"Catching Whales"

BALANCE SHEET; "CATCHING WHALES" 13 Plaques Miscellaneous Purchase for resale 2,104 922 26,882 201,608

($2,453)

Report of Rodriques, Guckin & Tobojka, Auditors, available to members at the Association office.

John N. Welch Treasurer

" C a t c h in g W h a le s" — A n Is l a n d Y a rn

THE LATE MILDRED Howland Brooks, who as Secretary for the Sons and Daughters of Nantucket did so much to maintain that loyal group which met each year in Boston, had a fund of Nantucket stories. One of her favorites was the following "yarn:"

"A Nantucket whaling master often sat by his old fashioned fireplace with his wife beside him. He would reminisce, with the flickering flames lighting up the venerable couple and the background of the old kitchen. Occasionally, he would lean forward and poke the fire, so that the flames blazed merrily. It may have been the pictures the old captain saw in the flames that caused story after story to fall from his lips, each one ending with a more wonderful catch of whales. His patient partner, listening quietly one long winter evening as still another story was recounted, suddenly spoke up: "Reuben, Reuben, Seems to me you've caught more whales before this fireplace than you ever did in the Pacific Ocean!"

Captain Absalom Boston, the first black whaling master, of Nantucket, who commanded the ship Industry, in 1822, a vessel that was manned entirely by black officers and whalemen.