry "black ivory,"
as the negroes were called. Thus the try-pots
were excellent for cooking large quantities of
food, and the barrels used normally for oil would
serve equally well for carrying water needed in
such large quantities on a slaver. What was of
more importance still, a whale-ship could sail to
the coast of Africa with her try-pots in place and
with barrels full of water, and when within sight
of the beach could defy the inspecting officer from
any of the men-o'-war stationed on the coast

The Mutineers and Slavers 359

to suppress the slave-trade. For whales were to
be found on that coast; moreover it was the cus-
tom to keep water in such barrels as were set up
so that they would not shrink apart. The temp-
tation to enter the trade was enormous. Thus
while a whale-ship averaged, as noted, $16,000 a
year income, in 1854 the average profit on a cargo
of slaves delivered in Cuba or Brazil was about
$250 a head. If well handled, a whaler might
deliver from 600 to 800 slaves, and so clear from
$150,000 to $200,000 on a single trip. While a
captain averaged $900 a year in the whale fishery,
he might receive $9000 or more for a single voyage
on a slaver; what he might make by running away
with a ship shall appear.

In the meantime the public, especially the New
York ship-owning public, looked upon the laws
against the slave-trade as the Wall Street financiers
of 1906 regarded the laws forbidding railroads
giving rebates to favored shippers. Lawyers
were found to declare the anti-slave-trade laws
unconstitutional, just as lawyers in 1906 declared
laws pertaining to railroads unconstitutional.

The slaver captains and mates used to live in

360 The Story of the New England Whalers

the East Side region of New York, between James
and Houston streets. The arrangements for
slaver voyages were made at the Astor House
and other first-class hotels. If by chance a slave-
ship was captured, ship merchants of the highest
reputation stood ready to bail the accused. If
by any chance a slaver officer were incarcerated
for a time, he lived the life of a Sybarite while
behind the bars. Even after the war was begun,
the consideration shown these men whom the
law declared to be pirates was such as to astound
the modern reader. Thus it is a matter of record
that one of the United States attorneys detailed
to prosecute Appleton Oakes Smith was seen
dining at the most stylish restaurant in town
with the criminal he was to try. It was this shock-
ing condition of public opinion in the United States
that led Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, when in Rio
Janeiro, to write (February 18, 1845) to tne Hon.
John C. Calhoun, Secretary of State, saying :

"I beseech, I implore the President of the
United States to take a decided stand on this
subject. You have no conception of the bold
effrontery and the flagrant outrages of the African

The Mutineers and Slavers 361

slave-trade. . . . And every patriot in our land
would blush for our country did he know and see,
as I do, how our own citizens sail and sell our
flag to the uses and abuses of that accursed traffic,
in almost open violation of our laws. We are
a byword among the nations, — the only people
who can fetch and carry any and every thing for
the slave-trade, without fear of English cruisers ;
and because we are the only people who can, are
we to allow our proudest privilege to be perverted,
and to pervert our own glorious flag into the
pirate's flag ?"

For more than fifteen years after that letter
was written the state of public opinion allowed
the free use of the flag to the slaver pirates. With
this fact in mind, one is able to appreciate the
assertion that, in all the annals of the whale
fishery, no statement more to the credit of the
American whalemen can be found than this:
that of more than 2000 ships which sailed in the
fishery between 1808, when the slave-trade be-
came unlawful, and the Civil War, when blood
and fire purified the public mind in that one
respect, only five whale-ships became known to

362 The Story of the New England Whalers

the records as slave carriers. A few others were,
very likely, so used, but the record does not show
the fact.

The story of the slaver-whaler Fame is soon
told. Captain William Tate bought her in Boston
in 1844, and sent her to sea on June 18. On the
way to the Pacific the mate was killed by a whale,
and in 1846 Captain Mitchell died. There is
nothing to show whether she had taken any oil,
meantime. The second mate, a native of the
Azores whose home was in New London, and
who had shipped under the name of Anthony
Marks, took the ship to Rio Janeiro, where she
arrived in December, 1846. Marks told the
United States consul, Mr. Gorham Parks, that
the ship needed repairs, and that when he had
made them, he intended to go whaling and try to
make amends for the ill luck of the ship thus far.
The consul, of course, approved this proposition
and supervised the repairs ; but when they were
completed, Marks took on supplies of which Parks
knew nothing, and then, with a number of Bra-
zilians and Portuguese on board as passengers, he
sailed away. Having gone to the east coast of

The Mutineers and Slavers 363

Africa, a cargo of 530 slaves was taken on board.
These were so well handled that only three died
on the way back, and the survivors were landed
at Amazonas, near Cape Frio, Brazil.

For his success, Marks received $40,000. The
forecastle men received from $250 to $340 each.
The slaver voyage lasted about five months.

The consul made an effort to capture the stolen
ship, but he failed. Marks took her to Paranagua,
where he altered her so that she could not be rec-
ognized by her owners. Of her subsequent career
there is no record, but she was undoubtedly
sailed in the trade until unspeakably foul and
then burned.

As a final touch to the picture of the whalers
as slavers, brief reference may be made to the
loss of the ship Cassander, Captain Winslow, that
sailed from Providence on November 19, 1847.
It appears that, when on the coast of Africa, she
took on board, as members of the crew, two
negroes. From the coast the ship sailed out to
sea, and between 4 and 5 o'clock in the morning,
on May I, 1848, the crew found her on fire.
When the alarm was given, and all hands were

364 The Story of the New England Whalers

called to save the ship, the two Africans jumped
into the sea. Lines were thrown to them, but
neither would accept the offer of help, and one of
them soon sank. The other was picked up by a
boat and brought on board, where he confessed
that he and the other negro had set fire to the
ship, because they believed they were to be
carried to America and sold as slaves. The
efforts to extinguish the flames proved vain. The
crew were driven to the boats, in which they
drifted without food for ten days before they
were picked up. In the meantime two of them
had died from starvation.

XIV
TALES OF WHALERS IN THE CIVIL WAR

WHEN one asks the people of New Bed-
ford for the name of the best-remem-
bered whaler hero of the Civil War,
they reply promptly that it was Commander
William P. Randall. Randall, as the story is
told, first gained fame locally as the second mate
of a Pacific whaler.

The third and fourth mates of the ship were
relatives of the captain, and, as sometimes hap-
pened in the whale fishery, the skill and success
of the second officer did not prove wholly accept-
able to the captain, for the reason that the other
mates were thereby thrown somewhat into the
shade. While laboring under such a disadvan-
tage as these circumstances imposed, Randall,
and the other mates as well, lowered for a whale.
The captain ordered Randall to play loose boat,
— lie ofF, — allow the others to strike the whale,
365

366 The Story of the New England Whalers

and then go in and help as he could. The orders
were obeyed, of course. In due time the whale
was struck by the third and fourth mates, and
then when Randall pulled in and fastened to it
the whale at once turned to fight. In the melee
the whale turned a somersault between the boats
and came up with Randall's line tangled in its
teeth. The other boats now cut loose, and the
whale fled with Randall in tow.

Just as night came the men managed to get the
boat within reach, and Randall killed the whale;
but when he was boring a hole through the whale's
fluke for the tow line, he had the misfortune to
"split his hand quite open to the bone on the
spade edge." And then, "as if his troubles must
needs come upon him all at once," says Bullen,
in an account written for the New Bedford Mer-
cury, "he had hardly completed his rude surgery
on the wounded hand when a huge Kanaka, his
harpooner, suddenly seemed to become crazy with
fear of the darkness and his inability to see the
ship. He howled with fright and demanded
water and food. . . . Randall tried to soothe
the frantic man, but finding that he could not do

Tales of Whalers in the Civil War 367

so, and that the rest of the crew showed signs of
demoralization, he reached for his bomb gun, and
calling all hands to witness that if compelled to
shoot the Kanaka, he was doing such an act
only in the common interest, he sat pointing the
gun with its awful charge at the mouthing, gesticu-
lating negro, trying meanwhile to ignore the pain
which was slowly deadening his left side from the
jaw to the waist.

"And there in his loneliness and full acceptance
of responsibility sits the youth, Randall, feeling
face to face with death, . . . but fully determined
to die if he must man fashion, . . . until with
eyes that grow humid with gratitude he sees the
tender flush of dawn mantling the east, . . . and
lifting his voice in the long mellow 'Sail ho!'
brings all his men out of their slumbers into re-
joicing consciousness."

With such a reputation as the spirit thus ex-
hibited could give him, Randall entered the Union
navy at the outbreak of the Civil War, secured
the rank of acting master, and was assigned to
the old sailing sloop-of-war Cumberland. He
was stationed in command of the after pivot gun.

368 The Story of the New England Whalers

On March 8, 1862, the Cumberland was lying
at anchor just to the west of Newport News
Point, at Hampton Roads. The frigate Congress
was lying not far away, and at intervals up the
roads toward Fortress Monroe were a number of
other Union war-ships. Up the James River, and
just within the range of vision of the lookout of
the Cumberland, were a number of small Con-
federate steamers that had recently come down
the river and were lying at anchor as if meditating
a run through the blockade which the Cumber-
land and the other ships were maintaining. Lieu-
tenant George U. Morris, the executive officer,
was temporarily in command of the Cumberland,
the commander having been ordered elsewhere
for the day.

It was a very quiet, pleasant day. The crew
of the Cumberland took in hand the laundry work
of the ship that morning, and when noon came
the clothes were on lines strung up in the rigging.

For weeks past rumors about a Confederate
ironclad that was said to be building at Norfolk
had come to the fleet. "Contrabands," as the
runaway slaves were called, brought the rumors.

Tales of Whalers in the Civil War 369

They had reported the new ship (known as the
Merrimac) nearly ready for action, but the com-
manding officer of the Union ships was one of the
conservatives who did not have any faith in the
negroes, and, what was of more importance, he
had no idea that the "new-fangled" notion of a
ship would amount to anything even if she did
come.

A little before I o'clock, when she was by no
means expected, the Confederate ship came into
view. She was out for a trial trip, and her com-
mander, Commodore Franklin Buchanan, was de-
termined to give her such a trial as no ship had
ever had before. Steaming across the bay he
headed first of all for the Cumberland. The drums
beat to quarters, and the crew were standing at
their guns as the strange-looking craft drew
near. They saw her pass the frigate Congress,
firing her bow gun at that ship as she came, and
then they opened on her with such guns as would
bear. Chief among these was the after pivot gun,
under the command of Master Randall. With
cool precision he loaded and fired, — as coolly as
he had in former times loaded and fired the bomb

370 The Story of the New England Whalers

gun at whales. But the shot, though aimed with
deadly accuracy, made no more impression than
if he had fired a musket instead of a cannon.
Wholly uninjured, the great ironclad came on
until, with a mighty crash, her bow was driven
into the side of the Cumberland. Then she drew
away, and with her crew working her guns she
passed on, steamed up the James a little way,
turned around, and came back beside the old
sloop-of-war.

The Cumberland was settling by the bow
rapidly, and the whole crew could hear the water
roaring in through the hole that had been made
in her. But when the Confederate ranged up
and demanded that she surrender, Lieutenant
Morris replied:

"Never! I'll sink alongside."

Then "the gun crews kicked off their shoes
and stripped to the waist. Tanks of cartridges
were hoisted on the gun deck and opened, and
round after round was fired at the ironclad.
Never did a crew fight a ship with more spirit
and hardihood than these brave fellows of the
Cumberland while the vessel was going down."

Tales of Whalers in the Civil War 371

Finally the rising tide reached the deck where
Randall and his men were working their pivot
gun. The order to abandon ship had already
been given, and those able to do so had fled over
the rail, — all but Randall's crew. The water
was lapping their feet, but they lingered until
Randall aimed and fired the gun, and then with
the water sissing into the gun's hot muzzle they
leaped for life.

On the recommendation of Lieutenant Morris,
who is memorable forever as one who would
"sink alongside" rather than surrender, Master
Randall was promoted to the rank of volunteer
lieutenant "for coolness and bravery." He
eventually obtained the commission as ensign in
the regular line of the navy, and was placed on
the retired list as a lieutenant commander on
August 6, 1886.

Although more than forty years have now
passed since the end of the Civil War, the old
ship merchants of New England, and especially
the whale-ship owners, yet find some difficulty in
calling the Confederate cruisers by any other
name than "pirates." The thorough work done

372 The Story of the New England Whalers

by some of those cruisers was enough, naturally,
to create bitter memories; but to add to the bitter-
ness the cruiser captains did some things that
outraged the feelings of the captured ships' crews
in a way hard to forget. Thus when Commander
Raphael Semmes, while in command of the
cruiser Sumter, learned that the crew of the
Confederate privateer Savannah had been placed
on trial in New York for piracy, he confined eight
of the merchant seamen he had captured and
gave them "to understand that they were hos-
tages, and that their discharge, their close confine-
ment, or their execution, as the case might be,
depended upon the action of their own govern-
ment in the case of the Savannah prisoners."
(Memoirs of Service Afloat, p. 178.)

As was eventually seen, the men of the Sa-
vannah were not pirates; they had been legiti-
mately serving the Confederate government. The
Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, on learn-
ing that the Savannah's men were to be tried as
pirates, ordered a number of United States sol-
diers placed in confinement as hostages to abide
the fate of those sailors, and in this act he was,

Tales of Whalers in the Civil War 373

of course, entirely justified. It was one thing,
however, for the president of the Confederacy to
select captured soldiers as hostages in such a
case, and an entirely different one for the com-
mander of a cruiser to select merchant seamen
for a similar purpose.

Then, after the Federal authorities had cap-
tured and imprisoned in irons the paymaster of
the Sumter, Semmes, instead of referring the
matter to his government for action, avenged
himself and the paymaster, as he said, by putting
in irons and otherwise ill treating the crews of
several captured whalers. "I pursued this prac-
tice, painful as it was, for the next seven or eight
captures, putting the masters and mates of the
ships, as well as the crews, in irons." (Memoirs-
of Service Afloat, p. 429.)

Starbuck, in describing another feature of the
work of the Confederate cruisers, says :

"They adopted a device to ensnare their vic-
tims which can but be severely reprobated as
inhuman. Capturing a vessel, they waited until
night had fallen upon the scene, and then, firing
her, they pounced upon the unfortunates who,

374 The Story of the New England Whalers

obeying the natural impulses of humanity, bore
down for the burning craft to save the lives they
believed to be endangered. Thus were captured
and burned by the Alabama the ships Benjamin
Tucker, Osceola, Virginia, and Elisha Dunbar, of
New Bedford; Ocean, of Sandwich; Alert, of
New London, and schooners Altamaba, of Sippi-
can, and Weather Gage, of Provincetown, all of
whom, attracted by the burning of the Ocean
Rover, of Mattapoisett, hastened to rescue the
shipmates whose lives they believed to be im-
perilled."

Semmes' story of the burning of the Ocean
Rover is entirely different from that told by Star-
buck, and it may be given here not only as a
matter of justice to Semmes, but because it de-
scribes in an interesting way the destruction of
a number of the whaling fleet. Semmes says, in
Memoirs of Service Afloat, p. 431 :

"Later in the afternoon we chased a large ship,
looming up almost like a frigate, in the north-
west, with which we came up about sunset. We
had showed her the American colors, and she
approached us without the least suspicion that

Tales of Whalers in the Civil War 375

she was running into the arms of an enemy. . . .
This large ship proved to be the Ocean Rover, of
New Bedford, Massachusetts. She had been out
three years and four months, cruising in various
parts of the world; had sent home one or two
cargoes of oil, and was now returning herself
with another cargo of eleven hundred barrels.
The master, though anxious to see his wife, and
dandle on his knee the babies that were no longer
babies, with true Yankee thrift thought he would
just take the Azores in his way home, and make
another 'strike' or two, to fill up his empty casks.
The consequence was, as the reader has seen, a
little disappointment. I really felt for the honest
fellow, but when I came to reflect for a moment
upon the diabolical acts of his countrymen of
New England, who were out-heroding Herod in
carrying on against us a vindictive war, filled
with hate and vengeance, the milk of human kind-
ness which had begun to well up in my heart
disappeared, and I had no longer any spare sym-
pathies to dispose of.

"It being night when the capture was made, I
directed the prize to be hove to in charge of a

376 The Story of the New England Whalers

prize crew until morning. In the meantime,
however, the master, who had heard from some
of my men that I had permitted the master of
the Ocmulgee and his crew to land in their own
boats, came to me and requested permission to
land in the same manner. We were four or five
miles from the land, and I suggested to him that
it was some distance to pull.

"'Oh, that is nothing,' said he; 'we whalers
sometimes chase a whale on the broad sea until
our ships are hull down and think nothing of it.
It will relieve you of us the sooner, and be of some
service to us besides.'

"Seeing that the sea was smooth, and that
there was really no risk to be run, for a Yankee
whale boat might be made, with a little manage-
ment, to ride out an ordinary gale of wind, I con-
sented, and the delighted master returned to his
ship to make the necessary preparations. I gave
him the usual permission to take what provisions
he needed, the whaling gear belonging to his
boats, and the personal effects of himself and
men. He worked like a beaver, for not more
than a couple of hours had elapsed before he

Tales of Whalers in the Civil War 377

was again alongside of the Alabama with all his
six boats with six men in each, ready to start for
the shore. I could not but be amused when I
looked over the side into these boats at the amount
of plunder that rapacious fellow had packed into
them. They were literally loaded down with all
sorts of traps, from the seaman's chest and bed-
ding to the tabby cat and parrot. Nor had the
'main chance' been overlooked, for all the 'cabin
stores' had been secured, and sundry barrels of
beef and pork besides. I said to him :

'"Captain, your boats appear to me to be
rather deeply laden; are you not afraid to trust
them ?'

"'Oh, no,' he replied; 'they are as buoyant as
ducks, and we shall not ship a drop of water.'

"After a detention of a few minutes, during
which my clerk was putting the crew under
parole, I gave the master leave to depart.

"The boats, shoving off from the side, one by
one, and falling into line, struck out for the
shore. That night landing of this whaler's crew
was a beautiful spectacle. The moon was shin-
ing brightly, though there were some passing

378 The Story of the New England Whalers

clouds sailing lazily in the upper air. Flores,
which was sending off to us, even at this distance,
her perfumes of shrub and flower, lay sleeping in
the moonlight. The rocky islets that rise like so
many shafts out of the sea, devoid of all vegetation
and at different distances from the shore, looked
weird and unearthly. The boats, moving swiftly
and mysteriously toward the shore, might have
been mistaken, when they had gotten a little dis-
tance from us, for Venetian gondolas with their
peaked bows and sterns, especially when we
heard coming over the sea, a song, sung by a
powerful and musical voice, and chorussed by
all the boats. Those merry fellows were thus
making light of misfortune, and proving that the
sailor, after all, is the true philosopher. But
little I dreamed, as I stood on the deck of the
Alabama, and witnessed the scene I have de-
scribed, that four years afterward it would be
quoted against me as a violation of the laws of
war! And yet so it was. It was alleged by the
malice of my defamers, who never have and
never can forgive me for the destruction of their
property, that miles away at sea, in rough and

Tales of Whalers in the Civil War 379

inclement weather, I compelled my prisoners to
depart for the shore in leaky and unsound boats,
at a hazard of their lives, designing and desiring
to drown them ! And this is all the thanks I
received for setting some of these fellows up as
nabobs among the islanders. Why, the master
of the Ocean Rover, with his six boats and their
cargoes, was richer than the governor when he
landed in Flores, where the simple islanders are
content with a few head of cattle, a cast net, and a
canoe.

"The Alabama had now two prizes in com-
pany [the schooner Starlight, a cargo carrier
bound from Boston to the Azores, had been taken
before the Ocean Rover appeared], with which she
lay off and on the island during the night, and
she was destined to secure another before morn-
ing. I had turned in and was sleeping soundly
when about midnight an officer came below to
inform me that there was another large ship
close on board of us. I was dressed and on deck
in a few minutes. The stranger was plainly visi-
ble, being not more than a mile distant. She
was heading for the island. I wore ship as

380 The Story of the New England Whalers

quietly as possible and followed her, but she had
in the meantime drawn some distance ahead,
and an exciting chase now ensued. We were
both close-hauled on the starboard tack, and the
stranger, seeing that he was pursued, put every
rag of sail on his ship that he could spread. I
could but admire her with her square yards and
white canvas, every sheet home and every leach
taut. After a chase of about four hours, day
broke, when we hoisted the English ensign. This
was a polite invitation to the chase to show her
colors, but she declined to do so. We now felt
sure that she was an enemy, . . . and fired a
blank cartridge. Still she was obstinate. She
was steering for Flores and probably, like the
Starlight, had her eye on the marine league.
Having approached, in another half hour, within
good round-shot range, I threw a 32-pounder near
enough to her stern to give her captain a shower
bath. In a moment more we could see the stars
and stripes ascending to the stranger's peak, the
mainyard was swung aback, and the prize had
surrendered herself a prisoner. She proved to
be the Alert, of and from New London, and

Tales of Whalers in the Civil War 381

bound by way of the Azores and Cape de Verde
Islands to the Indian Ocean. She- was only six-
teen days from port, with files of late newspapers ;
and beside her own ample outfit for a large crew
and a long voyage, she had on board supplies for
the group known as the Navigators' Islands, in
the South Indian Ocean, where among icebergs
and storms the Yankees had a whaling and seal-
ing station. . . . We paroled the officers and
crew of the Alert and sent them ashore in their
own boats as we had done the others.

"I now had three prizes on my hands, and as
I could make no better use of them, thanks to
the unfriendly conduct of neutrals, ... we had
three funeral pyres burning around us at the
same moment. The other whalers at a distance
must have thought that there were a good many
steamers passing Flores that day. There was
more work for us ere night set in. Another sail
was discovered standing in for the island. We
proceeded to meet the stranger, who was standing
in our direction. The ships approached each
other very rapidly, and we soon discovered the
new sail to be a large schooner of unmistakable

382 The Story of the New England Whalers

Yankee build and rig. . . . Upon being boarded
she proved to* be the Weathergauge, a whaler of
Provincetown. . . . We now landed the crew of
the Weatbergauge in their own boats, with the
usual store of provisions and traps, and burned
her. Two days elapsed now without a capture.
On the third day the welcome cry of 'Sail ho!'
again rang from the masthead, and on making
sail in the direction indicated by the lookout, we
soon discovered the chase was a whaler. And in
an hour or two more we were alongside of the
American whaling brig Altamaha, from New Bed-
ford, five months out. The Altamaha had had
but little success, and was comparatively empty.
She did not make so beautiful a bonfire, therefore,
as the other whalers had done."

As one chase was very much like another, it
will suffice to say here that the next whaler taken
was the Benjamin Tucker, of New Bedford, with
340 barrels of oil on board. She was fired at 10
o'clock in the morning. The schooner Courser,
of Provincetown, was the next victim. She was
burned in the forenoon, also, after which the
crews of the three ships last mentioned were sent

Tales of Whalers in the Civil War 383

ashore in their own boats. The Virginia was the
next whaler captured, and of her Semmes says :

"The torch having been applied rather late in
the afternoon, the burning wreck was still visible
some time after nightfall." This, according to
his account, was the only ship that might have
served to toll on the unwary whalers of the vicinity
at night, and as a matter of fact none came within
sight in consequence of her flames.

The most important of the Confederate cruisers,
in the whalers' point of view, was the Shenandoah.
Lieutenant John M. Brooke, of the Confederate
navy, had seen service in the northern Pacific
while in the United States Navy, and from his
knowledge of the whalers he worked out a scheme
for raiding the fleet near Bering's Strait. A
British steamer, renamed the Shenandoah, was
fitted for this service under Lieutenant James
Iredell Waddell.

On his way to Bering's Strait, Waddell stopped
at Ascension Island, and found in the port four
whale ships, of which three were American and
one was under the Honolulu flag. The cruiser's
boat having brought all the whaler captains to

384 The Story of the New England Whalers

the Shenandoah, Waddell told them their ships
were confiscated to the Confederate government.

"Well, that's pretty quick done," said Captain
Chase, of the Hector.

"None of your impertinence to an officer of the
Confederate navy," said Waddell.

"I'm not impertinent," said Chase; "but it's
pretty quick done, just the same."

For that remark, Waddell ordered the whaler
placed in double irons and "gagged for disre-
spect," according to the log of the Shenandoah ;
but as a matter of fact the officer who was ordered
to do the gagging did not do it.

Later Waddell made an effort to induce Cap-
tain George O. Baker, of the Edward Gary, to
join the Shenandoah' s crew, for she was short of
men. Captain Baker says he enjoyed life and
free drinks for several hours, while Waddell was
explaining the situation, but when he finally
refused to join her he was put in double irons.

On leaving Ascension (April 13, 1865) the
Shenandoah went to the Okhotsk Sea and Bering's
Strait region. Between the zyth of May and the
end of June she captured twenty-four whalers

Tales of Whalers in the Civil War 385

and one trader. On June 22 five whalers were
taken, among them being the Milo, the captain
of which told Waddell that the war was ended.
As the Milo had no papers on board to sub-
stantiate the statement, Waddell refused to be-
lieve it. The Milo was bonded for $46,000, —
her master agreed that the owners would pay
that sum to the cruiser's commander within six
months after the independence of the Confederacy
was acknowledged by the United States. She was
then released to carry home the crews of other
whalers which were burned. One ship was taken
on the 23d of June and another on the 25th, and
then on the 26th six more were secured. All the
eight were destroyed. On the 2/th the trader
Susan Abigail came to the Skenandoak, wholly
unaware that she was in any danger. She had
sailed from San Francisco on April 19, and had
on board files of newspapers to that date. These
papers told of the surrender of General Lee and
the Confederate army of Northern Virginia; of
the occupation of the Confederate capital by
Federal troops; of the flight of President Davis
and his cabinet. Fort Fisher, at Wilmington,

386 The Story of the New England Whalers

North Carolina, had long since fallen, and Charles-
ton, South Carolina, had been captured. Sher-
man had been pressing the Confederate army
under Johnson (the last of the Confederate armies)
so closely that Johnson had asked (April 14) for a
cessation of hostilities, "the object being to per-
mit the civil authorities to enter into the needful
arrangements to terminate the existing war."
(Johnson's letter.) The war was, in fact, ended,
but no formal proclamation of the ending of hos-
tilities had been made, and Waddell continued
his work of destruction. The Susan Abigail was
burned. On June 28 eleven whalers were cap-
tured, of which two were bonded to carry the
crews and the others were burned.

The Shenandoah now turned southward, and
on August 2 fell in with the English bark Barra-
couta, "from San Francisco to Liverpool, thirteen
days out. Having received from the Barracouta
the sad intelligence of the overthrow of the Con-
federate government" (quoted from the Shenan-
doah's log), the cruiser was taken to Liverpool
and there surrendered to the British authorities,
who turned her over to the United States.

Tales of Whalers in the Civil War 387

Among the whalemen captured by the Sbenan-
doah on June 27, especial mention must be
made of Captain Thomas G. Young, of the bark
Favorite, of Fairhaven. When he saw that the
cruiser was really an enemy, he loaded his whal-
ing guns and such muskets as were on board,
hoisted the old flag, and mustered his crew for a
fight. He then took his station on the roof of the
cabin and when the boat from the Shenandoab
approached to demand his surrender, he shouted:

"Boat ahoy!"

"'Ahoy!'" responded the officer in charge, to
quote the story as told in Hunt's The Sbenandoab.

"Who are you, and what do you want?' was
his next salutation.

"We come to inform you that your vessel is a
prize to the Confederate steamer Shenandoab'

"I'll be d — d if she is, at least just yet, and
now keep off or I'll fire into you!'

"The old Spartan began to squint along his
bomb gun, and the men to handle their muskets
in such a decidedly businesslike manner, that it
was perfectly apparent that he intended to carry
his threat into execution.

388 The Story of the New England Whalers

"Seeing this the officer in charge of the boat
hailed our ship, reported the state of things, and
wished to know if it was the captain's desire
that he should board in spite of resistance. Cap-
tain Waddell ordered the boat back to the Shen-
andoah, which immediately steamed towards the
contumacious Yankee, and ranged alongside.

"The skipper still stood by his bomb gun with
his forces drawn up on deck as though he actually
meditated fighting it out.

"'Haul down your flag!' shouted the officer of
the deck as soon as we were near enough for his
voice to be heard on board the whaler.

"'Haul it down yourself, G — d d — n you, if
you think it will be good for your constitution!'
was the plucky response.

"'If you don't haul it down, we'll blow you out
of water in five minutes.'

'"Blow away, my buck, but may I be eternally
blasted if I haul down that flag for any cursed
Confederate pirate that ever floated.'"

A boat was now sent to take the whaler on
board the Shenandoab. It was able to get along-
side the whale ship without a fight solely because

Tales of Whalers in the Civil War 389

her under officers had seen from the first that
resistance was hopeless, and when loading the guns
had omitted to put percussion caps on the nipples.
Captain Young aimed his gun at the Confeder-
ates, but when he pulled the trigger the weapon
was not discharged. To this statement Starbuck
adds:

"His inhuman captors, who were unable to
appreciate bravery, put him in irons in the top-
gallant-forecastle, and robbed him of his money,
his watch, and even his shirt studs."

One might doubt Starbuck's statement but for
the character that Hunt, quoted above (he was
an acting master on the Shenandoah}, gives
Waddell. He says (pp. 262-263) that after
the cruiser reached Liverpool, Captain Waddell
deliberately swindled the Shenandoah's crew out
of a large sum of money that had been placed in
his hands by the Confederate agent for their use.

A brief, picturesque Civil War story of the
whalers is that told of the Stone Fleet. An
early move of the Federal authorities for the
restoration of the Union was the blockading of
the Confederate ports. Exactly 185 harbor and

390 The Story of the New England Whalers

river openings were to be closed absolutely
against commerce. For this purpose three
naval steamers and sixteen ships of the sail
were available when the proclamations were
issued, and the number of merchant ships that
could be purchased and armed within reasonable
time was limited. In the emergency some one in
the Navy Department suggested that Charleston,
the leading port of the Atlantic coast, might be
closed by sinking stone-laden vessels in the chan-
nel. This plan having been adopted, Assistant
Secretary of the Navy, Gustavus V. Fox, con-
tracted with Richard H. Chappell, of New Haven,
to supply forty-five vessels of any kind that could
be floated to Charleston. As many old whale ships
were then at the piers of New Bedford, Mr. Chap-
pell went there and succeeded in buying twenty
four. The prices paid for these whalers ranged
from $3150 to $6500, a fact of some bearing upon
the estimated amount of capital invested in whale
ships during the Golden Era. The ships were
bought as they lay at the piers with their whaling
gear on board. This gear was sold, and many a fine
bargain was obtained by the town's speculators.

Tales of Whalers in the Civil War 391

"As fast as each ship was emptied, she was
fitted for convenient scuttling. About two inches
above the light-water line a two-inch hole was
bored in the counter, running completely through
the side of the vessel. Into this from each side
was inserted a plug turning to a loose fit and
provided with a flange head sufficiently large to
close the opening. These two plugs were bolted
together by a bolt, passing through the centre,
held by a head on the outside and by a wrench
nut on the inside." At the proper time the nuts
were unscrewed, the bolt knocked out, and the
two plugs were allowed to fall out and let the
water pour in. One James Duddy, having the
contract for supplying the stone for the fleet,
"started into the country and soon had all the
farmers tearing down walls and loading stone on
drays." So says the New Bedford Mercury.

Crews having been shipped for the voyage to
Charleston, seventeen of the twenty-four were
anchored in the bay below the city. The captains
of this fleet then met and elected Captain Rodney
French (he who had been convicted of fitting
out the Margaret Scott as a slaver) as their com-

392 The Story of the New England Whalers

modore. Said Captain J. M. Willis, one of the
captains, in regard to this choice:

"When all preparations were made, we decided
on Rodney French for commodore of the fleet.
Rodney, who was afterwards mayor of New
Bedford, was a pretty good fellow, told a good
story, and was generally liked by the rest of the
captains. There was only one of the captains
who thought Rodney was not the man for the
position."

On November 20, at 7 o'clock in the morning,
the fleet weighed anchor and reached down
Buzzard's Bay in a flock, piling on the canvas
and racing like a fleet of yachts on a club cruise.
They were bound for Savannah as a rendezvous,
and the survivors yet tell with glee that the com-
modore's ship was the last to arrive because
he took the coast route while the others reached
offshore and held a good wind. On December
19 and 20 they gathered in the channel at Charles-
ton, where Acting Master George H. Bradbury,
of the frigate Wabasb, located each ship. Then
all were stripped of their sails and rigging, the
masts were cut away on most of them, and, the

Tales of Whalers in the Civil War 393

plugs having been knocked out, they all sank to
the bottom.

An old war-time lithograph that is greatly
prized by New Bedford people, and can be seen
well framed in many houses there, is entitled:
"View of the Stone Fleet Which Sailed from
New Bedford Harbor."

XV
IN THE LATER DAYS

WE never tire of telling the story of Cap-
tain George Fred Tilton," said Zephe-
niah W. Pease in his Pen Pictures of
Typical Whalemen, printed in the one hundredth
anniversary number of the New Bedford Mercury.
In 1898 the Bering Strait whaling fleet of eight
vessels was caught in the ice off Point Barrow.
The Belvedere was one of the. fleet and Tilton
was her mate. The month of October found
the vessels still in the ice. The westerly wind
blew steadily and the vessels were lying close
together on the east shore. They were short of
supplies, and the whalemen foresaw that unless
they obtained help in some way before the arrival
of the fleet of the next summer all were likely to
perish. Every day was an anxious one. Finally
the crew of the Bessie H. Freeman were awakened
one night by the crushing of the ship, and the

394

In the Later Days 395

company of forty-nine men had barely time to
jump for the ice before she was utterly destroyed.
They went to tTTe Belvedere. A few hours later
the captain and fifty-five of the crew of the Orca
came to the same ship and said that they had been
forced to come by the destruction of their ship.

Various plans for reaching the open water were
tried. Dynamite was used to open a way, but it
failed to accomplish the desired result. When
all means had failed, an accounting of the food
on hand showed that since the supplies on the
Freeman and the Orca had been lost, there cer-
tainly was no hope that all hands could survive
until the next summer.

In this condition of affairs, Tilton offered to
attempt to reach a shore whaling station on the
southerly coast of Alaska whence supplies might
be forwarded. The captains without exception
flouted the suggestion, but Tilton said:

" It is our only hope. We cannot survive with-
out assistance until summer. I have a fighting
chance if I go, and scarcely that if I remain.
If any one can make the trip, I can."

The latter assertion was a conceded point,

396 The Story of the New England Whalers

and after a long consultation the captains gave
a reluctant consent. At Point Barrow, Tilton
got a sled drawn by eight young dogs and two
Indian runners. The sled was fitted with a sail
to ease the work of the dogs when the wind was
fair. Such provisions as could be spared —
principally hardtack — were given him, together
with a map, a compass, a gun and cartridges,
and a tent. Then on October 27 all the crews
assembled to see him start. There were few
who did not believe that he would soon perish
in one of the blizzards that were fast coming on,
and when he began his journey they cheered him
until he was out of sight.

During the first day Tilton covered twenty-
eight miles, but never again was he able to do as
well. The next day a storm kept the men in their
sleeping bags all day. The third day Tilton lost
his axe, which had been invaluable for cutting
fuel and making paths. They subsequently found
a knife in some deserted Eskimo huts, but it
could by no means replace the axe. Then Tilton's
feet and hands were frosted and on the twelfth
day the wind blew the shelter tent away, leaving

In the Later Days 397

the men no protection, except that afforded by
the sled which they turned up at night for a wind-
break.

The wind in the mountains of Cape Lisburne
was so fierce that it lifted the party from the trail.
A few frozen fish were found, but on the fifteenth
day the provisions gave out, then the dogs were
killed, one by one, as food for the others. Days
of starvation followed, but a village of Eskimos
was found at Cape Hope, six hundred miles from
the starting point of the journey.

Here a little food was secured, but the Indian
guides deserted. Undaunted, Tilton prevailed
upon an Eskimo man and woman to take their
place and then went on for twenty-nine days,
during which a single fish of small size per day
was all the food the party had. At St. Michael's,
as the station for which he was bound was called,
the Jarvis relief expedition was found, and to
it was given needed information as to the best
way to reach the whale ships. Then Tilton went
on once more, constantly on the verge of starva-
tion, until, on March 22, he arrived at the Kadiak
Islands. Thus he was adrift in the Arctic through

398 The Story of the New England Whalers

all that winter. At the Kadiaks he was able to
secure transportation to San Francisco.

"If Tilton had been a professional explorer,"
says the Mercury, "the world would have pro-
claimed this marvellous achievement, and he
would have been celebrated in books," but he
"made nothing of it and reshipped for another
whaling voyage."

Captain Tilton's adventure is made to serve
as an introduction to this, the final chapter of
the book, because the story of the whalers in the
later years is to be found chiefly in the annals of
the Arctic beyond Bering's Strait, — along the
northwest coast of Alaska, where Tilton found
his opportunity. On the whole, the story is one
of disasters, and the greatest disaster of all was
that occurring in the fall of 1871, when thirty-four
whale ships, and one trader from San Francisco,
with crews numbering more than 1200 souls,
were caught by the ice near Point Belcher, on
the extreme northwest coast of the continent.

In all, forty-two whalers gathered at the edge
of the ice early in May, 1871, and worked their
way north as the ice retreated or opened, until,

In the Later Days 399

at the end of June, they were able to pass through
the strait into the Arctic Ocean. During July
all but one, the Oriole, Captain H. S. Hayes,
followed the Alaska coast until within a few
miles of Icy Cape, and finally, early in August,
some of them were able to reach up past Wain-
wright Inlet, and almost to Point Belcher. Dur-
ing all this time they were never for a moment
out of sight of the unbounded ice of the Arctic
Ocean, save only when the fogs shut them in.
The open water stretching along the coast was
never more than ten miles wide at most; it was
commonly no more than three or four, and it
was in this narrow lead that the fleet worked
along to the points mentioned. They were at
anchor every night and sometimes for days at
a stretch. The open lead was flecked over with
cakes of loose ice which varied in size from that
of a country schoolhouse up to that of a city
block. In among these blocks of ice the whales
appeared, now and then, jetting their vapory
breath into the freezing cold air. Indeed, "green"
lookouts sometimes mistook the spray of a wave
that was dashed against the weather side of a

400 The Story of the New England Whalers

cake of ice for the less familiar breath of a whale.
It was (and it is yet) the custom to send the
small boats cruising among these cakes of ice
in search of whales. They pulled in among
the cakes wherever they found room for their
oars, and they followed the narrow leads or
cracks in the main field itself.

The boats were lowered for this kind of work
and sent cruising under sails and oars, hither
and yon, on August n. Some had the luck to
strike and kill whales which they were towing to
their ships, while others were in pursuit of whales,
when the wind suddenly shifted to the southwest,
and the ice began to close in on boats and ships
alike.

Some of the boats managed to pull clear, but
many of them were caught in the leads through
the pack. The crews of these boats were obliged
to clamber up on the ice and by means of lines
hoist the boats up where temporary safety might
be found. Then they began the slow work of
tracking the boats across the ice toward the
ships. In the meantime the ice was closing in
around the ships. In haste the men on board

In the Later Days 401

got up the anchors and set such sail as was needed
to keep the vessels ahead of the ice. In some
cases the danger was so imminent that it was
necessary to slip the cable. Only those who
have seen Arctic ice can fully appreciate the
scene or the hardships endured by the crews
as they worked upon and in front of the irre-
sistible ice-field.

In time, of course, the pack grounded, for
field ice reaches down from three to five fathoms
below the surface of the water; and because the
ships were of shoal draft, and the gale was mod-
erate (by the Arctic standard), the fleet was for
the time safe. But the open water in which they
were imprisoned was in no place more than half
a mile wide, while the breadth was in places two
hundred yards. Worse yet, it was certain that
if the gale should increase, the ice would be driven
to the beach.

Nevertheless, no sooner did the ice cease its
advance than every crew set lookouts once more,
and every man was alert to respond to the old
cry of: "Blow! blow! Thar she blows!"

For two weeks the crews worked the narrow

4O2 The Story of the New England Whalers

water. They even went offshore on the ice
and killed whales in the pocket-like openings
found in the ice-field. Blow high or blow low,
they were there for oil and bone, and they would
neglect no opportunity that offered, merely be-
cause the ice was threatening.

On August 25 a strong northeast gale came.
The whalers had been expecting it to come, and
it released the entire fleet by driving the pack
away to a distance of from four to eight miles.
When the ice began to move off, the Eskimos
flocked to the ships and told the captains that
this was the last opportunity that would be offered
for escape; but the captains laughed at the friendly
warning. The whales were coming from under
the ice in numbers greater than at any time dur-
ing the season ; moreover, another northeast wind
was sure to follow the southwest gale which the
Eskimos said was due in a short time. In Sep-
tember they would pull out for home, — not
sooner.

For four days the whalers prospered. Then
the wind shifted to the southwest, as the Eskimos
had predicted. It was not a bad gale at first,

In the Later Days 403

but on September 2 it came with a fury that was
irresistible. The Comet, a ship that had faced
the pack many a time, was caught between two
huge floes and squeezed. Every frame was
broken and her stern was forced out until it hung
in a bulging mass above the ice. The crew fled
to the other ships and were saved.

Some of the captains would now have been
glad to up anchor for home, but it was too late;
so they kept on whaling, hoping for a northeast
gale. So it happened on the yth while the crew
of the bark Roman were cutting in a whale, the
ice began to swirl under the impulse of the wind,
and it literally ground the old vessel to kindling
wood. The next day the Awashonks was de-
stroyed in like fashion. The Awashonks was
the vessel that, under Captain Prince Coffin,
was attacked by the natives of Namorik Island
away back in 1835, with the result that Coffin,
two mates, and four of the sailors were killed.
Then under the impulse of the gale the ice began
to rise up over the shoals near the beach, and
all hands soon saw that it would certainly sweep
across the beach itself before many days.

404 The Story of the New England Whalers

At a consultation of all the shipmasters it
was decided to send Captain R. D. Frazer, of
the Florida, to explore such open water as was
to be found alongshore to the south and west, —
the narrow lead between the beach and the ice-
field. He returned on the I2th and reported
the ice blockade solid, save for a lead just wide
enough for small boats, to a distance of eighty
miles from the fleet. Beyond the ice he had
found seven whalers that were safe enough, and
they, he said, would stand by until the crews of
the beleaguered ships could reach them.

To cover eighty miles, even in the teeth of an
Arctic gale, if that had been all, was no great
hardship to old whalemen. But here were cap-
tains who had the savings of a lifetime invested
in the ships they must leave, and every one in
leaving his ship left the job by which he was
supporting his family. Worse yet, some of the
captains had their families with them. The
women and children must be taken from the
comfort afforded by stanch ships into the open
boats where, drenched with the freezing spray
which the gale would throw over them at every

In the Later Days 405

plunge of the bow, they must endure life as well
as they could in the journey down the long, narrow
lead.

Beginning at the stroke of the bell at noon
on September 14, every ship set her ensign, with
the union down. Then the crews climbed over
the rails, helped the women and children down
ladders to the boats, and when all were ready
the whole flotilla, numbering nearly two hundred
boats, bearing 1219 souls, headed away down
the lead.

"It was just 4 o'clock when we shoved off from
the Victoria" said Captain Davis, one of the un-
fortunates, in relating the story to the writer.
"The sleet and snow were flying around us, and
the blasts of wind that swept across the ice-fields
made nothing of flannels and oilskins; but there
was nothing else to do but pull away at the oars,
as best we could, the whole night long. When
daylight came we were strung along the open
streak in a procession like the geese I was telling
you about. Some were rowing, some were pad-
dling, some had rails set. Between the snow and
sleet squalls we could see the whole flotilla, but

406 The Story of the New England Whalers

at times we couldn't see the next boat, though
no further away than a ship's length.

"So we kept going, flinching when the squalls
struck us, but thinking all the time about how
much worse it was for them that had their women
and children along. Of course we had food
enough, — boiled beef and pork and bread that
we'd made ready before we left the ships, but
we hadn't any coffee and we hadn't any way to
make any. Along about four in the afternoon
we saw on the beach a considerable lot of drift-
wood and with that we couldn't stand it any
longer without the coffee. We pulled ashore
and the rest followed."

Huge fires were built and the boats were drawn
up and turned on edge to make shelters. With
a number of sand-dunes found there to help
break off the wind, the company became almost
comfortable. Supper, with plenty of hot coffee,
was prepared, and when that was eaten, every-
body went to sleep in spite of the sleet-laden
gale and the outlook for the morrow. Next
morning, after a hastily eaten breakfast, all went
afloat and toiled on.

In the Later Days 407

A few hours later the waiting ships were seen.
It was necessary to pull out around a ten-mile
tongue of ice that lay between them and the
ships, but this was accomplished in spite of the
tremendous sea that they met on the weather
side of the point, and just sixty hours from the
time of leaving the Victoria, Captain Davis was
beside the Progress, Captain Dowden.

"When we got alongside I climbed up. I used
to go to school with Captain Dowden," said
Captain Davis.

"' Hello, captain,' says I.

"'Hello, Bill/ says he. 'I guess you want
to stay, don't you ?'

"I did.

"'Well, I've got 220 on board now. You'll
find better accommodation on that other ship
down to leeward.'

"I went to the lee rail. 'Boys, pass up that
grub and bear a hand about it, and then throw
off the painter,' I said.

"They just humped themselves, and the boat
was soon adrift. Then I walked aft to the captain
again.

408 The Story of the New England Whalers

"'Captain,' says I, 'I was just down to the
rail to see about going off to the other ship, but
some one had cast off the painter and there she
goes now.'

"So we stayed. The fleet of seven vessels
waited until the next day, and we counted up
around, after a fashion, to see that none was
left, and then made sail for the Sandwich Islands.

"It is the habit of the New Bedford owners
to go to the Sandwich Islands every fall to meet
the fleet and audit the accounts. It is a pleasant
excursion for them, and it is good policy to attend
to the business in person. It took us thirty days
to get there. The owners were down on the beach
to welcome. Instead of casks of oil and stacks
of whalebone we discharged 1200 sailors, penni-
less, and with only one shift of clothes each, before
the expectant owners."

When the whaling fleet returned next year
(of course a fleet did return. Twenty-eight
American and four foreign whalers went there),
they found one of the abandoned vessels, the
Minerva, afloat in Wainwright Inlet, as sound
in hull as on the day her crew left her. All the

In the Later Days 409

others had been crushed, or stranded, or burned
by the natives. This ship had served, during
the winter, as a home for one sailor, who had
braved the danger in the hope of making a for-
tune by saving bone from the abandoned ships.
He secured a plenty of the bone, but the Eskimos
would not let him keep it; in fact, they would
have killed him but for the pity of their women,
who hid him when the murderous mood was upon
them. When spring came, he was glad to escape
to the fleet empty-handed. The Minerva was
manned and taken south. She was eventually
sold and used as a freighter to carry oil from the
Sandwich Islands to New Bedford.

In 1876 twelve ships were caught by the ice.
"Several men perished in journeying from one
beleaguered vessel to another, apparently more
safe, and many died on the toilsome, perilous
march to the rescuing ships. . . . Fifty-three
remained " with the ships, rather than risk the
journey alongshore in search of ships that were
clear of the ice, and three hundred escaped. The
men who remained "were unequal to the exertion
necessary to save their lives," says Goode's Whale
Fishery.

410 The Story of the New England Whalers

The story of the Oriole, mentioned above as
a ship that did not follow the fleet, gives a good
idea of what one may call the every-day work
and losses of Arctic whalers. Captain H. Hayes
commanded the Oriole that year, and Captain
Davis was his mate. Hayes was one of the most
enterprising captains of the Arctic fishery. He
put the Oriole into the ice ahead of all others,
and having found open water near the Siberian
coast, he reached away toward Plover Bay.

"There, I guess we've got the best of them
all this time," he said as the Oriole cleared the
ice, and so he had, for there was not another
ship in the open water, nor likely to be for some
time. He expected to have the schools of whales
to be found near Plover Bay all to himself.

As the day wore away a cake of ice, as big and
rugged as a New England pasture, was seen ahead,
and the captain pinched his ship up into the wind,
hoping to pass to windward of it. Finding,
after a time, that this could not be done, he told
the man at the wheel to "Let her go off." Off
she went as merrily as the bird whose name she
bore, and in a few moments she was ploughing

In the Later Days 411

down toward the lee of the big cake of ice. When
she arrived at the corner the captain waved his
hand toward the man at the wheel as a signal
to put the helm down and bring the vessel to her
course again. The man did as ordered, but the
captain was a bit vexed because he had been
obliged to veer off, and it seemed to him that she
was not coming to the wind as rapidly as she should
have done. Turning around he said to the man:

"Consarn it, put that wheel down."

The man put the wheel hard down immedi-
ately, and before any one realized what was doing
the bark was shaving along within a boat's length
of the huge cake.

"Ease her off a little!" shouted the captain,
and the man was obeying this order when she
struck on a point of ice projecting under water
like the ram of a man-of-war, and with a force
that almost threw her on her beam ends.

"By thunder!" said Mr. Davis; "if she gets
many more blows like that, we'll be in the boats."

As the vessel righted and continued on her
way with speed unimpaired, no one gave the
matter any more thought. That night, however,

412 The Story of the New England Whalers

one of the boat steerers had occasion to go into the
hold for some kind of gear for his boat. Opening
the hatch he went backing down the ladder for
a few rounds, and then, turning quickly, he climbed
up again, shouting:

"Captain Hayes, yer ship's full of water clean
up to the deck beams."

This was almost true, but by manning the pumps
and rigging barrels in slings to bail her the crew
managed to lower the water until they could
get at the leak. The ice had made "basket
work" of a large space on the bluff of the bow,
but they covered the wound with oakum, canvas,
etc., in a way that stopped the inflow of water
for the time being, and then they sailed her to
Plover Bay, where they laid her alongside a steep
beach, discharged the cargo of all kinds, sent
all upper spars on shore, and hove her down.
The leak on the port side of the bow, where she
had struck the ice, was soon repaired. At the
same time, however, it was seen that some dam-
age had been done on the starboard side. They
therefore righted the ship, turned her around,
and hove her down again. But just when she

In the Later Days 413

was down to the right angle, and the carpenter's
gang were ready to go to work, the after-hatch
broke in under the pressure of the water, for nearly
half the deck was below the surface as she lay
on her side. In three minutes she was on the
bottom with only her mastheads out of water.

"There," said Captain Hayes, "now we've
done it for keeps." It was so. Nothing they
could do would raise her.

Hard as was the life of the whaler in the Arc-
tic, there was a pleasant side to the picture, now
and then. Even these castaways from the Oriole
made shift to enjoy themselves in spite of the
loss of the ' ship. The stores were on shore.
The natives had been hired to help with the work
on the ship. They had received some rum and
liberal supplies of bread and molasses, which
they liked almost as well as rum. They now
proved good providers of Arctic game, and the
crew went hunting for themselves, so that life
was by no means all hardship while they waited
for another ship to appear. The trader Victoria,
mentioned above, was the first vessel that came
to the rescue. When she had finished her trad-

414 The Story of the New England Whalers

ing with the Siberians she went over to the Alaska
coast and thus had the misfortune to get caught
with the whaler fleet of that year.

Captain Davis said that even when the ice was
coming in over the shoals on the Alaska coast,
just before all hands were driven from their ships,
the officers of the fleet, instead of bewailing their
fate, managed to get some comfort out of life
by going ashore, from day to day, and shooting
wild fowl. The fall migration was at its height,
and as Captain Davis described the flight, the
geese were so numerous that they formed an
almost unbroken procession "a few rods wide
and just as long as your eye could reach. That
sounds like a fish story, don't it ? Well, it's
the truth, just the same. They were lower down
than the eaves of a four-story house, and there
was scarcely a break in the procession large enough
to see a church steeple through, always suppos-
ing that a church steeple had been there," said
the captain. "The number of wild fowl killed
was so great that, on the Victoria, at least, the
men got tired of them, and were glad to get back
to salt pork and beef."

In the Later Days 415

With the growth of the importance of the Arc-
tic whaling, due to the decline in the price of oil
and the increase in the price of bone, San Francisco
became the real home port of the American whal-
ing fleet, though to this day more whalers are
registered at New London than at the Pacific
port.

The first whaler to sail from San Francisco
was the Popmunnett. She cleared out for a
sperm voyage in 1850. During thirty years
thereafter, however, no more than eight whalers
were registered there in any one year. In the
meantime, a coast whale fishery was established
in California, beginning at Monterey in 1851.
The habit which certain whales then had of
visiting sheltered waters of California and Lower
California (Magdalena Bay, for instance), to
bring forth their young, and the migrations along
the coast, gave a great impetus to this fishery.
But the whales were nearly exterminated, and
with decreasing production came decreasing prices.
Neither the Arctic nor the coast fishery could
make a whaler port of San Francisco, until after
the destruction of sailing ships in the Arctic ice

416 The Story of the New England Whalers

compelled the whalers to adopt steam. It was
the use of steam that made San Francisco a popu-
lar port with whalers, in the first place. Then it
was seen that the shipment of the crude oil across
the continent was a large and, to a great extent,
a needless expense. In 1883 "extensive works
for the manufacture and sale of whale and sperm
oil" were erected at that port, "thus enabling
the owners there located as well as others who
import oil at that place to find a market without
paying the heavy cost of shipping the same to
the Atlantic seaboard." (The Whale Fishery.)
The whale fishery fleet of 1883 numbered 125
all told, of which number nineteen were registered
at San Francisco. Thereafter the fleet decreased
steadily until 1901, when only forty American
vessels were employed in the pursuit of whales.
The last report of the Commission of Navigation
shows that the fleet yet numbers forty, and that
San Francisco owns eighteen of them, — twelve
steamers and six ships of the sail.

The space allotted to this story is filled. We,
the reader and the writer, have travelled far to-

In the Later Days 417

gether; but the hold of our ship is "all chocked
off," she is "full up to the hatch coamings."
More whales might be caught, more stones might
be told, but there is no room left for stowing
any kind of cargo. We must pass the word,
"All hands up anchor for home!" and strike up
the chanty that was usually sung by the crews on
such an occasion :

"We're homeward bound to New Bedford town;

Good-by, fare you well; good-by, fare you well;
When we get there we will walk around;

Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound.

"And now our ship is full, my boys;

Good-by, fare you well; good-by, fare you well;
We'll think of home and all its joys;

Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound.

" It's when you see those New Bedford girls ;

Good-by, fare you well; good-by, fare you well;
With their bright blue eyes and flowing curls;

Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound.

"When we're paid off, we'll have a good time;

Good-by, fare you well; good-by, fare you well;
The sparking of girls and the drinking of wine;

Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound.

41 8 The Story of the New England Whalers

"We'll spend our money free when we're on shore;

Good-by, fare you well; good-by, fare you well;
And when it's all gone, we'll to sea for more;

Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound."

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University of California Library
Los Angeles

This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.

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