CONTENTS

CONTENTS

PAGEThe Whale7Ancient History of Whaling8Early New England Whaling13Nantucket16New Bedford23Other New England Whaling Ports33Aboard a “Blubber Hunter”35Whaling Implements and Whaleboats37Different Species of Whales and their Products41Methods of Capture and “Trying out”45The Perils of Whaling51The “Catalpa” Expedition58Decline of Whaling and the Causes60Whaling of To-day62

The Whale

Ancient History of Whaling

Early New England Whaling

Nantucket

New Bedford

Other New England Whaling Ports

Aboard a “Blubber Hunter”

Whaling Implements and Whaleboats

Different Species of Whales and their Products

Methods of Capture and “Trying out”

The Perils of Whaling

The “Catalpa” Expedition

Decline of Whaling and the Causes

Whaling of To-day

The illustrations used in this brochure are from rare prints in the possession of the Dartmouth Historical Society and the Free Public Library of New Bedford, H. S. Hutchinson & Co., Charles H. Taylor, Jr., Roy C. Andrews of the American Museum of Natural History of New York, Doubleday, Page & Co., and others.

“Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of the English enterprise, ever carried this most perilous mode of hardy industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent People; a People who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone, of manhood.”—From a speech by Edmund Burke before Parliament in 1775.

Capturing a huge sperm whale. (From a very rare print.)

Capturing a huge sperm whale. (From a very rare print.)


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