Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 13).

Date:: 1830-33

Credit: Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 13). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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it has been almost entirely deserted. Of ninety-one ships, fitted out in 1830, only four were for Greenland. The discove- ries made in the northern waters, by the English exploring voyages (see JVbrth Po- lar Expeditions), have made the fishers acquainted with several new and advan- tageous situations for the prosecution of their business. The sea in Davis's straits is less incommoded with field ice than the Greenland and Spitzbergen seas; but it abounds with icebergs (see Jce), and the fishery is more dangerous. The South sea fishery was not prosecuted by the English till about the beginning of our revolutionary war; and, as the Americans had already prosecuted it with much suc- cess, four American harpooners were sent out in each vessel. In 1829, thirty-one ships were sent out, of the burthen of 10,997 tons, and carrying 937 men, the number having declined since 1818, when fifty-eight ships, of 18,214 tons, and caiTy- ing 1643 men, were engaged in it. France has, of late years, had little share in the whale fishery. In 1784, Louis XVI fitted out six ships, on his own account, which were furnished with harpooners and a number of seamen from Nantucket. In 1790, there were about forty French ships employed in the fishery, which was de- stroyed by the wars of the French revo- lution. Since the peace, the government has attempted to revive it, but with little success. The whale fishery has been carried on with greater vigor and success from the U. States than from any other country. It was begun by the colonists on their own shores at a very early period; but, the whale having abandoned them, the American navigators entered with ex- traordinaiy ardor into the fisheries in the Northern and Southern oceans, from about the middle of the eighteenth centiiry. From 1771 to 1775, Massachusetts employ- ed annually 183 vessels, of 13,820 tons, in the northern,and 121 vessels,of 14,026 tons, in the southern fishery. These were the fii-st to prosecute the fisheiy in the south- ern Atlantic, on the coasts of Africa and Brazil, and led the way into the Pacific seas. Look at the manner, says Burke (1774), in which the New England peo- ])le cairy on the whale fishery. While we follow them among the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold them pene- trating into the deepest frozen recesses of Hudson's bay and Davis's straits; while we are looking for them beneath the arc- tic circle, we hear that they have pierced into the oi)posite region of jwlar cold; that tliey are at the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen Serpent of the south. Falkland island, which seemed too re- mote and too romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a stage and resting-place for their victorious in- dustry. Nor Is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to them than the accumu- Lited winter of both the poles. We learn that, while some of them draw the line or strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, othere run the longitude, and pursue their gigantic game along the coast of Brazil. These are the seas that are still vexed by the American fisheries, which have been pushed, however, into higher southern latitudes than had ever before been visit- ed, and are carried on from the shores of Japan to the icy rocks of New South Shetland. (See South Polar Islands.)* They have been principally carried on from Nantucket and New Bedford (see the arti- cles), and have proved very lucrative. At present, they are also prosecuted with great success from several other places. One class of ships is fitted out for the Pacific in pursuit of the spermaceti whale. These are from 300 to 500 tons' burthen, carrying from twenty-five to thirty men, and are absent about thirty to thirty- six months. Their number is about 170, of about 62,000 tons, and caiTying nearly 5000 men. Another class sail to the coasts of Africa and Brazil, in search of the common or right whale. They ave- rage about 325 tons each, carry about twenty-five men, and are absent eight to twelve months. The whole amount of tonnage of this class is about 40,000 ; number of seamen engaged, 3000. The quantity of sperm oil brought home in 1815, was 3944 barrels; in 1820,34,700; in 1825,62,240, and, in 1830, 106,800. The quantity of whale or black oil brought in in 1830, was about 115,000 barrels ; of whalebone, about 120,000 pounds. The sperm oil is chiefly used at home ; and 2,500,000 pounds of sperm candles are made, employing about thiity manufacto- ries. The whale oil and whalebone are chiefly exported to Europe. From the report of the secretary of the treasur)'. May 4,1832, it appears that for the year ending Sept. 30, 1831, there were export- ed whale and other fish oil to the value of $554,440; spermaceti oil to the value of $53,526 ; whalebone to tlie value of * The seas visited by the Americans are, in many parts, little known ; the currents are uncertain, and the seamen have had to construct their own maps and charts. Yet shipwrecks have been rare. Two men are always kept at the mast-head on the lookout for laud or breakers.

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