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No. 12: State of the Whale Fishery in Massachusetts from 1771 to 1775

No. 12.

State of the Whale Fishery in Massachusetts from 1771 to 1775.
Ports from which the Equipments were made.	The number of vessels fitted out Annually for the Northern Fishery	Their Tonnage	The number of vessels fitted out Annually for the Sorthern Fishery	Their Tonnage	The number of Seamen employed	Barrels of Spermaceti Oil taken annually	Barrels of Whale Oil taken annually
Nantucket	65	4,875	85	10,200	2,025	26,000	4,000
Wellfleet	20	1,600	10	1,000	420	2,250	2,250
Dartmouth	60	4,500	20	2,000	1,040	7,200	1,400
Lynn	1	75	1	120	28	200	100
Martha’s Vineyard	12	720			156	900	300
Barnstable	2	150			26	240
Boston	15	1,300	5	700	260	1,800	600
Falmouth in the County of Barnstable	4	300			52	400
Swanzey	4	300			52	400
	183	13,820	121	14,020	4,059	39,390	8,650
State of the Whale Fishery from 1787 to 1789 both inclusive.
Nantucket	18	1,350	18	2,700	487	3,800	8,260
Wellfleet & other Ports at Cape Cod	12	720	4	400	212		1,920
Dartmouth	45	2,700	5	750	650	2,700	1,750
Cape Ann			2	350	28		1,200
Plymouth	1	60			13	100
Martha’s Vineyard	2	120	1	100	39	220
Boston	6	450			78	360
Rochester & Wareham	7	420	1	90	104	800
	91	5,820	31	4,390	1,611	7,980	13,130

True Copy, Attest John Avery Junr. Secretary

N.B. About one quarter of the Spermaceti is head matter, one quarter of which was exported to Great Britain, the remainder manufactured into Candles. The Spermaceti Oil, previous to the Revolution, was mostly exported to Great Britain. The average price in that market for five years previous to the War, about forty pounds sterling for the Spermaceti Oil, and fifty pounds for Head. The Whale Oil was formerly about one half exported to the French and English West India Islands, the other half sold in the United States. The average price of this Oil, about seventy Dollars per Ton. A whale producing one hundred and twenty Barrels whale oil, will generally produce 2000 ℔ Bone, which was chiefly exported to Great Britain, the price about half a Dollar pr. pound. A whale producing 50 to 60 Barrels, will generally produce nearest ten pounds of bone to a Barrel of oil.—The average price of Oil for three years past, as follows, vizt. Spermaceti, one hundred dollars ⅌ ton. Whale Oil, fifty Dollars ⅌ ton. Head matter, one hundred and fifty do. ⅌ ton. Bone, about fifteen Cents ⅌ pound.

PrC (DLC: TJ Papers, 60: 10456); in hand of Lambert except for “No. 12.” inserted by TJ at head of text. Tr (DNA: RG 59, Record of Reports of Thomas Jefferson). FC (MBA). (Text of FC was enclosure No. 5 in Hancock to TJ; see Document I above.)

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Source Project: Jefferson Papers
Title: No. 12: State of the Whale Fishery in Massachusetts from 1771 to 1775
Author: Jefferson, Thomas
Date: 1 February 1791

Reference

Cite as: “No. 12: State of the Whale Fishery in Massachusetts from 1771 to 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-19-02-0013-0026. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 19, 24 January–31 March 1791, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974, pp. 230–231.]