The new South-news., 1907-07-20

When Richard Masher came to the
Massachusetts, Bay colony In 1895 he
saw oi1 the coast mighty whales
spewIng up water In the air like the
smoke Of chimney. of such In
credible bigness that will never
wonder tha; the body OF Jonah could
BE- In the belly OF whale" Already
others had noted the presence of the
creatures that 50 impres sed Mather.
Tor among the earlleEi settlers were
men who. II they we're not whalers,
knew Of whaling and its rich rewards.
Mr.. Walter s. Tower Of the uriyers ty
Of Pennsylvania In monograph on
published by the university. gives 1t
as his opinion that the pursuit Of the
whale began almost with the settle
ment OF the New England colonies. As
early AZ 1862 the town OF Eastman
voted that part OF every whale cast
ashore should be devoted to the sup
port Of the minister In 1888 Secre-
tary Randolph wrote to England that
New Plimonth Colony have great
profit by whale killing" and in the
same year II was ordained that each
company's lances and harpoons should
be marked with public mark. In
1C}7 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
1rn 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
II 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
""'' :" gut II up Every inhabitant
vac ~ s"''e 'anaiiy IN 'he DIVISION,
~'. ''e '"'e's' VINO hau douole
portion for their labor This co-oper-
ative industry may be regarded as the
a".'s'o' VI Tue famous system
voc,,o ovar a.'' wv e"''" III
90" 'ne se,'ers ossan 70 pursue
""'''o =" ""a's' ehe records showing
.na' ., my 'ol" u nshihel was prac-
,',u as carry as l'''' important
VI" 'as l'"ns"y peconY 'hat every
."-" :" southampton W. Obliged to
s""e :" '''n a, "a'cH' lor whales
w" "sn iooNouc ne wnalers
49, ~" hns,A"u 10" their trad
"s po' ~ 'ne oe'r'n pt OF New
- w. 'ne result '1 IN 1884 an
z 1 11l Rn1X q uQild
and bonE exported to yv0itside>rn"t "ts
except FL England or the West Indies.
This az produced no appreciable ef-
feet
Thtt Long islanders liad the start
OF al( other organized vhalers except
those VI 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:
'sThe conditions were quite differ
ent. To quote from Macy. the histor-
ian OF the island. the first whaling ex-
pcdition 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 AZ per-
manent business, whales being at that
time numerous In the vicinity Of the
0hnrao