Plymouth memories of an octogenarian

by William T. Davis

In speaking of the part Plymouth took in the whale fishery, it may be well to refer to the general history of that industry. In the year, 1640, Thomas Macy came from Chilmark, England, and settled in Salisbury, Mass. In 1659 he embarked from Salisbury in an open boat with his family and Edward Starbuck, and landed at Nantucket, where they were the first white settlers. Not long after their arrival, additions were made to the settlement, and to the appearance of a whale in their harbor, which they succeeded in capturing, seems to be due the origin of that great industry, for which Nantucket was for many years distinguished. Whales were abundant in the waters of the island, and for some years they were taken by boats, which brought the dead carcasses to the shore, where their blubber was peeled off and carried to the try pots of the fishermen.

In order to facilitate their work, the fishermen erected masts on the land with crow’s nests at their tops, in which in suitable weather, observers were stationed, and when a spout was seen the boats were launched. This method was pursued for thirty or forty years, when small sloops were employed, making shorter or longer cruises during the summer months, and bringing in the blubber to be tried out on the island. Gradually larger vessels were employed, furnished with try pots, which made cruises to Davis straits as early as 1746, to Baffin’s Bay in 1751, to the African coast in 1763, to the Brazil ground in 1774, and round Cape Horn to the Pacific in 1791. I have heard it said that Gamaliel Collins of Plymouth was one of the crew of the first American whaler to round the Horn.

It is a little singular that until 1821 no persistent effort was made in Plymouth to engage in the whale fishery. Whales were always at certain seasons abundant in the bay, but as far as I can learn only occasional attempts were made to take them. It is recorded that while the Mayflower was at anchor in Cape Harbor, “large whales of the best kind for oil and bone came daily alongside, and played about the ship.” On the second of February, 1673, the town ordered that whatsoever whale, or part of a whale, or other great fish that will make oil, shall by the Providence of God be cast up, or come on shore, within the bounds of this township, that every such whale or part of a whale, or other such fish as will make oil; two parts of three thereof are to belong and appertain to the town, viz: the proprietors aforesaid, and the other third part to such of the town as shall find and cut them up and try the oil.

The following entry is made in the town records: “The marks of a whale left on record by Benjamin Drew of Plymouth, Dec. 17, 1737; the said whale was struck by Joseph Sachemus Indian at Manomet Ponds, the 25th of November, 1737, there were several irons put into her, one was a backward iron on her left side, and two irons on her right side pretty backward, and one lance on her right side, the iron on the left side was broke about six inches from the socket. She carried away one short warp with a drug to it, and a long warp with a drug without a buoy, one of the drug staves was made with a white birch, one of the irons was marked with an I on the head as the Indians think, with a blind S on the other side of the head, the rest of the irons we cannot give an account of the marks.”

Thus it will be seen that though whales made their appearance in Massachusetts Bay, and the means for taking them were possessed in Plymouth, yet no serious movement was made to engage in the business of their capture. In 1821 a company was formed to prosecute the fishery, consisting of James Bartlett, Jr., Isaac Barnes, Isaac L. and Thomas Hedge, Benjamin Barnes, Henry Jackson, Ichabod Shaw, Southworth Shaw, Atwood Drew, Thomas Jackson, Jr., Daniel Jackson, Jacob Jackson, Josiah Robbins, John Harlow, Jr., Samuel Doten, Nathaniel Ripley, Nathaniel Ripley, Jr., William P. Ripley, Richard Holmes, Jr., Benjamin Bramhall, Wm. Davis, Jr., and John B. Bates of Plymouth, John Wheeler and Luther Gay of Cambridge and Stephen Griggs of Boston. Though at a later period Isaac L. and Thomas Hedge were active in the management of one or more whalers, they were young men at the time of the formation of the company, the former twenty-three, and the latter, twenty-one, and James Bartlett, Jr., was the projector of the enterprise, and the leader in its management. The company contracted with Nehemiah Newhall of Berkley to build the ship Mayflower of 345 59-95 tons, and she sailed for the Pacific in September of that year under the command of George Harris. The fitting of this ship with the hopes, which the advent of a new industry inspired, seemed to arouse the dormant energies of the town, which the war, so recently closed, had done much to paralyze. Coopers and bakers and dealers in general supplies, as well as mechanics, felt the quickening impulse, and the people of the town generally were ready to contribute their capital in enlarging and extending the new business. The Mayflower was absent nearly three years, and landed between two and three thousand barrels of oil. How much of her cargo was sperm oil, and how much whalebone she brought, I have no record to show. Before her arrival an oil and candle factory was established between what is now Winslow street and the shore, about where the house stands recently occupied by George H. Jackson.

The Mayflower made two more voyages to the Pacific of about three years each, under the command of Capt. Harris, landing about five thousand barrels, and in 1830 she was sold to Gideon Randall of New Bedford, an interest in her being retained in Plymouth by Jas. Bartlett, Jr., Abner S. Taylor and the heirs of Atwood Drew. While the Mayflower was on her first voyage, after the establishment of the oil and candle factory, Mr. Bartlett, while in Nantucket on business, induced Mr. Wm. Collingwood, then living there, to come to Plymouth and superintend the refining of oil, and the manufacture of spermaciti candles.

In 1822 another company was formed consisting of James Bartlett, Jr., Josiah Robbins, Isaac L. and Thomas Hedge, John B. Bates, Thomas Jackson, Jr., John Thomas, Henry Jackson, Jacob Covington, Daniel Jackson, Jacob Jackson, Allen Danforth, Isaac Sampson, John Harlow, Jr., Richard Holmes, Jr., Ichabod Shaw, Isaac Barnes, Lemuel Bradford, George Bacon, Rufus Robbins and Ephraim Harlow. They contracted with Richard Currier of Amesbury to build the bark Fortune of 278 47-95 tons for the same service. She sailed for the Pacific in September, 1822, under the command of Peter C. Myrick, and returned in 1825 with two thousand barrels of oil. The names of the members of both this and the other company show the interest taken in the new industry by men of all occupations and professions, merchants, lawyers, traders, blacksmiths, owners of cod fishermen, silversmiths and masons, and a determination to make it a success. Among them appears the name of Allen Danforth, who became in that year a permanent resident of Plymouth as the editor of the Old Colony Memorial.

The Fortune made a second voyage of three years in 1825, and a third in 1829, under the command of Charles P. Swain, and a fourth in 1833, under the command of David Upham. In 1837 she sailed under the command of Albert G. Goodwin of Plymouth, and in 1840 she made her last voyage from Plymouth under the command of Wm. Almy. I remember the Fortune well on her return in 1832, from her third voyage, and her sailing on her fourth in 1833. Owing to shoal water at the wharves, she made her fitting as did the other ships and barks in the Cow Yard, and the whale boats as they came and went loaded with supplies were especially attractive to the boys. One of my schoolmates, Nathaniel Lothrop Hedge, went with her. Being called out by Mr. Stoddard, the teacher of the high school, to receive a flogging for some offense, which must have been trivial, for he was never guilty of any other, he quietly took his cap from the nail above his head, and walked out of school to ship the next day for a three years’ voyage. Two other Plymouth men, I think, shipped in the Fortune, John Barrett, who became the captain of a ship from New Bedford, and his brother, William, who became one of the best boat steerers of his day. On her voyage begun in 1837, George Collingwood of Plymouth was one of the crew, and Ozen Bates of Plymouth shipped on that or another voyage of the same ship. The Fortune was sunk to aid in blocking Charleston harbor in 1861.

In 1830 James Bartlett, Jr., Isaac L. and Thomas Hedge and Jacob Covington bought the ship Arbella of 404 26-95 tons, built in Bath, and in August of that year sent her to the Pacific under the command of George Harris, the first Captain of the Mayflower. She sailed again in 1834, and 1836 under the command of Ellis E. Eldridge, but what became of her after her return I have no means of knowing. I remember well the Arbella hove down near the end of the new Long wharf, with a raft under her bottom, being either caulked or sheathed or both. My impression is that most of the whalers made their voyages with either a bare or sheathed bottom. The process of heaving down was resorted to where docks were not available, and was safe in shoal water. The process of heeling for the purpose of making repairs below the water line is sometimes dangerous in deep water. The British man of war, George, heeled at Spithead in 1782, was caught by a slight squall with her ports open, and sunk with the loss of six hundred lives.

In 1831 Isaac L. and Thomas Hedge, Jacob Covington, John Thomas and James Bartlett, Jr., bought the ship Levant of 332 34-95 tons, built at Newbury, and in July of that year, under the command of Thomas Russell of Nantucket, she sailed for the Pacific. She returned with 2,700 barrels of oil, and was sold February 14, 1835, for $15,600. This vessel was under the management of the Hedge firm.