Transcriber’s Notes:
Italic text is marked _thus_.
The spelling, punctuation and hyphenation are as the original, except
for apparent typographical errors, which have been corrected.
WHALE FISHERY OF
NEW ENGLAND
AN ACCOUNT,
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND SOME INTERESTING AND AMUSING
ANECDOTES, OF THE RISE AND FALL OF AN INDUSTRY
WHICH HAS MADE NEW ENGLAND FAMOUS
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
[Illustration: Sailing ship page decoration]
PRINTED FOR THE
STATE STREET TRUST COMPANY
BOSTON, MASS.
COPYRIGHTED 1915
BY THE
STATE STREET TRUST COMPANY
The vignette on the title-page is reproduced from a print of the
ship “Maria” of New Bedford, which in 1853 was the oldest whaleship
owned in the United States. Her registry was dated 1782. She was
built in Pembroke, now called Hanson, for a privateer during the
Revolutionary War, and was bought in the year 1783 by William Rotch
of Nantucket, afterwards of New Bedford. At one time she was owned
by Samuel Rodman, and also by the Russells. In construction she was
the typical whaleship of her time. It is said that she earned for
her owners $250,000 and made twenty-five voyages, bringing back a
full cargo each time. The tailpiece is from a very old print which
represents whaling in the seventeenth century.
_Compiled, arranged and printed
under the direction of the
Walton Advertising and Printing Company
Boston, Mass._
FOREWORD
The people of New England have long been interested in all matters
pertaining to the sea, and members of many of her best-known families
have commanded its merchant ships and whalers.
The State Street Trust Company has always endeavored to encourage an
interest in historical matters, and it is hoped that this pamphlet, the
ninth of the series, which deals with one of our earliest industries,
will be interesting to the Company’s depositors and also to the
general public. It is sent to you with the compliments of the Company,
which for over twenty years has tried to serve the interests of its
depositors.
For valuable assistance in the preparation of this pamphlet the Trust
Company desires to acknowledge its indebtedness to Dr. Benjamin Sharp
and Sidney Chase, residents of Nantucket (the latter being a descendant
of the Starbucks, Coffins and Husseys), to Z. W. Pease, Frank Wood and
George H. Tripp, all of New Bedford (Mr. Tripp being the librarian of
the Free Public Library), Llewellyn Howland, Frederick P. Fish, Charles
H. Taylor, Jr., Roy C. Andrews and Madison Grant of the American
Museum of Natural History, New York, D. A. deMenocal, J. E. Lodge
and Kojiro Tornita of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and George F.
Lord, secretary of the Boston Stock Exchange. Assistance has also been
rendered by the officers of the Trust Company.
The following books have been used as references and contain valuable
information and many interesting anecdotes:—
“The Story of New England Whalers,” by John R. Spears.
“History of the American Whale Fishery,” by Alexander Starbuck.
“A History of the American Whale Fishery,” by Walter S. Tower.
“Moby Dick, or the White Whale,” by Herman Melville.
“Whaling Ventures and Adventures,” by George H. Tripp.
“Whaling and Fishing,” by Charles Nordhoff.
“Miriam Coffin,” by Col. Joseph C. Hart.
“The Gam,” by Capt. Charles Henry Robbins.
“Eighteen Months on a Greenland Whaler,” by Joseph P. Faulkner.
“Arctic Whaleman and Whaling,” by Rev. Lewis Holmes.
“Cruise of the Cachalot,” by Frank T. Bullen.
“History of Nantucket,” by Edward K. Godfrey.
“History of Nantucket,” by Obed Macy.
“History of Nantucket,” by Douglas-Lithgow.
“The Glacier’s Gift” (Nantucket), by Eva C. G. Folger.
“History of New Bedford,” by Daniel Ricketson.
“The Perils and Romance of Whaling,” by G. Kobbé.
“The Whale and its Captors,” by Rev. Henry T. Cheever.
“Incidents of a Whaling Voyage,” by Olmstead.
“Nimrod of the Sea,” by Captain Davis.
“Hunting the Biggest of all Big Game,” by Roy C. Andrews.
“Four Years Aboard a Whaleship,” by William B. Whitecar, Jr.
“Etchings of a Whaling Cruise,” by J. Ross Browne.
“Bark Kathleen, sunk by a Whale,” by Capt. T. H. Jenkins.
“Peter the Whaler,” by William H. G. Kingston.
“The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States,” by
George Brown Goode, prepared for the United States Tenth Census.
[Illustration: Model of the whaleship “Henry,” made at sea in 1847.
This model stands in the main banking rooms of the Company, and may be
seen by visitors.]