Old Dartmouth historical sketches - New Bedford Whaling Museum

and shoals, and the horrible menace of pirates. Pirates hoveredall along the coast in those far off days, and their danger isevinced by the bold lettered relief with which Captain Benjaminwrote, on the occasion when 30 of them were condemnedat Newport, "The pirats was hanged at Rhodisland juK' the19th day 1723."Captain Ren iiad a young apprentice named Tom Toby, andif Captain Ben's hair was not already grey, Tom must have finishedthe job. For this footloose youth was forever running away,and his good master again and again charged up to Tom theexpenses occurred in looking for him and dragging him backto the farm. Perhaps the most important items in the journalare the following:"October the 23 da) 1713Tom Toby went from me to go a whaling and he came tome again in february the Hthe day— 1714"And the next year:"October the 29th day 1714Tom Toby went from me to go awhaling and he came toagain in jannuary the 31st day 17H.for lookingshillings."(for him) when he run away from me—20It has always been supposed that whaling in this vicinitywas started by Joseph Russel in New Bedford in the 175 O's;yet here is a whaling record of 1713. It is fairly obvious thatTom Toby, a poor boy bound to a farmer as an apprentice, couldhave travelled neither to Nantucket nor to the Cape, wherewhaling is known to have been under weigh at this early date.Moreover there is in existence a record of a whaling voyagefrom Wareham in 1736. In other words, then, in addition tothe coastwise trade in timber products, whaling was an establishedmaritime pursuit along these northern shores of BuzzardsBay from almost the earliestdates of settlement.Captain Ben Hammond lived just to the northwest of thepicturesque Arch Bridge ahalf mile up the Mattapoisett River,where the cellar hole of his house may still be seen. As theyears rolled on, the descendants of Captain Ben and his threebrothers populated a whole village along this river. It was aflourishing community with grist and saw and shingle mills, achurch, a tannery, iron works and blacksmith shops, a school.