The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1907-07-18

When Richard Mather came to the
Massachusetts Bay colony In 1886 he
saw of the coast mighty whales
spewing up water in the air like the
smoke OF a chimney. of such in
credible bigness that will never
wonder that the body Of Jonah could
be in the belly Of a whale Already
others had noted the presence of the
creatures that so impressed Mather,
for among the earliest settlers were
men who, if they were not whalers,
knew Of whaling and its rich rewards.
Mr.. Walter S. Tower of the University
OF Pennsylvania in a monograph on
the history of American whale fishing.
published by the university, gives it
as his opinion that the pursuit of the
whale began almost with the settle
ment Of the New England colonies. AS
early as 1862 the. town of Eastman
voted that a part of every whale cast
ashore should be devoted to the sup
port of the minister. In 1858 Secre-
tary Randolph wrote to England that
New Plymouth Colony have great
profit by whale killing" and in the
same year it was ordained that each
company's lances and harpoons should
be marked with a public mark. In
l647 the general court at Hartford
granted monopoly of whaling in Con-
necticut to one Whiting, whose ven
ture apparently amounted to little Mr..
Tower believes that the first organized
prosecution of the industry by Ameri-
cans was by the settlers on the east
ern end Of Long Island He says:
Howell states that the town of
southampton, on the southern shore
OF Long Island, was founded in 1910
as an offshOot from the colony at
Lynn, Mass, and that almost from the
very first the settlers recognized the
possibilities of deriving revenue from
the taking of whales Accordingly, in
1914, the town was divided into four
wards of IL persons each, whose duty
1t was to attend to all drift whales
cast ashore in their ward. Whenever
whale was secured, it was customary
to select by lot two persons from each
ward to-cut it up. Every inhabitant
was to share equally in the division,
except the cutters, who had double
portion for their labor. This cooper
alive industry may be regarded as the
direct ancestor of the famous system
Of lay or share Of the catch in
vogue over century later
Soon the settlers began to pursue
whales in boats, the records showing
that this form of fishing was prac-
tised as early as 1850. So important
did the industry become that every
man in Southampton was obliged to
take turn at watching for whales
from high lookout. The whalers
made New England towns their trad
Ing points, to the detriment of New
York, with the result that in 1854 an
act was passed laying duty on oil
and bone exported to any outside rats
except in England or the West Indies.
This act produced no appreciate eff
feet.
The Long Islanders had the start
Of all other organized whalers except
those of Nantucket, but they did not
| maintain their prestige. The other
coast dwellers were apparently con-
tent with the whales that came ashore
except in Nantucket. where, as Mr..
Tower says:
THE conditions were quite differ
ent. To quote from Macy, the histor-
q n, of q icIo ya<J ba
petition in Nantucket was undertaken
by some of the original purchasers of
the island; the circumstances of which
are handed down by tradition, and
are as follows: "A whale Of the kind
called 'scragg came into the harbor
and continued there three days. This
! excited the curiosity of the people and
led them to devise measures to prevent
his return out of the harbor. They ac-
cordingly invented and caused to be
wrought for them a harpoon with
which they attacked and killed the
whale. This first success encouraged
them to undertake whaling as per-
! manent business, whales being at that
time numerous in the vicinity of the
shores"
According to the same authority In
1890 prophetic Nantucket man, stand
ing with several Others on hill over
| looking. the sea, declared as he point
ed to the waters: There is green
pasture where our children's grandchil-
dren will go for bread" In the same
year Ichabod Paddock of Cape Cod
was employed to instruct Nantucket
in the arts Of killing and trying out
In the early part Of the 18th century
Nantucket took the lead in whaling
enterprise, a pre-eminence the island
| maintained until outstripped by New
Bedford in the second decade Of the
18th century. The barrenness of the
island, the abundance of whales and
the instincts of the people combined
to make them Whalers:
The year 1712 was epoch making in
the history Of whaling. In that year
q Nantucket whaleman, named Chris
topher Hussey, while cruising along
the coast, was blown out to sea by a