The Samuel Enderby
The chapter discusses the London whaling ship named after Samuel Enderby, merchant and founder of the famous whaling house Enderby & Sons. The narrator considers this house comparable in historical interest to the royal houses of the Tudors and Bourbons. While the house’s exact founding date before 1775 is unclear, in 1775 it fitted out the first English ships to regularly hunt Sperm Whales. However, Nantucketers from Coffins and Maceys of Nantucket and the Vineyard had been pursuing Sperm Whales in the North and South Atlantic since 1726. Importantly, the Nantucketers were the first among mankind to harpoon the great Sperm Whale with civilized steel, and for half a century they were the only people on Earth to do so.
The Amelia
In 1778, the Enderbys fitted out the ship Amelia specifically for whaling and boldly rounded Cape Horn, becoming the first among all nations to lower a whale-boat in the great South Sea. The voyage was both skillful and fortunate, returning with holds full of precious sperm oil. The Amelia’s success encouraged other English and American ships to follow, thereby opening the vast Sperm Whale grounds of the Pacific.
The Syren
The indefatigable Enderby house further distinguished itself in 1819 by fitting out another discovery whale ship, the Syren, for a tasting cruise to the remote waters of Japan. This noble experimental voyage, commanded by Captain Coffin of Nantucket, introduced and popularized the great Japanese Whaling Ground. All honor is owed to the Enderbies, whose house the narrator believes still exists today.
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