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CHAPTER 101 . The Decanter . Ere the English ship fades from sight , be it set down here , that she hailed from London , and was named after the late Samuel Enderby , merchant of that city , the original of the famous whaling house of Enderby & Sons ; a house which in my poor whaleman’s opinion , comes not far behind the united royal houses of the Tudors and Bourbons , in point of real historical interest . How long , prior to the year of our Lord 1775 , this great whaling house was in existence , my numerous fish - documents do not make plain ; but in that year ( 1775 ) it fitted out the first English ships that ever regularly hunted the Sperm Whale ; though for some score of years previous ( ever since 1726 ) our valiant Coffins and Maceys of Nantucket and the Vineyard had in large fleets pursued that Leviathan , but only in the North and South Atlantic : not elsewhere . Be it distinctly recorded here , that the Nantucketers were the first among mankind to harpoon with civilized steel the great Sperm Whale ; and that for half a century they were the only people of the whole globe who so harpooned him . In 1778 , a fine ship , the Amelia , fitted out for the express purpose , and at the sole charge of the vigorous Enderbys , boldly rounded Cape Horn , and was the first among the nations to lower a whale - boat of any sort in the great South Sea . The voyage was a skilful and lucky one ; and returning to her berth with her hold full of the precious sperm , the Amelia’s example was soon followed by other ships , English and American , and thus the vast Sperm Whale grounds of the Pacific were thrown open . But not content with this good deed , the indefatigable house again bestirred itself : Samuel and all his Sons — how many , their mother only knows — and under their immediate auspices , and partly , I think , at their expense , the British government was induced to send the sloop - of - war Rattler on a whaling voyage of discovery into the South Sea . Commanded by a naval Post - Captain , the Rattler made a rattling voyage of it , and did some service ; how much does not appear . But this is not all . In 1819 , the same house fitted out a discovery whale ship of their own , to go on a tasting cruise to the remote waters of Japan . That ship — well called the “ Syren ” — made a noble experimental cruise ; and it was thus that the great Japanese Whaling Ground first became generally known . The Syren in this famous voyage was commanded by a Captain Coffin , a Nantucketer . All honor to the Enderbies , therefore , whose house , I think , exists to the present day ; though doubtless the original Samuel must long ago have slipped his cable for the great South Sea of the other world .
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