War :—
June 18th. We saw a very large Scool of Sper-
maceties but thev Ran like Horses insomuch that
164 SPUN-YARN FROM OLD NANTUCKET.
tho' ^ve hove our Boats & Strovd faithfully yet
we could not Strike. We saw a Ship off in the S E
and she stood for us and rather wind fretted us —
she being an extraordinary good sailor. So we
stood into the N W and the wind starting in our
favour we withered him about a mile. At Sunset
we brought to under a Trysail.
July 1st. This day Whales are very plenty and
we kill'd one that fill'd 15 Hogsheads. We saw a
topsail vessel and we immediately made sail. It
being very windy and a large sea going we car-
ried aAvay one of our shrouds. But we got up our
tackles and runners in the room of our Shroud
& setting 3 sails atanto we made our sloop buckle
again. At the first hank we A\nther'd our suppos'd
Frenchman about 3 miles & then we discovered a
vast fleet of Ships & other vessels to leeward.
They appear 'd like a meer forest on the Ocean.
How many there was we know not. We judged
them to be an English fleet bound for Canada or
Cape Breton.
July 3*i we saw a Snow but Ave did not care to
Speak Avith her so we Sprung our Luff and
wither 'd her about a mile. We judg'd her to be
some Fellow bound into Virginia or Somewhere
Else.
July 10th. Very rough Weather & we are under
a Square sail right before a fresh S W Avind. We
spy'd a Spermaceti close under our Bow & we got
out 3 lances in order to kill her if Ave could but
She Avent doAvn just before AA^e got up Avith her.
Experience may teach us that Nothing can make
SEA- JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS. 165
a man happy save Quiet Conscience. About Sunset
the wind had dy'd and the Sea had grown very
smooth. We let run our Deep Sea Lead & had
about an hundred & ten fathoms with the Stray
which might be ten fathoms. "We brought up on
our Lead 3 or 4 Living Creatures a little more
than an Inch long. They have four horns growing
our from the Crown of the head ; they had two
Claws or Legs forward & Six towards his hinder
parts: their Legs are very full of Joynts & appear
to end in a Perfect Point & toward the end looked
like white ivory.
July 13th. We were on the Grand Bank of
Newfoundland & we stood off to the Eastward and
about Sunset by the sound of the Horns — it being
very thick of fog— we found two vessels who were
Timothy Gardner and Richard Gardner Avho told
us John Coffin had got about 100 Barrels and
Uriah Coffin about as much. So we stood off in
company with our mates & at 11 o 'Clock we let
run our Lead and found no Bottom & so we
Brought to under a Trysail & Foresail, being very
thick of Fog and a small wind.
July 18. We spoke with two French ships who
were fishermen & told us Cape Race bore North-
west. We saw divers more ships that we did not
speak with & at 10 p. m. we brought to for fear
of them — it being exceeding dark. We took ye
Sun's amplitude at his setting & found ye varia-
tion of the Compass to be 1^/2 points nearest. Lat
45:19 Long 48:50 (848 miles from Nantucket).
July 30th. We stmck a large Spermaceti & put
166 SPUN- YARN FROM OLD NANTUCKET.
into him three irons & one towiron. As soon as
the towiron went into the whale he gave a flauk
& went down, & coming up again he bolted his
head out of water, as far down as his fins, and
then pitch 'd the whole weight of his head on the
Boat and stove ye Boat and ruin'd her & kill'd
the midshipman (an Indian named Sam Samson)
outright. A sad & awful Providence.
August 7th. Fine weather but no Whales to be
seen. From 11 o'clock to 12 at night the sky glit-
ter'd with the Northern Lights, appearing Very
bright & luciferous like streaks of lightuiug.
August 20th. We spy'd a Spermaceti and struck
her off the Bow & then we hove out our boats &
kill'd her & got her along side & cal)led her and
began to cut her up. There was a chopping sea
going & but little wind. Our sloop girded most
Violently & we parted one of our Runners twice
& split the blocks & hurt one of our men & made
Most Rucking work. At midnight the wind began
to blow hard at X E and soon raised a bad sea.
W^e parted our cable and lost our Whale from ye
BoAV. At 5 in the morning we Blew away our
trisail & tore him out of the Boltropes and Ruined
him entirely.
August 21st. We made sail & found our Whale
and cut up the Remainder. Her body fill'd 24
hogsheads. Lat 45 :52. We blew away our foresail
& we got a new one out of the hold & bent him,
but did not set him for the wind shifted all at
once and blew like a Scum. After a while we set
our foresail and Avent like a Blaze to the west-
ward.
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS. 167
August 30tb. Ruuniug to the westward, being
thick of fog & we saw a noble Right Whale close
under our counter, We hove out our Boats to
strike but she soon ran us out of sight in the fog.
We spoke with a sloop from Barnstable. He told
us Fort Henry was taken. I hope soon we shall
have a free wind and go with ilowin sheets for we
know not how far we are to the Eastward of the
Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
September 1st. A smart gale of Avind at N E &
We are scouting merrily west by compass. In the
afternoon We struck soundings on the Grand
Bank and catch 'd 20 noble codfish. We have run
168 miles today. We are all in health and hope
to see our Dear Nantucket in a short time.
This sea-rover ends his journal by ({noting from
Francis Quarles : —
"My Sins are like the hairs upon mine head,
And raise their audit to as high a seore.
In this they differ — these do dayly shed;
But ah! my Sins grow dayly more and more.
If Ijy mine hairs Thou number out my Sins,
Heaven make me bald before the day begins.
My Sins are like the sands upon the shore,
Which every ebb lays open to the eye.
In this they differ — these are cover 'd o'er;
But ah! my Sins in View still open lie.
Lord, if Thou make my head a sea of tears,
Oh I that would wash away the sins of all my years.
My Sins are like the stars within the skies.
In View, in number, full as bright, as yreat.
In this they differ — these do set and rise;
But ah! my Sins do rise but never set.
Else, Son of Glory, and my Sins are gone
Like clouds or mists before the mornin" Sun."
168 SPUN- YARN FROM OLD NANTUCKET.
There was a yoiiug sea-rover of Nantucket who
began his first journal, in the year 1754. with these
words : —
' ' Peter Folger his Book
God give him Grace therein to Look.
Not only to Look but Understand
That learning is better than House or Land.
The Rose is Red the Grass is Green
The davs have past which I have Seen."
This inscription tells how much of a boy this rover
was when he first went to sea. In time he grew
manly. and his sea-journal of the year 1761 begins
with these Avords: —
A Joiirnal of our Intended A^oyage by God's
Permission in the Good Sloop Endeavour. We sot
Sail from Nantuckett the 9 day of July and went
over the Bar and Come to Anchor and waited for
our Indians.
July ye 26 we saw a large School of Spalmo-
cities. They ran so Fast we could not Catch them.
July ye 27 we saw .3 Sparmocityes & killed one
and Cut Her up.
July y® 28 we saw 4 or 5 Spalmocytes we Trj-ed
our whale Her Boddy made 38 bbls. Her Head
12 hhds.
July ye 29 we Stoed away our whale. We saw
2 Sloops to the Easterd of us and we saw divers
Sparmoeities and Ave struck one and maid Her
Spout Blood. She went down and their came a
Snarl in the Toe line and catched John McATick
and OA'er sot the Boat and we never saw him after-
wards. We saved the Avhale.
August ye 14 we killed a Sunfisli and we saw a
SEA- JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS. 169
School of Sparmocityes and our Partner killed one
and Got her kableed and we killed another and
saAV two ships to windered ye wind at S W and
our partner cut from his whale and we cut from
ourn abute 9 of Clock in ye morning-. We stood
to ye N. E. and our partner stood to ye S E — one
Ship took us in Chase and ye other took our Part-
ner in Chase. We clapt away large and sot our
Square Sail and Topsail and got our fairsail under
the Boom and made all ye Sail we could and
brought her to windered and we held her toit and
she fir'^ a Gun at 4 'Clock in ye after Noon and
at 6 under English Coulers She left us and stood
to ye S W and Ave stood to N E. We have lost our
Consort because these Ships they chased us from
9 in ye Morning till Sun Sett. So ends ye Day all
in Good health by God's Blessing.
In the latt(n' part of the last century, ships of
three hundred tons burden took the place of small
sloops in cruises for whah^s; they Avent below the
equator, and at last found their way .iroiind the
capes into the Pacific and Indian oceans. Two of the
ships that brought tlie obnoxious tea to Boston, in
December. 1773. were wha]ing-shii)s of Nantucket.
They had carried their catches from the South Seas
to London, and were returning home with general
merchandise by way of Boston. After unloading
cargoes at that port.— excepting the tea. Avhicli was
thrown into Boston harbor by a mob disguised as
Indians. — the ships sailed to Nantucket, where one
of them the Beaver, Avas fitted for a cruise in the
south Atlantic; and another, the Dartmouth, was
170 SPUN-YARN FROM OLD NANTUCKET.
loaded with sperm oil and sent to London just be-
for the American Revolution began.
Nantucket -whalemen were ruined by the Revolu-
tion. After the war was ended, sperm oil, for which
England had been the principal market, was taxed
an alien duty of £18 sterling per ton; and therefore
it became necessary for the people of the island to
make some new adjustment of their whaling busi-
ness. There appeared no alternative l)ut to transfer
it to England. With this object in view, William
Rotch. a successful merchant of Nantucket, sailed
for London in his sliij) .Maria, July 4, 1785. accom-
panied by his son Benjamin. He visited the Channel
ports in search of a suita])l(' location for the whaling
])usiness. selected F.ilmouth. and then made his pro-
posals to the l^ritish govcnunent. Not meeting with
success, he crossetl the Chainiel to Dunkirk in
Prance, where, aided by Shubel Gardnci". of Nan-
tucket, who had been a prisoner in England, and by
a native of Dunkirk, named Francois Colf'yu. who
served as an interpreter, his proposals were writ-
ten to the French government and sent to Paris. He
stipulated for liberty to emigrants from Nantucket
to worship as Quakers: for their exemption from
military duty; for a bounty per ton on Nantucket
ships engaged in whaling from FrcTich ports; the
free entry of their oil : and that the ships should be
commanded by Nantucket men. His proposals were
accepted, and he sailed for home in December. 1786,
to prepai'e for a transfer of his whaling business to
France.
England reduced the import duties on oil, and
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS. 1 7 1
France failed to pay the bounty; then the French
Revolution came, with its compulsory oath and mil-
itary service, bringing trouble to the Quakei's at
Dunkirk. On the 10th of February, 1791, William
Rotch, Benjamin Rotch, and a French Quaker named
Marsillac appeared (with their hats on) before the
National Assembly at Paris, over which Mirabeau was
presiding, and asked permission to present a memo-
rial explaining the Quakers' objection to taking an
oath and bearing the arms of war. Their memorial
was referred to a committee, and in the following
September the original engagements with Nantucket
whalemen were confirmed by the Assembly.
The men of the little island of Nantucket were
natural sea-rovers, for whom the charms of home
were charming only iu the short intervals between
their voyages. After they had gone to sea their
wives adopted a penurious style of housekeepiug, in
order to save money for the beloved sea-rover
against his return. Perhaps he did not return at the
expected time : born with an instinct for adventure,
his absence may have been prolonged by repeated
cruises on distant seas, and wanderings on distant
shores, until the Nantucket home had been effaced
from his thoughts. And when, like a new Ulysses,
he came back to it after many years of absence and
silence, there was no reason for surprise if Penelope,
tired of waiting for him, had finished her weaving
and had accepted an importunate suitor to fill his
place.
Shubel Worth, a sea-rover of the true blue, was
cruising in the South Seas when the War of the
1 72 SPUN-YARN FROM OLD NANTUCKET.
Revolution began. On arriving at Nantucket he
learned that his wife and children had left the
island and gone to find a safe retreat in her father's
house, in Saratoga County. New York. As the war
prevented him from going to sea again, he followed
his family, bought a farm, and cultivated it. One
day, after the return of peace, he drove a load of his
farm's produce to the village of Hudson, expecting
to sell it and return to his home witliin three days.
Three days, three weeks, three months, three years
passed; — "and Avhere was Enoch?" He had not ob-
literated himself from human society, as did the
"strong heroic soul" portrayed in Tennyson 's poem,
but he had suddenly gone a-sea-roving. On arriving
at Hudson, and learning that a ship was fitting out
at New Bedford for a whaling cruise along the coasts
of Greenland, he put his farm produce aboard a
sloop, sailed with it to New Bedford, sold it to the
outfitters of the Greenland ship, and went to sea in
her as first officer. The ship ended her voyage at
Dunkirk. Here he took command of the ship
Criterion, and sailed oh a cruise to the Indian Ocean.
Returning to Dunkirk with a cargo of oil. he sailed
again : cruised on the Pacific Ocean, and carried an-
other cargo of oil to Dunkirk. At the end of the
last voyage he returned to his home, from which he
had been absent five years instead of three days.
The restlessness of the sea-rover was in him. and he
went to sea again, but he never returned home. He
died on board his ship Avhile she lay at anchor in the
harbor of the island of St. Helena.
I copy two or three days from his sea journal,
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS. 173
written while cruising in the Indian Ocean: —
Ship Criterion, May 19th — at -1 ^^^ took a Lunar
observation, found our Longitude 107 "-32' East of
London Latitude is 7°-38' Soutli. Land baring
N E to N W 8 Leages — fine weather all drawing
Sail Set. Steared for the Land. Saw a S<'hool of
Spermaceties headed off Shore.
Friday May 22<i. Lay'd off & on th.- Land till
day Light then Steared for Java Head baring N
in 25 Fathoms. Got up the boarding Neting. Got
under way for ^lew Isle watering place. Sent the
yawl ashore to find the water. Saw a number of
men on the Isle. Before the boats Got at Shore Saw
10 Prowes coming for us. Saw theare Guns Glitter-
ing. Set the coulers to the Ship & fired one 4
ponnder. The Prowes fired a Number of guns at
us. Got \indei- way and set all Sail. So ends all
Avell.
AVednesday May 25th. Came to anchor in 23
Fathoms water. Got in Red-dyness for Battle
with the Pirot Maylays. Saw a great Number of
Maylay fishing boats. Got under way for .-\nger
Rhodes. At 6 ^ ^^ came to anchor — Batavia
Church baring N N W.
A sea rover was David Brown, of the ship Manilla.
I quote one day from his sea-journal in the South
Atlantic Ocean : —
December 1st 1791. Down a boat and caught
a Sea Dog. Running S W with two ships bearing
West, one a trying. Saw whales and gave chase.
Hove to under 3 staysails headed to the south-
ward. At 1 P M saw whales. Killed 3 & at 5 ^ ^
174 SPUN-YARN FROM OLD NANTUCKET.
eaine on board without auy. Went oft' again &
kill'd one and took her a long side. Spoke William
Bunker with 600 Barrels. Lat. 37-20 S.
A sea-rover of Nantucket made a discovery in the
South Pacific Ocean Avhich is still a theme of history.
In January, 1789. the British shii. Bounty sailed from
Otaheiti with a crew whose attachments to the
women of that tropical island made them reluctant
to leave it. Soon after sailing, twenty-five mutineers
seized control of the ship, and sent adrift in a boat
the commander Avith his officers and the loyal mem-
bers of his crew. The mutineers sailed the Bounty
back to Otaheiti, where sixteen of them landed with
the expectation of leading lives of endless enjoy-
ment. The nine who did not land took ab')ard
nine women of the island as wives, and six men as
servants, and then sailed away. What became of
them was a mystery for nineteen years, or until May-
hew Folger, of Nantucket, cruising for whales in the
ship Topaz, fell in with Pitcairn's Island, on a Feb-
ruary morning of the year 1808. This island which
is about two miles wide and three miles long, rises
abruptly from the deep sea to the height of a thou-
sand feet. On a plateau, four hundred feet above
the ocean, Captain Folger found a little pastoral
village peopled by descendants of the nine mutineers
of the Bounty and their Ofaheitian wives. I quote
from his sea-journal : —
Saturday February 6th 1808. At 2 a m saw Pit-
cairn's Island bearing South. Lay off and on till
daylight. At 6 a M put off with two boats to ex-
plore the land and look for seals. On approach-
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS. 1 75
iiig the shore saw smoke on the laud at whieh I
was very much surprised as the ishuid was said
to be uninhabited. I discovered a boat paddling
towards me with three men in her. They hailed
in the Eng-lish language ».^- asked who was the
captain of the ship. They ottered me gifts of
cocoanuts & re(piested 1 would land, there being
a white man on shore. I went ashore & found an
Englishman named Alexander Sniith. the only
person reiiuiini ug out of nine that escaped on
board the ship Bounty. Smith informed me that
after putting Capt. Bligh in the long boat and
sending her adrift. Christian, their chief proceeded
with the ship to Otaheitia. There all the mutineers
chose to stop except Christian, himself, and seven
others, who took wives and also six men as ser-
vants, and immediately proceeded to Pitcairn's
Island Avhere they landed all the goods and chat-
tels, ran the Bounty on shore and broke her up.
This took j.lace. as near as he could recollect, in
the year 1790: soon after which one of their party
ran mad and drowned himself, another died of a
fever: and after they had remained about four
year on the island, their men servants rose up
and killed six of them, leaving only Smith alive,
and he desperately wounded with a pistol })all in
the neck. However he and the widows of the
deceased arose and put all the servants to death,
which left him the only surviving man on the
island with eight or nine Avomen and several small
children. He immediately went to work tilling the
ground so that it produces plenty for them all? and
1 76 , SPUN-YARN FROM OLD NANTUCKET.
he lives very comfortably as commander-in-chief
of Pitcairn's Island. All the children of the
deceased mutineers speak tolerable English. Some
of them are grown to the size of men and women,
and to do them Justice I think them very luunane
and hospitable people; and whatever may have
been the errors or crimes of Smith the mutineer
in times back he is at present a worthy nmu and
may be useful to navigators who trav(n-se this
immense ocean. I tarried on shore with the
friendly Smith and his truly good people till 4 p. m.
and then left him and went on board the Topaz
and made sail steering for Masafuera, having re-
ceived from the people on shore some hogs cocoa-
nuts and plantains.^
1 \fter this visit by Captain Folger, Smith changed his name to John
Adams, by which name he has been called in histories of the mutiny of
the ship Bounty.
The wars provoked by Xapoleon touclied the
whaling-ships of Nantucket in many ways. In the
year 1808. England was allied with Spain in a war
against France, and defeated the French army at the
battle of Talavera in June. 1809. Whaling-ships
were now armed; and because they carried arms and
large crews they Avere sometimes arrested on high
seas under suspicion that they were belligerents dis-
guised as whalemen. A story of such an arrest is
told in the sea-journal of Captain Charles Gardner,
w^ho was cruising the ship Argo in the South Seas.
I copy it exactly as it was written in the journal : —
1809 Sunday November 5 in Lat. 17-27' South.
Standing in by the Wind East at 2 p m saw a Ship
2 points off the Weather bow. Saw that She had
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS. 1 77
all Sail out and comiug fur us. Stecrd on til She
was of the Starboard beam then up Corses and
backed the main yard. She came within hail and
ordered a boat on board with the papers. 1 sent
the boat and the eheaf Mate with the papers. He
was detained onboard the Private Spanish Ship of
Avar & ail the boats erne but one was Stoped and
two officers and boats Crue from the Spanish Ship
Came onboard the Avgo & Sent more of my hands
onboard the Vulter. At 7 p m they onbent the
Mainsail and the boat Came from the Vulter with
more Spanish men & took Charge of the Argo and
wore Shii) and Steerd on a wind to the South all
night in comjjany with the Vulte]-. At 7 a m short-
ened Sail and lay l)y. The Captain of the Vulter
Came on board and brought the Argos papers that
I had sent by the mate & asked me if I knew
them. I told him I did. He wished for a Candle
which was ])rot him. He told me all other papers
would b(^ no youse to me hear after and in my
presence Sealed the papers up. I asked him if i't
was war. He told me that was none of my
Business. J Should See & would give me no Sat-
isfaction but told me to go on Deck whieh Ave ded
and he Looked at the Ship.
He asked Iioav many guns I had. I told him.
He asked why I run from him to Luard. I told
him I did not, he told me I did and a Whale Ship
had no business with guns— and where the guns
AA'as. I told him Some in the hoW & some on
Deck, he in a ruf tone told me I had mounted
them 4 on Deck after Seeing him. I told him
178 SPUN-YARN FROM OLD NANTUCKET.
no he told me he knew better than that. After a
little time on Deck he told me he wished to go
below in the Cabin and look about the Ship. I told
him any part he wished to See Should be Shone
him. He told his officers and men to open the
after hachway and brake up the hole to the elison
— and Capt & Some men brock up the run & took
all the casks out. and all the powder out of the
magersean. and the Officers took more than 40
Casks out of the after hole and Some out of the
main hach and oppen'd the Casks of Sails & Bread.
The Capten Cut open my Slops with his own
hand and made me turn up my bead and made
me take everything out of my trunks, and told me
my own handkerchiefs was Spanish and told me
I had ^Money onboard and that I had no Business
Avith guns & with a Drum and tliat 1 lyed & what
I told him was lyes. 1 told him wluit I told him
was truths and whatever Construcktious he
pleased to put on it 1 could not help. l)ut I never
was told so before— and he Seamed Displeased
notwithstanding 1 did everything in my power
to Shoe him all parts of the Argo and everything
onboard.
At halfpast 12 three Ships hove in Siglit and
half an hour after the Capt went to his own Ship
and told me he would Send my pajx-rs and men.
which he ded & told my mate 1 mite go where I
pleased — but he left the Argo witli ~^0 or 60 Casks
on Deck tlwt they had taken out of the hole and
much wood the ^Mainsail Laying in a heap on Deck,
the Ship in grate confusion & three Ships eome
for us.
SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS. 1 79
Monday Xoym 5. pi^,^ ^^.^^.^ j^^.j^^^. ,^^. ^^^^.^
getnig the Decks Cleared. At 5pm Stod towards
the Ships and found them to be Whalers and the
Vulter had Spook them and her boats were along
Side. We Stod by and ded not Speaek them Stand"
mg to the S S W— t Ships in Sight to the S S E.
Dul times and Xo whales. Latt by Obs" 17°-37'
South.
The days of "dull times and no whales" did not
last long after this privateer had left thc^ Argo As a
contrast to her bad luck with the Spaniard. I .piote
one day from Captain Gardner's sea-journal:—
No. 25th. At 2 p M saw Sperm AVhales. Went otf
and got six. At 7 p m got them to the ship. One
l'<»;ft stove. At meridian got aboard tive. Lite
w]ii(|. Latt by ()bservati(m 18^-09' South.
These journals of sea-rovers are a valual)le ac-
cessory to the ])icture of Quaint Nantucket. They
reveal the boldness and extent of that hazardous