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Transcript of Lecture Delivered by Noel J. Gish March 27, 1998 Pirates, Whales, Wrecks and Salvage

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Transcript of Lecture Delivered by Noel J. Gish March 27, 1998 Pirates, Whales, Wrecks and Salvage Transcript of Lecture Delivered by Noel J. Gish March 27, 1998 Pirates, Whales, Wrecks and Salvage Long Island is a place surrounded by water. This island was shaped by the frozen water from the continental glaciers 20,000 years ago. Since the glaciers retreated the rising tide and the ravages of the wind and rain have molded this small sand encrusted island even more. The island and the water are one. I have always told young people to think of this island as a fish, newly caught laying on the beach. The head is pressed against the great mainland to the west, its body stretches eastward with two flukes playfully extending into the Atlantic, that this fish calls home. The island fish is huge stretching almost 120 miles, bigger than any stripper that I have caught or even lied about catching. And, it is the water that surrounds and nourishes this place the Natives called Paumanauk. The water comforts us and seems to draw us near. It may be the salt water, the composition of which is so similar to the salinity of the embryonic sac, that makes it all seem so familiar. Maybe, we as people, are drawn somehow unknowingly to the comfort of the womb. It was the sea that brought life to the Algonquins, who were the first of the island's inhabitants. It was the sea that brought the first Englishmen to the township of what would become East Hampton.. Lion Gardiner came across the Atlantic to work in Connecticut, but it was here on the island that he chose to make his home. East Hampton history begins with the purchase of Gardiner's island in 1639. The first English child born in Suffolk County, even in New York State was Elizabeth. Even though Gardiner's Island was his island, Lion Gardiner is buried in East Hampton. Even today the 16th Lord of the Manor has residence here. The link of the town to Gardiner's island is strong indeed. The ocean brought life to the island and it was the sea that has been both a blessing and curse to those who live along that boundary between earth and water. The sea moderates the climate, it provided the breezes to turn the early windmills and power the earliest sailing ships. It is that wonderful marine climate that made agriculture possible. It is a climate of long springs, mild summers and cool autumns. One can always depend on an "Indian Summer" in East Ham;ton. Even after the summer season is over and all of the city people have departed, any islander will tell you that the best weather is at hand. Cool nights, warm days, the harvest of the earth and the sea are still coming. The bounty of Peconic Bay scallops or Stripped Bass rounding Montauk, heading south are part of this magical time called fall. It is the nearness to the water, the ocean, that makes this all possible. The earliest of settlers to East Hampton numbered a mere nine, nomads from England, from an area around Maidstone, some ten miles up river from the North Sea and the port of Kent. This small English lot first settled in Lynn, Massachusetts, then wised up and continued to the south fork of Long Island. These English farmers who lived near the sea must have found this place quite suitable and probably surprisingly milder than the land they left in either England or Lynn, Massachusetts. The first important maritime industry in this town was whaling. Whaling on the eastern shore of Long Island began with the Native Americans. We don't have to go back to the Old Testament and Jonah to find a good whaling story. The tales of whaling always seem to get myheart pumping, and my mind racing. Captain George Waymouth, an English explorer reported that he observed Indians pursing and killing whales along the coast in 1620. In the work The History of the American Whaling Fishery, written by Alexander Starbuck in 1876, the author states "Whales were first taken off Long Island in 1644 by Southampton Indians". The Native Americans probably didn't take them, it was probably easy to say they waited for the whales to come to them. Drift whales were common and coastal storms, disease and simple misdirection would often strand the leviathan along the sand bars. The native islanders would boil the blubber and mix the oil with their corn and beans, or they would rub the oil into animal hides as a preservative. If whaling started in Southampton, it wasn't long before it was an active industry in East Hampton. In the original deed of 1648, the native indians were promised "to have fynnes and tayles of all such whales as shall be cast upp, and desire that they may be friendly dealt with in other parts". The deed for Montauk and the point divides all whales with equal shares going between whites and native americans. Early East Hamptonites found that whaling was of great concern according to town records, November 6, 1651. "It was ordered that Goodman Mulford shall call out ye town by succession to look out for whale." The whale was a valuable creature, probably more of value than any fur bearing animal. The whale oil was an important source of illumination. The whale oil lamp was more reliable than reed lamps or lard lamps. Whale oil was the fuel of choice. The oil could be a lubricant. Farm tools that were put away for the season could be protected from rust with a rubbing of oil. East Hampton recipes tell of mince pies made with whale meat. If the town was lucky to find a sperm whale, the waxy spermacetti from the cavity of the head made an excellent candle. When mixed with the oil from the bayberry, the candles not only glowed, but filled the home with a perfumed scent. The bone of the whale could be used to make buttons, collar stays, corset stays and handles. The baleen became chair springs, hair brushes and even buggy whips. The whale's importance seems to have even divided families. In 1653, East Hampton "orders that the share of whale now in controversy between widow Talmadge and Thomas Talmadge shall be divided among them as the lot is". There is no truth to the rumor that this is the legal precedent for community property settlements. The early prosperity of East Hampton and other villages was largely based on the on-shore whaling industry. This on-shore whaling was not expensive, for no large boats were built and long voyages were not necessary. Tools and implements could be made by local blacksmiths. Small boats might be kept along the shore, always ready for use. The time for shore whaling spanned December through May. This made it a perfect match for agricultural pursuits which lasted from May through November. Whaling became an all town task. The area in and around East Hampton was politically divided to insure orderly division of beached whales. There was a finder's fee paid to the person who took note of a beached whale. Native Americans were paid at the rate of five shillings, while an East Hamptonite discovering the whale was given "a piece of the whale three feet broad". Whale watchers were set up to make whale sightings less a form of chance. Small huts, similar to wigwams, were erected as beach shelters. When a whale was sighted, the watcher would scamper up a pole or tree waving his shirt or coat. "Making a weft", as it was called, set in motion an exciting chain reaction of activity. Soon horns would be sounded, then the cry "whale off" would be heard as citizens hurried to their appointed tasks. The small boats were run into the surf. The harpooner, tiller and rowers, all in unison, were set on the same goal. The whale was pursued, chased and struck with a harpoon. The crew held on while the wounded whale took them for what would later be known as a "Nantucket sleigh ride". (I'd like to refer to it as the Hampton Jitney even though it has no basis in history). The chase was not fun or sport, it was exhausting for both the hunter and the hunted. Closer and closer the crew would row toward the whale. Now a lance was driven deep, turned in the wound, hopefully hitting the heart or lung. The ordeal would be over soon if the whale spouted blood. Now with the whale in tow the boat would row back to the shore. Sometimes, the small boats were driven far and the way home was even more difficult and dangerous as winter or spring storms appeared quickly. Small boats would be no match for the dreadful Atlantic . The whale was returned to the beach where it was met by others ready to cut into the mammal. Huge try pots were now burning on the beach, sometimes lighting the way home for the whalers. The entire male population of East Hampton was divided into two whale-cutting teams. The job was to render the whale blubber into oil, rescue the baleen, bone and all the other parts that were useful. The women arrived on the beach to bring food and warm clothing if the weather warranted it. By 1680, Amagansett was the most profitable point for whaling on the east coast, not New Bedford, not Nantucket, not Sag Harbor, but Amagansett. In 1687, there were seven companies engaged in whaling on the south fork.
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