3010. FISHERIES, Competition in.—
There is no other nation in present condition to maintain a competition with Great Britain
in the whale fishery. The expense at which
it is supported on her part seems enormous.
Two hundred and fifty-five vessels, of seventy-five
thousand four hundred and thirty-six
tons, employed by her this year in the northern
fishery, at forty-two men each; and fiftynine
in the southern at eighteen men each,
make eleven thousand seven hundred and
seventy-two men. These are known to have
cost the government fifteen pounds each, or
one hundred and seventy-six thousand five
hundred and eighty pounds, in the whole; and
that, to employ the principal part of them,
from three to four months only. The northern
ships have brought home twenty, and the
southern sixty tons of oil, on an average;
making eighty-six hundred and forty tons.
Every ton of oil, then, has cost the government
twenty pounds in bounty. Still, if
they can beat us out of the field and have it
to themselves, they will think their money
well employed.—
To Comte de Montmorin. Washington ed. ii, 524.
(P.
1788)
