When peace came in 1783, it was independence dearly bought by land and sea, and no small part of the price was the loss of a thousand merchant ships which would see their home ports no more.
Other misfortunes added to the toll of destruction.The great fishing fleets which had been the chief occupation of coastwise New England were almost obliterated and their crews were scattered.Many of the men had changed their allegiance and were sailing out of Halifax, and others were impressed into British men-of-war or returned broken in health from long confinement in British prisons.The ocean was empty of the stanch schooners which had raced home with lee rails awash to cheer waiting wives and sweethearts.
The fate of Nantucket and its whalers was even more tragic.This colony on its lonely island amid the shoals was helpless against raids by sea, and its ships and storehouses were destroyed without mercy.Many vessels in distant waters were captured before they were even aware that a state of war existed.Of a fleet numbering a hundred and fifty sail, one hundred and thirty-four were taken by the enemy and Nantucket whaling suffered almost total extinction.These seamen, thus robbed of their livelihood, fought nobly for their country's cause.Theirs was not the breed to sulk or whine in port.Twelve hundred of them were killed or made prisoners during the Revolution.They were to be found in the Army and Navy and behind the guns of privateers.There were twenty-five Nantucket whalemen in the crew of the Ranger when Paul Jones steered her across the Atlantic on that famous cruise which inspired the old forecastle song that begins 'Tis of the gallant Yankee ship That flew the Stripes and Stars, And the whistling wind from the west nor'west Blew through her pitch pine spars.With her starboard tacks aboard, my boys, She hung upon the gale.On an autumn night we raised the light Off the Old Head of Kinsale.
Pitiful as was the situation of Nantucket, with its only industry wiped out and two hundred widows among the eight hundred families left on the island, the aftermath of war seemed almost as ruinous along the whole Atlantic coast.More ships could be built and there were thousands of adventurous sailors to man them, but where were the markets for the product of the farms and mills and plantations? The ports of Europe had been so long closed to American shipping that little demand was left for American goods.
To the Government of England the people of the Republic were no longer fellow-countrymen but foreigners.As such they were subject to the Navigation Acts, and no cargoes could be sent to that kingdom unless in British vessels.The flourishing trade with the West Indies was made impossible for the same reason, a special Order in Council aiming at one fell stroke to "put an end to the building and increase of American vessels" and to finish the careers of three hundred West Indiamen already afloat.In the islands themselves the results were appalling.Fifteen thousand slaves died of starvation because the American traders were compelled to cease bringing them dried fish and corn during seasons in which their own crops were destroyed by hurricanes.
