why did the dutch in de witt’s time have admirals of their whaling fleets? why did louis xvi. of france, at his own personal expense, fit out whaling ships from dunkirk, and politely invite to that town some score or two of families from our own island of nantucket? why did britain between the years 1750 and 1788 pay to her whalemen in bounties upwards of £1,000,000? and lastly, how comes it that we whalemen of america now outnumber all the rest of the banded whalemen in the world; sail a navy of upwards of seven hundred vessels; manned by eighteen thousand men; yearly consuming 4,000,000 of dollars; the ships worth, at the time of sailing, $20,000,000! and every year importing into our harbors a well reaped harvest of $7,000,000. how comes all this, if there be not something puissant in whaling?