USA > Massachusetts > Nantucket County > The history of Nantucket County, island, and town : including genealogies of first settlers > Part 46
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*Boston News Letter.
¿See History of American Whale Fishery, p. 36.
#Act of 1708 for the "Encouragement of Whaling."
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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET
April shared equally in the provisions of the Act with those whose sailing had been delayed. All ships built or fitted out for this business from the American Colonies and conforming to this Act were to be licensed to whale, and in order to receive the bounty must remain in Davis's Straits or vicinity from May until August 20, unless they sooner got a full cargo or were obliged by some accident to return. Foreign Protestants serving in this fishery for two years, and qualifying themselves for its prosecution, were to be treated as though they were natives .*
The cause of this concession to the Colonies was to make it a part of Lord Shirley's scheme to oust the French from Acadia. He desired King George should cause them to be removed to some other English colony and that Nova Scotia should be settled by Protestants, and to accomplish that end invitations were sent throughout Europe to induce Protestants to remove thither. "The Moravian Brethren were attracted by the promise of exemption from oaths and military service. The good will of New England was encouraged by care for its fisheries, and American whalemen, stimulated by the promise of enjoying an equal bounty with the British, learned to follow their game among the icebergs of the
Greenland seas."t "The New Englanders of this period," says Bancroft .¿ "were of homogeneous origin, nearly all tracing their descent to the English emigrants of Charles the First and Charles the Second. They were a frugal and industrious race. Along the seaside, wherever there was a good harbor, fishermen, familiar with the ocean gathered in hamlets; and each returning season saw them with an ever-increasing number of mariners and vessels tak- ig the cod and the mackerel, and sometimes pursuing the whale into the icy labyrinths of the Northern seas; yet loving home, and dearly attached to their modest freeholds."
Of this period Hutchinson writes :** "The increase of the con- sumption of oil by lamps as well as by divers manufacturers in Europe has been no small encouragement to our whale-fishery. The flourishing state of the Island of Nantucket must be attributed to it. The cod and whale fishery, being the principal source of our returns to Great Britain, are therefore worthy not only of provincial but national attention.'
Notwithstanding the fact that a duty was laid on the colonists, in 1756, to support a frigate on the Banks to protect cod and whale fishermen who might venture there the risk was so great that it is not likely that many captains attempted to secure voyages then. In addition to the risk, Parliament had placed an embargo on "bank" fishermen, pending tlie expedition undertaken for the reduction of Nova Scotia in 1755. This embargo still remained in force in 1757, and proved so irksome to the fishermen that they addressed a petition to the General Court of Massachusetts Bay setting forth that the memorialists "being Informed that your Honours think it not advisable to Permit the fishermen to Sail on their Voyages untill the time limited by the Embargo is Expired by Reason that
*Mass State Archives Maritime vi, p. 316.
¿Bancroft's Hist. U. S. vol. v, p. 45.
ţIbid vol. iv, p 149.
** Hist. of Massachusetts, vol. ii, p 400.
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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET
their fishing banks where they Usually proceed on said Voyage lyes Eastward not far from Cape breton which may be a means of their falling into the hands of the french which may be of bad Consequence to the Common Cause. Your Memorialist would Humbly observe to Your Honours that is not the Case of the whale- men their procedure on their Voyages is Westward of the Cape of Virginia and southward of that untill the month of June, from which Your Memorialists are of the mind their is nothing like the Danger of their falling into the hands of the Cape breton Privateers, as would be If they went Eastward. Your Memorialists would further Observe that the whalemen have almost double the Number of hands that the fishermen Carry which makes Their Charge almost Double to that of fishermen and ye first part of the Whale season is Always Esteemed the Principal time for their making their Voyages which If they lose the greatest part of the People will have nothing to Purchase the Necessaries of life withal they haveing no other way which must make them in miserable Situation.
Your memorialists would therefore beg that yr Honours would take Our Miserable Situation and grant our Whalemen liberty to Proceed on Our Voyages from this time If it be Consistent with your Great Wisdom as in duty bound shall ever pray
JOHN NORTON (for Martha's Vineyard) ABISHAI FOLGER (for Nantucket)."
The Council, having considered the prayer of the petitioners, at a meeting held April 8, 1758, passed the following resolution:
"Inasmuch as the Inhabitants of Nantucket, most of whom are Quakers, are by Law exempted from Impresses for military Service. And their Livelihood intirely depends on the Whale fishery -Advised that his Excell'y give permission for all whaling Vessels belong'g to s'd Il'd to pursue their Voyages, taking only the Inh'ts of s'd Island in s'd Vessells and that upon their taking any other persons whatsoever with them they be subject to all the Penalties of the law in like manner as if they had proceeded without Leave."*
In 1761, the fishery of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Straits of Belleisle was opened up to the whalemen, who lost no time in availing themselves of the opportunities offered. This had naturally followed from the conquest of Canada from the French. The result had been attained almost unaided in its later stages by the colonials, who gave unstintedly of men and money. The people of the Colonies, however, were not to receive any advantages from their sacrifices. Discriminations were at once made against the colonial fishermen seemingly with an intent to discourage them in
*Mass. Archives, Maritime, vi, p. 371. The Vineyard men seem to have been side-tracked.
Under date of Oct. 14, 1756, the Boston newspapers stated that "We hear that two Nantucket whaling sloops have lately been taken by some French Letter of Marque ships on the bank of Newfoundland, one of which, (having sprung her Mast and Bowsprit) was ransomed for 150f sterling but not agreeing about the Ransom on the other they carried her off. Tis said she had 600 Barrels of Oil on Board."
Under date of Sept. 8, 1757, the newspapers say that advices from Nantucket report that Capt. Nathaniel Woodbury with his whaling sloop from Nantucket, was taken about the middle of August off the Grand Bank by the French privateer sloop Revenge of 10 guns. He had no oil and his sloop was returned. He was cautioned to be on his guard as there was another privateer in the vicinity. He hast- (See next page)
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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET
their occupation. By one act of Parliament, a duty was levied on all oil and bone imported into England from the Colonies, and another, quite as oppressive, prevented the colonists carrying those products to any other market. The adverse conditions were intensi- fied by the further fact that residents of Great Britain were allowed a bounty for their fishery, from which the colonists were debarred.
The merchants of New England, as well as those of London interested in colonial trade, objected strenuously to this unfair- - ness .: . They petitioned Parliament, representing that "in the Year 1761 The Province of Massachusetts Bay, fitted out from Boston & other ports* Ten Vessels of from Seventy to Ninety Tons Burden for this Purpose. That the Success of these was such as to en- courage the Sending out of fifty Vessels in the Year 1762 for the same trade. That in the Year 1763 more than Eighty Vessels were imploy'd in the same manner.f That they have already im- ported into London upwards of 40 Ton of Whale Finn; being the produce of the two first years. That upon Entring of the above Finn, a Duty was required and paid upon it, of thirty one Pound ten shillings pr Ton. That the weight of this Duty was render'd much heavier by the great reduction made in the price of Dutch Bone since the commencement of this Trade from £500 to £330 pr Ton." They represented further that the reason for the conferring
ened back to Nantucket arriving August 25. Two French 36 gun frig- ates are off the Banks to break up the fishing. July 13, 1758, a Nan- tucket whaleman lately arrived reported that three weeks before two whaling sloops were captured by an armed brig from the West Indies. The captors put a number of English prisoners aboard one of them and released her and she had arrived at Nantucket.
A report from Philadelphia, under date of July 23, 1747, states that on the previous "Tuesday a sloop belonging to Nantucket, formerly under Capt. Charles Gardner, arrived here. Was taken by a French Private'r under Capt. Gerbee. She was afterwards released to the crew and other English prisoners were put on board. Two days after, she was taken by a Spanish Privateer from Havana, and 13 men were put on board with orders to proceed to Havana. Eight of the prisoners
rose and endeavored to retake the sloop but were overpowered by the Spaniards and two were killed and the other six were wounded. The Spaniards were poor navigators and got lost and ran short of pro- visions, and told the prisoners to take the sloop where they chose. They arrived at the Delaware capes intending to reach Philadelphia. They met Capt. Waters who sent the Spaniards to that city in a pilot boat and aided the sloop to make port.
*Boston was for several years the port of entry for Cape Cod and vicinity.
"According to the following rhyme by Thomas Worth, there were 75 whaling captains sailing from Nantucket in 1763.
"Whale-List by Thomas Worth, in 1763.
"Out of Nantucket there's Whalemen seventy-five, But two poor Worths among them doth survive:
Their is two Ramsdills & their's Woodbury's two, Two Ways there is, chuse which one pleaseth you, Folgers thirteen & Barnards there are four Bunkers their is three & Jenkinses no more, Gardners their is seven, Husseys their are two. Pinkhams their are five and a poor Delano, Myricks their is three & Coffins there are six,
Swains their are four and one blue gally Fitch.
One Chadwick, Coggeshall. Coleman their's but one, Brown, Baxter, two & Paddacks there is three, Wyer, Stanton, Starbuck, Moores is four you see, But if for a Vovage I was to choose a Stanton, I would leave Sammy out & choose Ben Stratton. And not forget that Bocott is alive,
And that long-crotch makes up the seventy-five.
This is answering to the list, you see,
Made up in seventeen hundred & sixty three.
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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET
of bounties on vessels in this pursuit from Great Britain was to rival the Dutch but in spite of this encouragement there was not enough oil and bone brought into England by British vessels to supply the demand .*
They further expressed the opinion that it was not reasonable to think that Parliament could intentionally discriminate between subjects of the Crown, granting a bounty to one and exacting a duty from another-the service being the same in both cases. The Colonists did not ask that a bounty be granted on their fishery- Great Britain could retain that-they only asked' to be exempted from paying a duty on the products of their enterprise and skill.t
Earl Grenville at this time was particularly desirous to for- ward certain features of his American policy, notably the stamp act, that was destined to prove so obnoxious, and this fact as well as the knowledge that the English fishery, notwithstanding the bounty, was still unable to fully cope with that of Holland, or even to produce enough for the home market, was the means of securing some attention to petitions from the Colonies of a similar nature to the foregoing, especially as they were fortified by the presence of a special agent from the Massachusetts Bay prepared to support the position of New England. The English Ministry endeavored to placate all parties by preparing a panacea for the troubles of each. "The boon that was to mollify New England," says Bancroft,} "was concerted with Israel Maudit, acting for his brother, the agent of Massachusetts, and was nothing less than the whale-fishery, Great Britain had sought to compete with the Dutch in that branch of industry; had fostered it by bounties; had relaxed even the Act
*The Dutch from 1759 to 1768, sent to the Greenland fishery 1324 ships, which took 3018 whales, producing 146,419 barrels of oil and 8,785,140 pounds of bone, (Scoresby). Great Britain in the same time sent about one-third the number of ships.
¿Mass. State Archives, Maritime Vol. vii, p. 243. The concluding portion of this petition, including the signatures, is missing, a fact much to be regretted, as it would be very interesting to know who the prominent oil merchants of that time were. The following is a state- ment of imports of oil and bone from the Colonies into England and from Holland into England, from Christmas 1758 to Christmas 1763, accompanying the petition:
FINS
Year
T
Cwt
Lbs
48
S
D
3
S
D
1758 to 1759
17.
0
17
11
0
0
10
14.
0
60
18.
2
9
28
16.
6
27
16.
4
61
27.
0.
8
42 522
3
10
502
5
0
63
1546.
3.
13
2427.
5
3
2315
9
4
Total
1935
0.
24
3011.
10.
1
2896.
15. 2
T
H
G
£
S
D
€
S
D
1758 to 1759
3245.
2
28
1898
13
8
1436
3
8
60
2595.
1
14
1518
5
1
1148
8
5
61
3126
3
31
1829
4
5
1383
12
10
62
2483.
2.
39
1452
18
9
1090
0
4
63
5030.
0
12
2942
11
7
2225
15
11
Total
16481. 1
16
9641.
13.
6
7293
1.
2
The figures are taken from the originals
though they seem to be
62
335.
2.
5
2
G
40
10 6
WHALE OIL
Duty Amer.
Duty London
Year
Duty Amer.
Duty London
wrongly added.
ĮHistory United States, Vol. v. p. 184.
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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET
of Navigation, so as to invite even the Dutch to engage in it from British ports in British shipping. But it was all in vain. Grenville gave up the unsuccessful attempt, and sought a rival for Holland in British America, which had hitherto lain under the double dis- couragement of being excluded from the benefit of a bounty,* and of having the products of its whale-fishing taxed unequally. He now adopted the plan of gradually giving up the bounty to the British whale-fishery, which would be a saving of £30,000 a year to the treasury, and of relieving the American fishery from the in- equality of the discriminating duty, except the old subsidy, which was scarcely 1 per cent. This is the most liberal act of Gren- ville's administration, of which the merit is not diminished by the fact that the American whale-fishery was superseding the accept this result as inevitable, and to favor it. It was done, too,
English under every discouragement. It required liberality to with a distinct conviction that the American whale-fishery, freed from its burden, would soon totally overpower the British. So this valuable branch of trade, which produced annually three thousand pounds, and which would give employment to many ship- wrights and other artificers, and to three thousand seamen, was resigned to America."
The numerous wars in which Great Britain was involved made sad havoc with the Nantucket whaling-fleet. Necessarily ad- venturous in pursuit of their prey the colonial whalemen carried their aggressiveness into fields where war made for them another and more serious risk. Especially was this true of Nantucket whalemen. In the years 1755 and 1756, six of their vessels were lost at sea and six more were captured and burned by the French and their crews carried into captivity. In 1760, another vessel was captured by a French privateer of 12 guns and released after the commander of the privateer had put on board of her the crew of a sloop they had previously taken with nearly a full cargo of oil and burned. The captain of the sloop, - Luce, had sailed from the whaling grounds with three others who were expected on the coast. The day after Capt. Luce was taken, the privateer en- gaged a letter of marque sailing from Bermuda and was defeated. Several whalemen who were in the vicinity availed themselves of the opportunity and escaped. During the same month (June) another privateer of 14 guns captured several whaling vessels. One of them was ransomed for $400, the privateer putting on board of her all her prisoners. The whaling-vessel put into Newport and landed them. In 1762, another Nantucket sloop was captured by a privateer from the French West Indies, while cruising off the Leeward Island.t
Ricketson's History of New Bedford contains a transcription of a portion of the log of the whaling sloop Betsey, of Dartmouth
*The bounty of 1748 appears to have been abandoned. ¿The Continental Journal of July 3, 1760, has the following item of interest-"A few Days ago a Terrible Fire broke out among the Try Houses on the Island of Nantucket, which in a few Hours con- sumed many of them to the Ground, together with a large quantity of Oil, and most of the Utensils. The Loss is above £1800 Sterling. It is uncertain how the Fire happen'd."
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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET
in 1761. At that time the small vessels usually sailed in pairs and when a whale was captured the blubber was divided equally between them, so long as they cruised together. The reports usually give the captains' names instead of the names of their vessels. Among the entries in the log are the following: "August 2d, 1761, Lat. 45.54, long. 53.57. Saw two sperm-whales; killed one. Aug. 6th. Spoke with John Clasbery; he had got 105 bbls. told us Seth Folger had got 150 bbls. Spoke with two Nantucket men; they had got one whale between them; they told us that Jenkins & Dunham had got four whales between them, and Allen & Pease had got two whales between them. * * * August 20 Lat. 44 deg. 2 min. This morning spoke with Thomas Gibbs; had got 110 bbls .; told us he had spoke with John Aiken, and Ephraim Delano, and Thomas Nye. They had got no oil at all. Sounded; got no bottom. Thomas Gibbs told us we were but two leagues off the Bank." The Betsey apparently arrived home in September of that year. In 1762, it would appear that she made another voyage although the log up to September 2d is missing. On that date they report speaking "Shubel Bunker and Benjamin Paddock." On the 3d of September they "Knocked down try-works" preparatory to making port, and on September 15th, they report speaking Henry Folger and Nathan Coffin. The majority of the names mentioned are clearly of Nantucket.
About this time a new antagonistic situation arose. The Colonists were not to be allowed quietly to enjoy the fruits of the fisheries their valor and their money had wrested from the French on the North American coast. The governors appointed by the English Government, by a series of petty regulations, soon made whaling in and adjacent to the Gulf of St. Lawrence an unprofitable venture. The Boston News Letter of August 8, 1765, said-"Tuesday one of the Sloops which has been on the Whaling Business . returned here. We hear that the Vessels employed in the Whale Fishery from this and the neighbouring Maritime Towns,* amounting to near 100 Sail, have been very successful this Season in the Gulph of St. Lawrence and Streights of Belle- isle; having, 'tis said, already made upwards of 9,000 Barrels of Oil."
That was the way the season started, but it was too good to con- tinue. Two weeks later (August 22) the News-Letter said: "Accounts received from several of our Whaling Vessels on the Labrador Coasts, are, that they meet with Difficulties in regard to their fishing, in Consequence of Orders from the Commanding Officers on that Station, a Copy of which are as follows:
"Memorandum: In Pursuance of the Governor's Directions, all masters of Whaling Vessels, and others whom it may concern, are hereby most strictly required to observe the following Par- ticulars, viz:
1. To carry the useless Parts of such Whales as they may catch to at least Three Leagues from the Shore, to prevent the Damage that the neighbouring Fishers for Cod and Seal sustain by their being left on the Shore.
2. Not to carry any Passengers from Newfoundland or the Labrador Coast to any Part of the Plantations.
*It is not possible to assign each vessel to her proper port. Ves- sels from Cape Cod and north cleared from Boston; those from Mar- tha's Vineyard at Nantucket; those from Dartmouth sometimes at Nantucket and sometimes at Newport.
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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET
3. To leave the Coast by the first of November at farthest.
4. Not to fish in any of the Ports or Coasts of Newfoundland lying between Point Richi and Cape Bonavista.
5. Not to carry on any Trade or have any Intercourse with the French on any Pretence.
6. In all your Dealings with the Indians, to treat them with the greatest Civility; observing not to Impose on their Ignorance,
or to take Advantage of their Necessities. You are also on no Account to serve them with spirituous Liquors.
7. Not to fish for any other than Whale on this Coast.
Dated on board His Majesty's sloop Zephyr, at the Isle of Bois on the Labradore Coast, the 21st July, 1765.
JOHN HAMILTON."
The issue of the News-Letter for November 18 reports that on account of this proclamation the vessels "are returning half loaded."
CUTTING IN A WHALE AT THE WHARF Photographed by Josiah Freeman.
Inasmuch as it was the custom of many of the early whalemen, especially for those sailing from Boston and vicinity, to go prepared for either the cod or the whale fishery, and in the event of the failure of one to have recourse to the other, rule 7 was very obnoxious. Beside the regulations in themselves, they were en- forced under the immediate direction of an armed force, and the
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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET
arbitrary methods of the commanders of the petty cruisers were distinctly in the way of prosperous voyages for colonial fishermen. The season of 1765 proved a failure, and the ensuing season was merely a repetition of it. The News-Letter, commenting on the failure of the 1766 fishery, says "Since our last several Vessels have returned from the Whaling Business, who have not only had very bad Success, but also have been ill-treated by some of the Cruisers on the Labradore Coast." Englishmen had fitted out from London two ships, the Pallisser and the. Labradore, the former, in name at least, strikingly suggestive of the Governor and Com- mander-in-Chief, for the express purpose of trading and fishing in the Straits of Belle-isle and along the coast of Labrador. The whaling fleet, according to the report of Capt. Charles Penn, who had piloted the English vessels to their destination and then had left the Straits on his way to Newfoundland, had met with a poor season. Capt. Penn went on board of several whaling vessels and learned that the entire fleet had taken only about twenty whales. In consequence of this failure several of them had, in accordance with their time-honored custom, begun to fish for cod. Much to their surprise they were halted by an armed vessel and by the "Company's Ships" (the Pallisser and Labradore) and the catch they had made was taken from them, save only what was required for their actual necessities. It was pretended that the whole coast was patented to "the Company". Gov. Pallisser's proclamation, bearing date of April 3d, 1766, specified that all British subjects whaling in the vicinity of Newfoundland, Anticosti, Magdalenes, and Labradore, over which he had been appointed Governor, should choose places on shore where they must land, cut up their blubber, and try it out as they arrived. They were not, however, to select any place that was used in the cod fishery. Colonial whalemen might take whales on the coast, but were allowed to land to cut up and try out their blubber only on some unoccupied place, within the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It was particularly specified also that they were not allowed to use any place already made use of by British whalemen for the same or a similar purpose. As complaint had been made that the waste product of their fisheries interfered with the cod fishery they were ordered to carry the stripped car- casses of their captured whales to at least three leagues from the shore. It was furthermore enjoined upon them not to winter on the Labrador coast.
Supplementing the orders of Gov. Pallisser, Capt. John Ham- ilton, "of H. M. sloop of war Merlin, Lieut Governor of Labradore," &c, "armed with a little brief authority," issued his proclamation in which he said, under date of June 25, 1766,-"This is to give Notice to all Whalers from the Plantations, that they are allowed to fish for whales only, on the Coast of Labradore, that if they are found to have any other Fish on Board the Fish will be seized, and they excluded the Benefit of Whale-fishery this season; and on no Pretence to trade with the Indians; whatever they shall purchase
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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET
will be confiscated, and after this Notice their Vessels liable to be seized," &c, &c.
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