USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > New Bedford > The history of New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts : including a history of the old township of Dartmouth and the present townships of Westport, Dartmouth, and Fairhaven, from their settlement to the present time > Part 4
USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Westport > The history of New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts : including a history of the old township of Dartmouth and the present townships of Westport, Dartmouth, and Fairhaven, from their settlement to the present time > Part 4
USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Dartmouth > The history of New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts : including a history of the old township of Dartmouth and the present townships of Westport, Dartmouth, and Fairhaven, from their settlement to the present time > Part 4
USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Fairhaven > The history of New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts : including a history of the old township of Dartmouth and the present townships of Westport, Dartmouth, and Fairhaven, from their settlement to the present time > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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" Look at the manner in which the people of New England have carried on the whale-fishery. Whilst we follow them among the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis' Strait-whilst we are looking for them beneath the Arctic Circle, we hear that they have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold - that they are at the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen serpent of the south. Falkland Island, which seemed too remote and romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a stage and rest- ing-place in the progress of their victorious industry. Nor is the equatorial 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 Af-
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rica, others run the longitude, and pursue their gi- gantic game along the coast of Brazil. No ocean but what is vexed with their fisheries; no climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither the per- severance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of English en- terprise, ever carried this perilous mode of hardy enterprise to the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent people, - a people who are still, as it were, in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood."
And this people, so justly eulogized for their hardy and noble daring and enterprise, were natives of Nantucket and New Bedford, - men whose youth and manhood were spent upon the ocean, and in whose declining years many of us remember as among our most useful and honored citizens. The debt our nation, as well as ourselves, owes to them is very great, and their virtues and sacrifices should ever be duly remembered.
The whale-fishery is of a very ancient origin, and dates back even before the time of Alfred the Great. But the information in regard to it at this early period, as well as for several centuries afterwards, is merely incidental, yet sufficient to establish the fact that it was an enterprise early engaged in by those adventurous pioneers upon the ocean, the old Northmen. The whale was not only sought after by these hardy seamen for the oil it produced, but also for the food which they obtained from the tongue. And even at the present day the whale is nearly as important and necessary to the natives of the Northwest Coast, as a means of livelihood, as
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the buffalo is to the Indian beyond the Rocky Mountains, or the reindeer to the Laplander.
At this early period it is not probable the whale- bone was deemed of much importance ; but in the fifteenth century it became an article of commerce, and was estimated at an enormous value ; and the tail of every whale taken by her subjects was re- served for the especial use of the Queen of England.
The Portuguese, during the same century (the 15th,) were noted for their marine adventures, push- ing their hopeful enterprises beyond the stormy cape of Africa, which in their enthusiastic confi- dence they named "the Cape of Good Hope." The Portuguese as well as the Spaniards, those upon the maritime districts, have ever evinced a strong love for the ocean; and for many years the former have been more or less to be found among our whalemen, many of them excellent seamen, but unfortunately too often of a violent and re-
vengeful nature. A part of New Bedford at the south end of Water street is now known as Fayal, from the large number of the Portuguese from that and other ports in the Portuguese dominions. In fact our city is a microcosm. Not only the Portuguese and Spaniard, but Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, German, French, English, Scotch, Irish, and other natives of Europe, as well as of Asia and Africa, the Sandwich-Islanders, New- Zealanders, &c., &c., are to be found among our seamen, and more or less of them in port the greater part of the time.
The Dutch were also early famous for their mar- itime exploits, and the whale-fishery was for a
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long time prosecuted by them with great vigor. To them is attributed the improvement if not the invention of the harpoon, the use of the reel and line and the lance. At one time the Dutch had a fishing settlement, or place of rendezvous, on the island of Spitzbergen.
The attention of the early settlers of New Eng- land was early called to the whale-fishery, from the unyielding nature of the soil, which rendered it necessary for them to look to the sea for their sustenance. As early as 1690 they had reached the banks of Newfoundland in their pursuit of whales. But the voyages of the early whalemen of Nantucket and New Bedford were upon the coast, and for several years did not reach beyond the capes of Virginia and Cape Hatteras. The "right whale," balena mysticetus, was the only species known to the first adventurers. The "sperm whale," the cachelot or physeter macro- cephalus, was not found until they had reached more southern latitudes.
In the 16th century the Biscay fishermen, fol- lowing in the track of Sebastian Cabot, had pur- sued the whale-fishery to the banks of Newfound- land, and probably farther south, for in the abstract made by Dr. Belknap from the journal of the voyage of Gosnold to this coast, is recorded the following passage:
" From a rock which they called 'Savage Rock,' a shallop of European fabric came off to them, in which were eight savages, two or three of whom were dressed in European habits. From these circumstances they concluded that some fishing-
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vessel of Biscay had been there, and that the crew were destroyed by the natives."
The war with England completely broke up the whale-fishery, for, notwithstanding the noble effort of the great statesman before quoted, the govern -. ment of Great Britain turned a deaf ear to all the advice and remonstrance of her friends.
The mother country, not satisfied with having so completely frustrated the business of our forea fathers by the war of the Revolution, after peace had been declared, continued to offer the bounty, equal to forty dollars for each man employed, which they had done previous to the war. But few Americans, however, accepted this bribe; and notwithstanding the efforts of the King of France, Louis XVI, who fitted out several vessels on his own account, and offered a bounty of nine dollars to every American whaleman who should emigrate to France, the whale-fishery here continued to in- crease, and in the year 1789 an average of one hundred and twenty-two vessels was employed.
The whale-fishery has claimed the attention of many literary and scientific men, and the works of Scoresby and other English writers upon the Arctic regions and the Northern whale-fishery,* are full of
* An Account of the Arctic Regions; with a History and Description of the Northern Whale-Fishery. By William Scoresby, Jr., F. R. S. E. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1820.
Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale-Fishery, &c., in the Summer of 1822. By William Scoresby, Jr., &c. Edinburgh, 1823.
" DEATH OF DR. SCORESBY. Dr. Scoresby, the veteran of Arctic enterprise, died at Torquay, England, on the 21st of March, 1857, after a lingering illness. Science loses a great deal by his death. His father was one of the most daring and successful seamen in the northern whale-fishery, when that service was among the chief sources
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interesting and instructive matter. The speech of the Hon. William H. Seward before the United States Senate in 1852 is a valuable compendium of all the most important statistics of this great branch of commerce. And to these productions I am indebted for many of the most important facts and statements herein made.
To Joseph Russell, the founder of New Bedford, is also attributed the honor of being the pioneer of the whale-fishery of New Bedford. It is well authenticated by the statements of several cotem- poraries, lately deceased, that Joseph Russell had pursued the business as early as the year 1755. As early as 1765, "the sloops Nancy, Polly, Grey- hound, and Hannah, all from forty to sixty tons, owned by Joseph Russell, CalebR ussell, and Will- iam Tallman, were employed in the whale-fishery."
These vessels made their voyages during the warm weather, and the whales were taken off the capes of Virginia, so that but a few weeks' ab- sence was required for the accomplishment of the
of the commercial wealth of the nation and one of the best nurseries of the British navy; and the deceased, from his youth, was inured to the hardships and perils of the Arctic seas. After his retirement from active service at sea, says the Literary Gazette, he resolved to enter the church; and after holding appointments in less congenial localities, he found in the maritime town of Hull a sphere which afforded full scope for his benevolent efforts for the social and spiritual welfare of sailors.
His scientfic career in the latter years of his life is well known. His reports to the British Association, and his numerous observations on the influence of the iron of vessels on the compass, were connected with inquiries of the utmost importance to navigation. It was in prosecuting these researches, and with a view to determine various questions of magnetic science, that Dr. Scoresby undertook a voyage to Australia, from which he returned in 1856, with his constitution much enfeebled from the arduous labors to which he had subjected himself."
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voyage. The process of trying out the oil was deferred until their arrival home, when the vessels were brought as near as possible to the shore upon the broadside, and the butts containing the pieces . of the whale called blubber were drawn to the try-house near the shore by ox teams. The place of landing, with the original try-works, was near the foot of Centre street.
The account-books of our first merchant as. well as the founder of New Bedford, Joseph Rus- sell, are now in the possession of his grandson, William T. Russell, of this city. They were kept with great accuracy, in sterling currency of course, and the penmanship very handsome. They com- mence in the year 1770 and continue to 1777.
Other vessels were added by Mr. Russell, viz .: the brig Joseph & Judith, the latter name for his wife, whose maiden name was Judith Howland ; the brig Patience, for one of his daughters ; the brig No Duty on Tea; and the brig Russell. These vessels were all employed in the whale-fishery, which had now reached to the West Indies, the Bay of Mexico, Western Islands, and even to the coasts of Brazil and Guinea.
The war with the mother country, as before stat- ed, put a stop to the business, but it was again re- sumed immediately after the declaration of peace. The voyages now became more arduous, and were extended to the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
" The ship Rebecca, Joseph Kersey, master, is said to have been the first American whaler that doubled Cape Horn and obtained a cargo of oil in the Pa-
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cific Ocean. She was owned by Joseph Russell & Sons, and Cornelius Howland, and sailed from New Bedford the 28th of September, 1791, and returned the 23d of February, 1793, with a full cargo of oil."
The late Captain Joseph Wheldon of North Fairhaven was a boatsteerer in the Rebecca on this voyage. On a visit to Him a short time pre- vious to his death, he stated to the writer that he received two hundred dollars in silver from the late Gilbert Russell in the settlement of his voyage, and that he never felt richer in his life than at this time.
The Rebecca was built in New Bedford by George Claghorn, and was launched in the month of March, 1785, near the spot now occupied by the wharf of the late firm of Wilcox & Richmond. Col. Claghorn was also the builder of the United States frigate Constitution .*
A handsome female figure-head 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 ..
* The following advertisement appeared in " Russell's Commercial Gazette," Boston, Sept. 11, 1797:
NAVY YARD, BOSTON.
T HE Constructor has the honor to inform his Fellow-Citizens that the Frigate CONSTITUTION is to be launched into her destined Element on Wednesday, the 20th inst .. at 11 o'clock. GEORGE CLAGHORN.
r
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Although the Rebecca was only of 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 experienced to take charge. At length Capt. Haydon, who had made several foreign voyages, was engaged, and the late Capt. Cornelius Grinnell was her first mate. The ship proceeded to Philadelphia, and thence took a cargo to Liverpool. The captain on the 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 satisfaction of the owners that the command of her was given to him on the next voyage. Capt. Grinnell was one of our most successful ship-mas- ters, 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. She is supposed to have foundered during a severe gale which occurred on the coast of England soon after she left port.
The Rebecca was so named from the eldest daughter of Joseph Russell, the wife of Daniel Ricketson. She died 3d mo. 1st, 1836, aged 90 years, at the house of her son the late Joseph Rick- etson.
The following reminiscences of the whale-fiish- ery, furnished by William C. Maxfeld of this city, and previously published in the New-Bedford Mer- cury, are interesting and valuable :
D
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" The first, a license issued from the Custom- House at Newport, bearing date the 4th day of September, 1770, to the sloop called the Wren, is signed by Joseph Wanton, Esq., Governor and Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Colony of Rhode Island, &c., and countersigned by Charles Dudley, Collector, and bears the broad seal of the Colony of Rhode Island, and also the seal of the Customs of the port of Newport. Stephen Davis, of Dartmouth, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, is master of the Wren, and takes the neces- sary oath. She is a square-sterned vessel of eight- een tons burthen, was built in Dartmouth in 1770, and was owned by the master, Caleb Tripp, and William Davis of Dartmouth. By indorsements on the back, we find that she was afterwards command- ed by William Tillinghast, Fortunatus Shearman, Jonathan Soule, Daniel Tripp and William Smith.
We have next a journal of the whaling-voyage of the sloop Betsey, of Dartmouth. The first page of this is missing. The first date is July 27th, 1761. We give the following extracts from the log. It will be seen that the names of the captains spok- en with are given, but not those of their vessels.
' August 2d, 1761. Lat. 45 54, lon. 53 57, saw two sperm whales; killed one.'
' August 4th. Lat. 44 27, lon. 51 36, sounded on the Grand Bank, in 45 fathoms. Saw humpbacks.'
' August 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 2 whales between them. Lat 42 57.'
'Sunday, August 9th. Saw sperm whales; struck two and killed them between us,' (naming their consort.)
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' August 10th. Cut up our blubber into casks ; filled 35 hhds .; our partner filled 33 hhds. Judged ourselves to be not far from the Banks. Finished stowing the hold.'
' August 14th. Sounded; got 45 fathoms. Tried for codfish, but got none.'
' August 20. Lat. 44 deg. 2 min. This morning spoke with Thomas Gibbs; had got 110 bbls .; told us he had spoke with John Akin 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.'
' August 22. This morning saw a spermaceti and killed her. Saw a sail to leeward, standing west- ward.'
' August 23. Went to work on the head; filled six hhds. Went on board Capt. Shearman and rafted blubber.'
' August 28. This morning saw a sloop; spoke with her; it was Wilmot West; had got 65 bbls. Saw a spermaceti; it set in foggy ; lost sight of him. Lat. 43 deg. 22 min.'
' August 30. Saw a spermaceti, but could not strike her. Lat. 43 deg. 14 min.'
'August 31. Squally; thunder and lightning. Saw spermaceties plenty.'
' Sept. 2. Saw a spermaceti spout. It set in thick and foggy.'
'Sept. 3. This morning at 8 saw a spermaceti; got into her two short warps and the tow-iron; she drawed the short warps and the tow-iron, and ran away. In the afternoon came across her; got an- other iron in, but she went away. Judge ourselves to be nigh the Banks.'
' Sept. 5. Saw spermaceties; chased, but could not strike.'
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' Sept. 6. Yesterday afternoon saw whales ; struck one, but never saw her again.'
'Sept. 7. Saw a school of small spermaceties; Captain Shearman struck one out of the vessel and killed her; brought her alongside of our vessel; cut in her body. Lat. 43 deg.'
On the 17th Sept. they made the land, and sup- posed to have ended the voyage. The rest of the log for that voyage is missing. The captain's name of the sloop Betsey does not appear. No estimate is given of the oil taken.
This journal shows that sperm whales were tak- en near the Newfoundland Banks, and that several vessels cruised about that ground as early as 1761.
We now give the following abstracts from the journal of a whaling voyage dated 1762, in the same hand-writing as the preceding journal. The journal of the commencement of the voyage, and while they were on the cruising-ground for whales, is missing. The first date of the journal is. 2d Sept., 1762; at this date it appears they had put away for home; oil obtained not stated.
'Sept. 2, 1762. This day judged ourselves to be abreast of Cape Race. Spoke with Shubel Bun- ker and Benjamin Paddock; they told us that we were 15 leagues to the westward of the Bank.'
' Sept. 3. Kept her W. by N. 2 N .; wind east; moderate, but a bad sea. Knocked down try-works.'
' Sept. 15. Spoke Henry Folger and Nathan Cof- fin; they judge they came off of Brown's Bank yesterday, and off George's this morning.'
' Sept. 17. Made land, the Highlands of Cape Cod.'
Here the journal ends, without giving the name of the port they arrived at.
We have next the following, illustrative of what would be called a poor voyage in these days:
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SETTLEMENT OF SLOOP BETSEY'S WHALE VOYAGE, 1767.
Tuns. Bbls. Gals. 8 6 23 body oil, at £150 per tun,
1 7 head matter, at £200,
£1688 17 6
Sundry charges for settling the voyage,
56 19 8
Men's shares,
709 19
£921 18 10
Sundry bills against the sloop for outfits,
1140 12 1
Leaving a loss to the owners of
£218 13 3
Upon the back of the log we find some figure- work, headed 'What we judge we owe Joseph Rotch & Sons for sloop Betsey,' which throws some light upon the cost of fitting a whaler at that time. It is as follows :
£
s. d.
Before we began to fit for whaling,
45 00 0
4 bbls. of Pork,
103 10 0
60 lbs. of Tallow,
15 00 0
60 lbs. of Butter,
20 10 0
1 Tow-line,
53 00 0
45 bushels of Corn,
50 12 6
3 cwt. of Bread, .
14 00 0
66 gr. 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 ;
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 & Sampson, blacksmith,
35 00 0
Louden & Hudson, 10 00 0
William Claghorn, sundries,
134 00 0
Carried over,
£635 13 0
£1313 17 375
6
£1631 17 10
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Brought over, David Shepherd, new cask, Sundries put in, John Slocum, sundries, Cheese, Jethro Hathaway, beef, 166 lbs.,
:€ s. d.
635 13 0
150 00 0
40 00 0
238 00 0
23 00 0
14 00 0
£1100 13 0
Thus it will be seen that when our fathers began to do business upon the great waters, it was by no means upon the scale of our present great com- mercial enterprises. It does not become us, how- ever, to forget the debt we owe so entirely to their enterprise, bravery and hardihood."
The following is a description of the interesting picture of " The Origin of the Whale-Fishery," by William A. Wall, made by the author of this work at the time of its exhibition in 1853: " Upon the shore lies keeled over on her side one of the small vessels then employed for whaling; the model of the craft, a sloop, indicates a primitive idea of naval architecture, and was undoubtedly the work- manship of some old Dartmouth mechanic. By the side of this sloop, but otherwise concealed from view, is seen the sail of another little vessel, with the union jack of old England drooping from the mast-head. The river lies peacefully outstretched, with a view of the west side of Palmer's Island and the shore along by the 'Smoking Rocks,' and Nau- shon in the distance. Where now stand our wharves and ware-houses, the primeval forest trees are seen extending their roots to the water's edge. In the foreground of the picture, and that which will be to most its chief interest, is seen a group of the early inhabitants of New Bedford, or rather
$
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Bedford, as it was then called, busily employed. Under an old shed is seen the try-pot, with its at- tendants; also the jaws of a whale thrown upon the roof. More conspicuous, and nearer the be- holder, stands one man in a red flannel shirt, with a patch on the breast, pouring oil from a long- handled dipper into a wooden-hooped barrel; an- other handling over the blubber; and still more prominent, a fine-looking fellow is coopering a bar- rel, in conference with an Indian, who, with his baskets and moccasins for sale or barter, is seated upon a broken mast. Further on, seated upon the frame of a grindstone, and giving directions to a colored man (evidently one of the old stock of Guinea negroes, some old ' Pero,' ' Quash,' or ' Pom- pey') who is holding his master's horse by the bri- dle, is seen in his broad-brimmed hat and Friendly coat, the founder of New Bedford and the father of her whale-fishery, Joseph Russell."
Previous to the Revolutionary War, a sloop from New Bedford commanded by Captain John How- land captured a whale in the Strait of Belle Isle, which yielded 215 bbls.
I would refer those desirous of further informa- tion relative to the sperm whale to the valuable work of Lieut. Maury, U. S. N., on the Winds and Currents of the Sea. Washington, 1851.
I shall conclude this chapter with the following old Whaling Song, probably the oldest extant. The author, Dr. John Osborn, was born in Sand- wich, C. C., in the year 1713. He was educated at Harvard College, and was afterwards a physi- cian in Middletown, Ct.
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Å WHALING SONG.
When spring returns with western gales, And gentle breezes sweep The ruffling seas, we spread our sails To plough the wat'ry deep.
For killing northern whales prepared, Our nimble boats on board, With craft and rum, (our chief regard,) And good provisions stored.
We view the monsters of the deep, Great whales in numerous swarms; And creatures there, that play and leap, Of strange, unusual forms.
Cape Cod, our dearest native land, We leave astern, and lose Its sinking cliffs and lessening sands, While Zephyr gently blows.
Bold, hardy men, with blooming age, Our sandy shores produce; With monstrous fish they dare engage, And dangerous callings choose.
Now towards the early dawning east We speed our course away, With eager minds and joyful hearts, To meet the rising day.
Then as we turn our wandering eyes, We view one constant show; Above, around, the circling skies, The rolling seas below.
When eastward, clear of Newfoundland, We stem the frozen pole, We see the icy islands stand, The northern billows roll.
As to the north we make our way, Surprising scenes we find; We lengthen out the tedious day, And leave the night behind.
Now see the northern regions, where Eternal winter reigns; One day and night fills up the year,. And endless cold maintains.
When in our station we are placed, And whales around us play, We launch our boats into the main And swiftly chase our prey.
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In haste we ply our nimble oars, For an assault designed; The sea beneath us foams and roars, And leaves a wake behind.
A mighty whale we rush upon, And in our irons throw: She sinks her monstrous body down Among the waves below.
And when she rises out again, We soon renew the fight, Thrust our sharp lances in amain, And all her rage excite.
Enraged she makes a mighty bound; Thick foams the whitened sea; The waves in circles rise around, And widening roll away.
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