Rhode Island pursued whales in 1731, Newport and Providence being
the two most successful ports. Fifty ships were owned by Connecticut
and Rhode Island in 1775. Massachusetts owned over three hundred at
this time. Rhode Island was more of a “slave” than a whaling State.
New London became a great whaling port in 1846, and was the third in
importance in New England.
The people of Cape Cod began sending ships to sea about 1726, and a
few years later a dozen or so vessels were fitted out at Provincetown.
Boston claimed twenty whaleships in 1775, and registered from one
to eleven vessels almost every year until 1903, since which date no
whaleship has been recorded from this port. Gloucester turned to
whaling in 1833.
The following figures show the different whaling ports in Massachusetts
and the largest number of vessels enrolled in any one year in each. New
Bedford, of course, held first place with 329 in 1857, with Nantucket
88 in 1843, Provincetown claimed 54 in 1869; Fairhaven 50 in 1848 to
1852; Edgartown and Mattapoisett owned 19 each; Salem had 14 in 1840;
Boston 11 in 1868; Dartmouth, 10; Plymouth, 9; Falmouth, 8; Wareham,
Fall River, and Marion, 7 each; Beverly, Holmes’ Hole, Orleans, 5
each; Lynn, 4; Newburyport, 3; Gloucester, Dorchester, and Sandwich,
2 each; and the following claimed 1: Braintree, Hingham, Marblehead,
Barnstable, Duxbury, Quincy, Truro, Yarmouth, and Wellfleet. Of
the Rhode Island towns Warren owned 25; Newport, 12; Bristol, 10;
Providence, 9. Connecticut towns that owned whalers were New London,
70; Stonington, 27; Mystic, 18; and a few scattered among half a dozen
other places. Portsmouth, N.H., at one time owned two vessels, and
between the years 1835 to 1845 Bath, Bucksport, Portland, and Wiscasset
in Maine each had one. Massachusetts, however, could claim five-sixths
of the total fleet.
A few words must be said in praise of Samuel Mulford of Long Island.
Governor Hunter of New York claimed for his State a share of all whales
caught, whereupon Mulford waged war against this act in every possible
way. Finally he sailed to London and put his case before the Crown.
The people in London were much amused at his country clothes, and the
pickpockets in particular became a nuisance to him in the streets.
Mulford, however, showed his resourcefulness by sewing fish hooks in
his pockets and succeeded in capturing the thief. Another incident
shows the ingenuity of the whaleman. The ship “Syren” was attacked by a
horde of murderous savages, and the crew of the ship would, doubtless,
have been murdered had it not been for a quick stratagem of the mate.
He remembered a package of tacks in the cabin and yelled, “Break out
the carpet tacks and sow ’em over the deck.” The natives, yelling with
pain, jumped headlong into the sea, and the ship was saved.
[Illustration: The Japanese method of capturing whales was to entangle
them in nets. A great many boatloads of men would drive the whale
toward the nets by throwing bricks and stones at it. When once
entangled the infuriated animal could be easily killed. In 1884 the
Ukitsu Whaling Company employed over 100,000 whalemen. One of the most
successful of the Japanese in this pursuit was Masutomi Matazaemon, who
accumulated a large fortune. The Japanese have been very slow to adopt
our Western methods.]
[Illustration: A typical “blubber hunter” cruising for “right” whales
in the Arctic.]
The world owes many discoveries to the energy and determination of
whaleship captains. Over four hundred islands in the Pacific were
discovered and named by American whalemen, and the history of New
Zealand is closely connected with the visits of New England whalers.
Australia, too, was opened to the world by the whalemen.
It was to a certain extent due to the testimony of Captain Bryant,
a whale captain of Mattapoisett, that Alaska was purchased by the
United States government. That there was a northwest passage was also
discovered by American whalemen in this way: the date and name of a
ship were always marked on its harpoons, and in several instances
whales were captured in the Pacific by ships that were known to have
been cruising not long before in the Atlantic. It was Captain Timothy
Folger, of Nantucket, who charted the Gulf Stream at the request
of Benjamin Franklin, to whom he was related, and this drawing was
engraved on an old chart and preserved in London. In this way English
mariners discovered how to avoid the swift current and thereby gain
much time. Our seamen in the early days were not very kindly treated by
the Japanese, but, finally, several whalemen secured their good will by
teaching them English. This encouraged the American government to send
out Commodore Perry’s expedition, which succeeded in making our first
treaty with Japan, thus opening that country to Western civilization.
It was difficult to make discoveries ahead of our whalemen. In 1834
two Russian discovery ships approached a forlorn little island in the
Antarctic Ocean and the commander was about to take possession in
the name of his Czar. There was a dense fog at the time, but when it
cleared away they were very much surprised and vexed to see a little
Connecticut ship at anchor between their two vessels. The name of
this whaler was the “Hero” of Stonington, captained by Nathaniel B.
Palmer, who was only twenty-one years of age and was just returning
from his discovery of the Antarctic Continent. The Russian commander
was so impressed by the achievement of this youthful captain that he
cheerfully acquiesced in naming the place Palmer’s Land. This name has
since been changed to Graham Land. It is an undisputed fact that the
whalers prepared the way for the missionaries.