USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > New Bedford > History of New Bedford and its vicinity, 1620-1892 > Part 39
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£ s. p.
Before we began to fit for whaling,
45 00 0
4 bbls. pork,.
103 10 0
60 lbs. tallow, 15 00 0
60 lbs. butter,
20 10 0
1 towline,
53 00 0
45 bushels of corn,
50 12 6
3 cwt. of bread,
14 00 0
66 qr. of flour,
17 10 0
Leather and sundries
15 00 0
Coffee, 1 cheese.
18 00 0
2 bushels of beans,
4 00 0
1 cwt. of cordage. . 34 00 0
2 lbs. of twine and breeks,
11 18 0
402 00 6
We then have the following additional memoranda of expenses :
£. s. d.
Tallman & Russell to 5 lbs. tea.
10 12 6
Two pails, and 1 shovel and boards
9 10 0
Tabour, for mending boats.
12 00 0
Richard Dilno and Abisha Dilno.
22 10 0
Jonathan Smith and Sampson, blacksmith
35 00 0
Louden & Hudson 10 00 0
William Claghorn sundries
134 00 0
David Shepherd, new cask.
150 00 0
Sundries put in
40 00 0
John Slocum, sundries
238 00 0
Cheese
23 00 0
Jethro Hathaway, beef 166 lbs.
14 00 0
£1,100 13 0
In 1759 the sloop Industry, Isaiah Eldredge, master, probably of Dartmouth, was captured by a French privateer.
It is evident that the whaling industry was prosecuted from Fairha- ven prior to 1760, for it is recorded that in that year William Wood sold to Elnathan Eldredge, of the same town, a certain tract of land located within the present town of Fairhaven,' and within three- quarters
1 Starbuck's History of Whale Fishery.
GROWTH OF WHALING. 409
of a mile of the center of the town, on the banks of the Acushnet River, " always excepting and reserving that part of the same where the Try house and oyl shed now stands."
In 1765 four sloops, the Nancy, Polly, Greyhound and Hannah, owned by Joseph Russell and William Tallman, were engaged in whale fishing. During this year a new whaling sloop from Dartmouth was run down and sunk by another whaleman from the same port. At this period most of the vessels fished in the Gulf of St Lawrence and Straits of Belle Isle.
In spite of the depredations of the French and Spanish privateers, the heavy claims made by the English government, and the disasters of the ocean, the whaling industry in Bedford increased. Whaling vessels be- longing in Dartmouth in 1768 were commanded by Joseph Tripp, Benjamin Jenney, Salathiel Eldredge, Isaiah Eldredge and Fortunatus Sherman ; in 1769, by Isaiah Eldredge, - Delano, Joseph Tripp, James Coffin, Melatiah Pease, Lemuel Jenkins, Benjamin Dillingham, Fortunatus Sherman and Thomas Marshall ; in 1770, by Isaiah El- dredge (in sloop Tryall), - Delano, Seth Hamblin, Lazarus Spooner, Fortunatus Sherman, - Dillingham and Joseph Tripp.
It is recorded that in 1770 the sloop Deliverance, Marchant, of Dart- mouth, in two voyages this year took 360 barrels. John Claghorn, mate of a Dartmouth brig, was taken out of his boat by a foul line and drowned, the fourth brother in a family of six to lose his life in this way. The importance of the whale fishery during the years prior to the American Revolution is forcibly indicated in the statistics given- that there were annually fitted during the years 1770 to 1775 for the northern fishery about 200 vessels of 16,120 tonnage; for the southern fishery, about 146 vessels of 16,320 tonnage, employing 4,500 men ; 45,890 barrels of sperm oil and 8,850 barrels of whale oil taken annu- ally. This fleet was composed of whaling vessels that sailed from Nantucket, Wellfleet, Dartmouth, Lynn, Martha's Vineyard, Barnstable, Boston, Falmouth, Cape Cod, Swansea, Providence, Newport, Warren, Sag Harbor, New London and New York. From Dartmouth there were annually fitted. 1770-1775, eighty vessels of 6,500 tonnage ; total number of seamen employed, 1,040; 7,200 barrels of sperm oil and 1,400 barrels of whale oil taken annually.
52
410
HISTORY OF NEW BEDFORD.
From these statistics it is plainly indicated that the whale fishery at Dartmouth was in a most flourishing condition. Such a thriving and growing business carried with it prosperity to the inhabitants. Every branch of mechanical art connected with the fitting of ships was in full operation. Vessels were built on the Acushnet and Apponegansett Rivers, and sail lofts, ropewalks, cooper-shops and wharves came into existence Houses were erected to accommodate the scores of work- men employed. Streets were opened on which to locate these homes, and on the western slope of the Acushnet River, that had been com- paratively an unbroken forest, arose the prosperous village of Bedford.
Mr. Ricketson says that "previous to the Revolutionary War a can- dle-house, the first in the place, was built by Joseph Russell ; and Cap- tain Chaffee, who had been engaged in manufacturing spermaceti in Lisbon, was employed by Mr. Russell at the then large salary of $500 per year This building stood near the corner of Centre and Front streets, and was burnt by the British during the general conflagration of the place."
In 1775 there were forty or fifty vessels employed in the whale fish- ery that belonged to Dartmouth. They were about forty tons burden, and made two or more voyages in a year.
But this tide of prosperity was of short duration, and the fleet of whaling vessels was eventually destroyed or driven from the sea. In a former chapter I have spoken of the events of local interest that clus- ter about the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. Some of the deeds performed by Dartmouth, even before these notable events took place, have been recorded. With the advent of the American Revolution came the death of the whaling industry, not only in Dartmouth, but in all the New England towns that had been engaged in it. One of the main causes that led to the conflict with the mother country was the heartless cruelties inflicted upon those engaged in the whale fisheries of New England. The Boston port bill, the stamp act, tea tax and the other tyrannical measures, severe and outrageous as they were, were not more so than those imposed on the fishermen of the Atlantic coast. It is proper at this point to briefly notice a few of these.
The difficulties commenced as early as 1765, when a large portion of the whaling fleet operated in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Straits
Charles L. Wood.
411
UNJUST RESTRICTIONS.
of Belle Isle. The News Letter, a paper printed in Boston, of date August 8, 1765, says that " the vessels employed in the Whale Fishery from this and the neighboring maritime Towns, amounting to near 100 sail, have been very successful this season in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Straits of Belle Isle, having 'tis said, already made upwards of 9,000 barrels of Oil." This encouraging report was followed in the issue of the News Letter of August 22, by one that contained the orders of the governor of Labrador that placed restrictions upon the fishery. He ordered that useless parts of the whales captured be carried away three leagues from the shore, forbade the carrying of passengers from Newfoundland or the Labrador coast to any part of the Plantations, or- dered the whaling vessels to leave the coast by November Ist and not to fish in any of the ports or coasts of Newfoundland between Point Rechi and Cape Bonavista. The order forbade any trade or intercourse with the French, and also prohibited all fishing on the coast except for whales. The latter order was a severe one, for it had been the custom of the whalemen to fish for cod when the catch of whales proved a fail- ure. The result of these measures was that several vessels returned not only with no success, but reported that they had been ill-treated by some of the cruisers on the Labrador coast. An additional decree was issued in 1766 that vessels from the Plantations found to have any fish but the whale on board, would be seized and confiscated. This action drove the fleet from these seas, and they pursued their calling along the edge of the Gulf Stream, Western Islands, Cape de Verds and Brazil Banks. From time to time the new decrees were issued that hindered the whalemen in the prosecution of the fishing on the North American coast. In February, 1775, Parliament passed a bill restricting the trade and commerce of Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island to England, Ireland and British West Indies, and pro- hibiting the colonies from carrying on any fishing on the banks of Newfoundland, or on any other part of the North American coast. The bill was resisted by a minority of the House of Lords and Commons. It was during this debate that Burke made his eloquent defense of the colonies-an address worthy to be enshrined in the memory of every New Englander. Such praise from our ancestors is indeed a noble in- heritance. " For some time past, Mr. Speaker," said Burke, "has the
412
HISTORY OF NEW BEDFORD.
Old World been fed from the New. The scarcity you have felt would have been a desolating famine if this child of your old age-if America -with a true filial piety, with a Roman charity had not put the full breast of its youthful exuberance to the mouth of its exhausted parent. Turning from the agricultural resources of the colonies, consider the wealth which they have drawn from the sea by their fisheries. The spirit in which that enterprising spirit has been exercised ought to cause your esteem and admiration. Pray, sir, what in the world is equal to it ? Pass by the other parts and look at the manner in which the people of New England have of late carried on the whale fishing. Whilst we follow them among the tumbling mountains of ice and be- hold them penetrating into the deepest frozen resources of Hudson's Bay and Davis Straits ; whilst we are looking for them beneath the arctic circle we hear that they have pierced into the opposite regions of polar cold ; that they are at the Antipodes, and engaged under the frozen serpent of the South Falkland Island, which seems too remote and romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition. Nor is the equi- noctial heat more discouraging to them than the accumulated winter of both the Poles. We know that whilst some of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, others run the longitude and pursue the gigantic game along the coast of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their fisheries. No climate that is not a witness to their toils. Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of English enterprise ever carried this most perilous mode of hardy industry to the extent to which it has been pursued by this People, a People who are still, as it were, in the gristle and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood. When I con- template these things, which I know that the colonies in general owe little or nothing to any care of theirs, and they are not squeezed into this happy form by a watchful and suspicious Government, but that, through a wise and salutary neglect of generous nature, has been suf- fered to take her own way to perfection-when I reflect upon these effects, when I see how profitable they have been to us, I feel all the pride of power sink and all presumption in the wisdom of human con- trivances melt and die away within me. My rigor relents. I pardon something to the spirit of liberty."
413
WHALING DURING THE REVOLUTION.
In spite of the vigorous protests against this unjust bill it became a law. Not satisfied with this iniquitous action Parliament passed another measure none the less barbarous and inhuman. It enacted that all per- sons taken from American vessels should serve as common sailors on British ships of war. This was denounced by the opponents of the bill as " the refinement of tyranny, which, in a sentence worse than death, obliges the unhappy men who shall be made captives in this predatory war, to bear arms against families, kindred, and friends, and country, and after being plundered themselves, to become accomplices in plun- dering their brethren."
In 1799, when John Adams resided in Paris, he discovered that when an English man of-war had taken an American vessel, the whalemen among the crew had been given, by order of the government, their choice either to go on board of a man-of war and fight for their country, or to go into the whale fishery. By this means, many crews of English whalers were composed of American whalemen. Adams urged the Continental Congress to send an armed vessel and relieve these captive seamen, but nothing was done. Many of them remained in the English service, and served to strengthen the attempt to wrest the fisheries from the Americans. From this train of events the reader will see the causes that led to the destruction of the whaling industry, not only of Dartmouth, but of that of the entire New England coast. Joseph Rotch abandoned the enterprise he had begun at Bedford vil- lage and returned to Nantucket.
In former pages have been recited the events that took place in Dartmouth during the dark days of the Revolution. From August, 1775, to January, 1776, bonds were filed with the State treasurer by Francis Rotch and Leonard Jarvis of Dartmouth for brigantines Falk- land, William Covell, master ; Fox, Silas Butler, master ; George, Thomas Banning, master; Enterprise, James Whippey, master ; Ann, Simeon Coffin, master; and brig Royal Charlotte, William Roberts, master. By Aaron Lopez, of Newport, and Leonard Jarvis, of Dartmouth, ship Africa, Joseph Ripley, master ; and brig Minerva, John Locke, master. By Joseph Russell, Isaac Howland, Barnabas Russell, and Caleb Greene, of Dartmouth, schooner Juno, George Shockley, master. By David Sheppard, Seth Russell, David Sowle, and Abraham Smith, brigantine
414
HISTORY OF NEW BEDFORD.
Kesia, David Sowle, master. By John Alden and Walter Spooner, of Dartmouth, schooner Grampus, Job Springer, master. By Lemuel Williams and William Tallman, of Dartmouth, sloop Neptune, Luther Burgess, master. No other vessels appear to be recorded during the Revolutionary war. It is a fair supposition that these vessels were the last in the Dartmouth fleet that made whaling voyages.
The chapter on the British invasion tells the story of the destruc- tion of seventy vessels in the harbor, September 5, 1778. This blow to the maritime affairs completely annihilated the hopes of Dartmouth, and for several years nothing was done toward the restoration of the whale fishery. In 1785 the sloop Hero, Capt. Joshua Delano, made a whaling voyage. This is the first indication of a renewal of the whale fishing in Dartmouth. Again, in 1787 Captain Delano made a voyage in the sloop Rainbow. It is quite likely that other Dartmouth vessels were engaged, but these two voyages are the only ones recorded.
It is evident that after the return of the Rotch family to Nantucket they attempted to establish the whale fishery at Edgartown. The basis of this supposition is that there is a deed on record in that town, dated August 8, 1777, from Thomas Arey to William Rotch, of Sherburn, county of Nantucket, of about six acres of land bounded easterly by the harbor of Edgartown, and otherwise by the cartway leading to Starbuck's Neck, and otherwise bounded so as to be easily identified. The consideration named is £180, lawful money.
January 3, 1796, James Tupper and Deborah, his wife, deeded to William Rotch, of New Bedford, merchant, for £600, about three acres of land adjoining the above described premises. This tract also was on the shore, and there was a dwelling-house standing on this lot, which doubtless accounts in part for the amount of the consideration. May 21, 1829, William Rotch, jr., merchant of New Bedford, Lydia Scot Rotch, Mary Rotch, single woman, Samuel Rodman, and Elizabeth his wife, and Benjamin Rotch, of Harrow in the Kingdom of Great Baitain, by their attorney, Francis Rotch, sold both of the above de- scended tracts to John O. Morse, of Edgartown for £1,200. There is a tradition among the people of Edgartown that William Rotch desired to leave Nantucket and locate at Edgartown, but not being able to ob- tain sufficient land except at extravagant prices, was virtually driven
415
FROM THE REVOLUTION TO 1815.
from Edgartown. It would seem as though he never abandoned the idea until after the second purchase in 1796. At any rate the old peo- ple of Edgartown for many years have looked back upon this refusal of theirs as a neglected opportunity.
The ship Rebecca made, it is claimed, the first whaling voyage on the Pacific Ocean. She sailed from Dartmouth September 21, 1793, return- ing with a cargo of 750 bbls. sperm oil, and 180 bbls. whale oil. This ship was built by George Claghorn, the famous builder of the U. S. frigate Constitution. The Rebecca was launched from the shore near the foot of North Street. Mr. Ricketson, in his history of New Bed- ford, says : " A handsome figurehead had been made in Philadelphia for the Rebecca and was placed upon her previous to launching, but there being considerable objection made to it, on the part of members of the Society of Friends, of which the owners were members, it was removed. A mock funeral was held over it by a few gay young men, one or more of them sons of Joseph Russell, when it was buried in the sand, upon the shore. Although the Rebecca was only 175 tons, she was considered a very large vessel, and was visited as an object of wonder. It was no small matter to obtain a captain sufficiently expe- rienced to take charge. At length Captain Hayden, who had made several foreign voyages, was engaged, and Capt. Cornelius Grinnell was her first mate. The ship proceeded to Philadelphia, and thence took a cargo to Liverpool. The captain on her return passage was taken ill and rendered incapable of continuing the command, which devolved upon the first mate, who conducted the voyage so much to the satisfac- tion of the owners that the command was given to him on the next voyage. Captain Grinnell was one of our most successful shipmasters, a gentleman of the old school, and one of that class of worthies with which the rise and progress of New Bedford is inseparably connected. The Rebecca was finally lost on her homeward passage from Liverpool, in the winter of 1803-4. The Rebecca was so named from the eldest daughter of Joseph Russell, wife of Daniel Ricketson."
In 1792 the following vessels returned to Dartmouth from voyages : The ships Columbia, and Eliza ; schooners Lively, Polly and Betsey ; sloops Betsey, Tryall, and the brigs Polly and Union. 1793, ship Rebec- ca, brigs Atlantic, Beaver, Keziah, Mary, Nancy, Russell, and schooners
416
HISTORY OF NEW BEDFORD.
Swan, and Friendship. 1794, the sloops Hero and Industry, and schooner Sally. 1795, ships Ann, Berkeley, Commerce, Delaware, James, Lydia, Suzy, Union. 1797, ships Barclay, Bedford, Juno, Warren, Wareham, Maria, Nancy, President, and Fox. 1799, ships Edward, Franklin. 1800, ship Dolphin. 1801, ships Diana, Exchange, Herald, Hunter, Hannah, and Eliza ; schooner Eliza, and sloop Oxford. 1802, sloop Susan ; ships Winslow and Merchant.
This list indicates that the whaling and merchant fleet numbered about fifty vessels at the beginning of the century. The whaling in- dustry had been conducted during these years under circumstances that were discouraging. The depredations on the whaling fleet by the French and Spanish cruisers have been alluded to in a former chapter. They were of a most serious character, many vessels being captured or destroyed. These cases gave rise to the French spoilation claims. In spite of these difficulties, the whaling business prospered, and every year witnessed additions to the fleet. In 1805 there were belonging to this port seventy-three ships and thirty-nine brigs.1
Such was the prosperous condition of the whaling business at the period when the difficulties with England began that resulted in the War of 1812. The embargo act of 1807 materially diminished the already demoralized commerce, and but one vessel arrived at this port from a whaling voyage. The business improved somewhat during the few years until the advent of the war, when it received crushing blows that practically closed operations till peace was declared in 1815. In 1816 seven vessels arrived from voyages, with cargoes of 1,350 bbls. sperm oil, market price $1.1212, and 1,500 bbls. whale oil, market value sixty- five cents. Total valuation, $458,700. In 1817 thirteen vessels ar- rived, with 7,499 bbls. sperm oil, market price seventy-two cents, and 7,800 bbls. whale oil, market price sixty cents. Total valuation $1, 091,576.
The steady and somewhat remarkable development of the whale fish- ery may be seen in the tables given at the close of this chapter. It will be interesting to note the ever- changing values of the product and the
1 "1807, in New Bedford, there were seven wharves, between ninety and a hundred ships and brigs, and between twenty and thirty smaller vessels."-Foot Note Mass. Hist. Coll. Abraham Shear- man.
417
AFTER THE WAR OF 1812.
increase of total valuations, till the highest point was reached iu 1857, $10,802,594.
From the close of the war of 1812 the whale fishery increased in extent, and the industry was carried on in the North and South Atlan- tic, the Indian, and Pacific Oceans. New Bedford shared in the gen- eral prosperity, and its energetic citizens reaped fortunes from its pros- ecution. So rapid was its increase that it soon outstripped Nantucket in number of vessels and in capital employed. In 1820 many of the ships found good whaling ground on the "off-shore grounds," where whales were found in almost countless numbers. Other fields were dis- covered as the years passed by, and whales where discovered in the Japan Sea, off the Sandwich Islands, and the coast of Zanzibar. In 1835 the industry was in full tide of success and for several years con- tinued to grow and increase. In 1843 the first bowhead whales taken in the Northern Pacific were captured on the coast of Kam chatka, by New Bedford ships, the Hercules, Captain Ricketson, and the James, Captain Turner. It is recorded that the value of the bowhead whale was discovered by Capt. George A. Covell, of New Bedford, while fish- ing for sperm whales in the Ochotsk Sea. He struck one of this species and killed him with but little difficulty. "Before cutting him in they judged he would make seventy bbls., but to their surprise he turned out 150, with bone in proportion." 1
This discovery was an important one, and the pursuit of the bowhead whale became an important factor in the whale industry. In 1848 the first whale ship, the Superior, of Sag Harbor, passed through Behring's Straits and obtained a good catch. This was the beginning of arctic whaling, and soon scores of vessels from New Bedford found their way thither, returning with full cargoes. For forty years whaling has been continued in the arctic with varying success. In later pages it will be seen how important the product of whalebone is to even the limited prosecution of the fishery at the present time.
Among local matters of interest at this period relating to the whale fishery, that have been gleaned from many sources, are the following : The names of the pilots who resided in New Bedford in 1844 were Z. Allen, Benjamin Aiken, Peleg Crowell, Caleb Church, John Aiken, D.
1 Scammon.
53
418
HISTORY OF NEW BEDFORD.
Demoranville. May 31, Captain Hiller, of Fairhaven, was lost from ship Sarah Frances, a whale upsetting the boats. In 1843 fifty-six ships arrived. September 21, brig Two Sisters, Captain Maxfield, was lost, crew saved.
Among the business houses in New Bedford at this time, whose ad- vertisements appear in the Shipping List, are William C. Taber, 40 Union street, instruments, charts, books. etc .; N. B. Cordage Co., B. S. & W. J. Rotch and Jacob Ricketson ; Jacob Parker, cables, an- chors, etc , 15 Centre street ; Bedford Commercial Insurance Co., James Howland 2d, secretary ; Whaling Insurance Co., George Howland, jr., president ; J. Dunbar & Co., dealers in duck ; John Kehew, instrument maker, 69 North Water street ; Swift & Allen, Middle street ; Bedford Mutual Marine Insurance Co., James Howland 2d, president ; Mutual Marine Insurance Co, S. Merrihew, president ; William P. Grinnell, duck, copper and cordage ; Ebenezer Rider, spars, masts, etc., Leon- ard's wharf; Thomas H. Howland, oil and bone broker ; Pope & Mor- gan, oil, Rotch's wharf.
The whaling industry in New Bedford in 1847 was in a most flour- ishing condition, and the editor of the Shipping List asks the people who are accustomed to sneer at New Bedford and Nantucket and the whaling business, to look at the list of whalers belonging to New Bed- ford. He says they number 254, worth $6,350,600. The crews aver- age twenty-five men, and the fleet employs 6,350 seamen. He speaks in high terms of the character of the captains and challenges the world to produce an equal number of ships of better quality or in better con- dition.
March 22, 1848, bark Pacific 2d, Captain Little, was wrecked on a reef at Pernambuco. April 30, ship Hope, Captain Tucker, was wrecked near Cape Brett. She was owned by George Howland. January 28, 1849, bark London Packet, Captain Howland, was lost at Cape de Verd Islands, and five or six of the crew were drowned. In March, 1649, bark Emigrant, Capt. Bartholomew West, was lost, and the crew of nineteen seamen was never heard from.
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