Nantucket and Other Native Places: The Legacy of Elizabeth Alden Little

3 Drift Whales at Nantucket: The Kindness of Moshup

3 Drift Whales at Nantucket The Kindness of Moshup Elizabeth Alden Little and J. Clinton Andrews From before 1668 until at least 1728, Nantucket Indians engaged in a structured whaling industry, centered about drift or stranded whales. Deeds and regulations governing the ownership of drift whales show that the Indians owned rights to all the drift whales at Nantucket and retained these rights as they sold land to the English. The records of stranded whales at Nantucket today suggest the importance of drift whales as a prehistoric resource. Indian drift whaling customs, deeds, or regulations also existed at eastern Long Island, Rhode Island, Martha’s Vineyard, and Cape Cod Bay. Described by Crèvecoeur (1971, 107) as “fond of the sea and expert mariners,” Indians of Nantucket and these nearby shores contributed to the growth of the along-shore and pelagic whaling industry of the United States. These ethnohistoric records support the hypothesis that right whales, both along-shore and stranded, in the winter and spring, were particularly abundant along the shores of southeastern New England and eastern Long Island during the Colonial period. Histories of the whale fishery usually start with a brief and inconclusive paragraph about whether or not Indians contributed to the beginnings of American whaling (Spence 1980, 35; Stackpole 1953, 16; Scammon 1968, 204; Browne 1968, 522). County records and historical reports of Nantucket and nearby shores provide details of the whaling activities of historic Indians. Supported by data on modern whale strandings at Nantucket, we find in the seventeenth century not just Indian use of an occasional stranded whale on an undefined coast but specific shores of the East Coast where the Indians owned rights to what were called 63 64 Elizabeth Alden Little and J. Clinton Andrews drift whales and enthusiastically took part in the subsequent Colonial along-shore and pelagic whaling. Historical Background The settlement of New England coincided with the rise of the Dutch and English whale fishery in the North Atlantic, a fishery that had been dominated since the thirteenth century by the Biscayans or Basaues (Browne 1968; Spence 1980). In 1609, Lescarbot reported along-shore whaling by Biscayans in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (True 1904, 17), and in 1610 Champlain described Biscayans catching whales off the coast of New France by harpooning and lancing them from small boats (True 1904, 17, 18). John Smith in 1614 tried whaling near Monhegan Island but found only the noncommercial finback (True 1904, 21). However, the Pilgrims in 1620 off Provincetown saw what were probably right whales. “Great whales of the best kind for oil and bone came close aboard our ship, and in fair weather swim and play about us” (Mourt’s Relation [1622]1802, 204; 1832, 36). The Dutch made several attempts to whale off New York and Delaware (True 1904, 24–26). According to an English report of 1667, “The sea was rich in whales near Delaware Bay, but they were to be found in greater numbers about the end of Long Island” (Dow 1925, 12). Whaling histories do not report whales before 1750 south of Delaware (True 1904; Starbuck 1964; Dow 1925). Even with this abundance of whales close to shore, when the English colonists finally attempted to go whaling, no one was available who knew how to kill whales at sea efficiently. For example, Macy (1835, 28) reported the tradition that a whale stayed in Nantucket harbor for three days, while the islanders “invented” and manufactured a harpoon with which to kill it. In spite of many sporadic beginnings, the whaling industry of the East Coast did not successfully get under way until after 1667 off eastern Long Island (Edwards and Rattray 1932, 197). Although Rosier in 1605 reported that some New England Indians hunted whales from canoes with harpoons and arrows (Rosier 1843, 156), and a report of 1590 exists describing Florida Indians killing whales at sea (True 1904, 27) any such Indian along-shore whaling appears to have ceased after 1605. The propensity of whales to strand themselves (Leatherwood et al. 1976) was reinforced by Indians in canoes, especially in shallow embayments , which provide natural traps. There are reports of trapping small whales by driving them ashore at Long Island (Ann Hartung, personal 65 Drift Whales at Nantucket communication), at Great Point and the north shore of Nantucket, and in Cape Cod Bay (Crêvecoeur 1971, 100; Drake 1876, 343–45...