took place in 1845, but it was not until 1848 that the company officially went into receivership. Nevertheless, long before 1848 the Dutchess Whaling Company was finished. No one day could be marked as its death day but, from 1842 on, the problem turned from one of expansion to one of salvage and, though four of her ships were still at sea then, Poughkeepsie's whaling days were over. The Factor's return marked the complete end, for after she was sold no more whaling ships were seen at the Dutchess company's dock. The conclusion of the whaling industry in Hudson was described in a manner that would make an appropriate epitaph to Poughkeepsie's enterprise, if the name of Poughkeepsie were substituted for that of Hudson: In the dusk of a summer night in 1845 a crowd gathered en the Mall to watch a crew of weather-beaten sailors snub fast a low-riding ship to its home berth. The crowd was the result of custom only and not of any realization of the significance of the action they watched. And yet, before they turned away, to walk slowly up the main street, the fi rst important cycle in Hudson's history had turned to the full. The last whaling ship was home.
Sandra Truxtun Smith REFERENCES 1
Colcord, Joanna C., ed. Songs of ilmerican Sailorinen. New York, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., [c1938]. The Poughkeepsie Telegraph, February 27, 1833. (The quotations from the local newspapers are from those on file in the Adriance Memorial Library, Poughkeepsie.) 3 Laws of the New York State Legislature, 55th Session, April 20, 1832. 4 Earle, Walter K. Whaling Museum Society, Inc., at Cold Spring Harbor, New York. Cold Spring Harbor, 1946. 5 Field, J. T. "The Children of the Sea," published in the Poughkeepsie Casket, v.2, [March 2, 1839]. 6 Carmer, Carl. The Hudson. New York, Farrar & Rinehart, 1939. Reynolds, Helen W., ed. The Records of Christ Church, Poughkeepsie, New York, v.1. Poughkeepsie, Frank B. Howard, 1911. 8 Smith, James H. History of Duchess County, N. Y., . . . . Syracuse, D. Mason & Co., 1882. 9 Platt, Edmund. The Eagle's History of Poughkeepsie, Poughkeepsie, Platt & Platt, 1905. 10 Laws of the New York State Legislature, 55th Session, April 20, 1832. 11 Laws of the New York State Legislature, 56th Session, April 30, 1833. 12 Records of deeds in the office of the Clerk of Dutchess County, Court House, Poughkeepsie. 13 Starbuck, Alexander. "History of the American Whale Fishery from its Earliest Inception to the Year 1876 ;" published in The Report of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1875-1876. 14 Federal VVriters' Project; Whaling Masters. New Bedford, Old Dartmouth 2
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