Memorials of the Sea: My Father: Being Records of the Adventurous Life of the Late William Scoresby, Esq. of WhitbyScoresby, William
History
Memorials of the Sea: My Father: Being Records of the Adventurous Life of the Late William Scoresby, Esq. of Whitby
Scoresby, William
Fathers and sons -- England -- Whitby; Scoresby, William, 1760-1829; Whaling
Among the captains of the Whitby fleet, no one, I believe, at all
approached his successes; and among those commanding the Greenland whalers
of Hull none came at all near him, except one—Captain Allan,—whose name I
feel it but justice to record as the most successful fisherman of his port,
and one of the first of his day. Captain Angus Sadler, whose remarkable
successes we hereafter notice, did not commence until 1796. And Captain
John Marshall, who afterwards became so celebrated among his compeers, was
but, as yet, rising towards superiority; besides, his enterprises, after he
became so signally successful, were conducted in Davis’ Strait,—a branch
of the fishery to which our comparison may not fairly extend.
The result of the enterprise of the other captains of this period was, in
each case, so far below that of the subject of these memorials, as only, in
two or three cases, to reach one-half his success. Captain Taylor, of the
Fanny, brought home 400 tuns of oil within those six years, and Captain
Wilson, of the Caroline, 318; but my Father’s catch, as above stated,
yielded no less an amount than 729 tuns! And when it is understood that the
Henrietta was of but small tonnage, (254 tons,) whilst many of the Hull
ships were from 50 to 100, or even 120, tons larger, the comparison
instituted becomes the more remarkable.
In these successes of my Father, the people of Whitby felt an universal and
exciting interest, for most of the principal inhabitants, as well as a
large body of those in the middle and lower classes, were, more or less,
directly or indirectly, participators in the gains of the whale-fishery.
But whilst all were astonished at the results of enterprises so
unquestionably due to an individual guidance, no small number were moved to
feelings of jealousy in consequence of successes, to which the fruits of
their personal ventures in other ships bore no reasonable proportion. The
modes in which this baneful feeling towards my Father was evinced, were as
various as they were sometimes annoying. At first, the extraordinary
results were ascribed to “luck;” and, subsequently, when more than luck was
too obvious to be denied, the waning phantom of superstition was resorted
to in order to escape the commendation of a frank acknowledgment of
superior merit. Some persons there were of an order of mind so simple, as
actually to believe what was jocosely told, that he “knee-banded” a portion
of fish in one year to facilitate the success of the next. Jeers and
lampoons were made use of as outlets for the expression of narrow and
jealous selfishness,—annoyances which the substantiality of my Father’s
advantages enabled him very well to bear, but which were often keenly felt
when played off against the less stern materials of his amiable and
tender-minded wife and susceptible young family.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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