After Their
Examples Several Companies Have Been Formed In Many Of Our Capitals,
Where Every Necessary Article Of Provisions, Implements, And Timber,
Are To Be Found.
But the industry exerted by the people of
Nantucket, hath hitherto enabled them to rival all their
competitors; consequently this is the greatest mart for oil,
whalebone, and spermaceti, on the continent.
It does not follow
however that they are always successful, this would be an
extraordinary field indeed, where the crops should never fail; many
voyages do not repay the original cost of fitting out: they bear
such misfortunes like true merchants, and as they never venture
their all like gamesters, they try their fortunes again; the latter
hope to win by chance alone, the former by industry, well judged
speculation, and some hazard. I was there when Mr. - - had missed one
of his vessels; she had been given over for lost by everybody, but
happily arrived before I came away, after an absence of thirteen
months. She had met with a variety of disappointments on the station
she was ordered to, and rather than return empty, the people steered
for the coast of Guinea, where they fortunately fell in with several
whales, and brought home upward of 600 barrels of oil, beside bone.
Those returns are sometimes disposed of in the towns on the
continent, where they are exchanged for such commodities as are
wanted; but they are most commonly sent to England, where they
always sell for cash. When this is intended, a vessel larger than
the rest is fitted out to be filled with oil on the spot where it is
found and made, and thence she sails immediately for London.
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