The Falkland Islands and Nantucket by Edouard A. Stackpole
THE FALKLAND ISLANDS, some 400 miles off the east coast of South America in the South Atlantic, have occupied the center of the world's stage these past few months. As Great Britain and the Argentine Republic challenge each other for possession, the war clouds obscure the unusual history of these remote islands. Journalists advance the modern scene and ignore the background of the past, and this latter aspect is the important feature in judging the present controversy. It is of more than passing interest to review the role that Nantucket has played in the maritime past of the Falklands. As far back as 1770, when the whalemen of Nantucket were penetrating deeply into the South Atlantic in their pioneering voyages, word had reached this center of American whaling that our ships had observed large schools of whales in the area around the Falklands. It was at this time that the Colonial troubles with Britain were nearing the breaking point. When the Revolutionary War did at length erupt, Nantucket's whaleships and merchant vessels were caught be tween two fires-the Royal Navy and the Continental privateers. It was at this time that Francis Rotch, of Nantucket, a brother of the better known merchant, William Rotch, proposed a most daring plan. Realiz ing that the Island's whaleships could not hope to continue running the gauntlet of the Royal Navy blockade and the swarm of Continental privateers, (as well as vessels owned by Tories that preyed on ship ping), he proposed that a fleet of whalers should fit out here and then sail to the South Atlantic, and use the Falkland Islands as a base of whaling operations. After obtaining enough oil, these ships would sail directly for Lon don. As Nantucket was still a part of the British Empire, its ships would not be molested in the English Channel. In this plan, Francis Rotch was joined by Aaron Lopez, of Newport, and Leonard Jarvis, of Dartmouth. Rotch accompanied the first vessels sailing and set up his head quarters on the West Falkland Island, at Port Egmont. The daring plan, however, was not at all a success, as the Royal Navy captured the whaleships, some en route to the Falklands, others bound to England with oil. It was during Francis Rotch's brief stay in the Falklands that he was able to observe the vast number of fur seals which made their home along the rocky shores. He wrote to his brother, William, about these seals. In London, a few years later, William, who afterwards set tled a whaling colony of Nantucketers at Dunkirk, in France, wrote to his firm (still active here) suggesting that his captains stop at the Falklands for fur seal pelts. The astute Rotch had read in Captain Cook's Journals, then appearing in British printings, that the market at Canton, China, for fur was a most lucrative venture.
