Whaling was to pick up even more in the seventeenth century.

Quaker, the unofficial religion of Nantucket, was to have a major positive effect on whaling.

First, Quakers was Protestantism stripped off all pomp and circumstance. God was experienced personally, not through a priest.

Second, Quakers were not fighters. They would not take part in any wars, so the British did not try to draft them. They got to go whaling while everyone else fought.

By 1750, most Nantucket whalers were larger boats running 20 to 30 tons. They carried two smaller whaleboats with them, and a crew of about thirteen. When they spotted a whale, both boats, with 6 men apiece, would launch, leaving one guy to watch over the mother ship. Then, when they brought the whale back to the boat, they would cut off the blubber and store it in barrels.

Whaling at this time was a fairly local and small-scale activity. Nobody went out for more than six weeks and never further than Bermuda. The blubber would spoil if it were out any longer than that. Since everyone was so close to home, the whalers frequently saw one another and worked with one another out on the high seas.

Whaling changed with the advent of two innovations. First, the portable try-works helped assure longer stays away from Nantucket. Before you had to carry the blubber until you returned to the island, where they made it into oil. Now, you could do it on any shoreline. As a result, whalers would go up to Newfoundland and maritime Canada, hunt the whales, land on the beach and make the oil. The locals were not too pleased with the rotting whale corpses, but Nantucketers made money.

It didn’t take long until the second innovation came along; putting the tryworks one the deck of the whaler. This way, the vessel didn’t need to be near land and didn’t need to come back to Nantucket. The whaler could stay at sea for months or even years, until its hold was full of oil. The average length of a whaling voyage after 1750 jumped from six weeks to four months.

Nantucketers had two main advantages on the high seas. First, they had been doing this for a few generations and had the expertise. Therefore, they were a lot gutsier than other crews. The sperm whale, for example, is a lot more dangerous than the right whale. Nantucketers wanted the Sperm Whale more than the Right.

Also, Nantucketers were Quakers. Therefore, they were noncombatants. During the Seven Year War (or the French and Indian War, starting in 1758), they weren’t pressed into service since they were pacifists. Their ships continued whaling while everyone else’s were taken by the British in order to beat the French. For the time being, money flowed into the harbor.

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