The Lighthouses of Edgartown

Records indicate that the people of Martha's Vineyard Island in Massachusetts were engaged in whaling as early as 1653, cutting up "drift whales." In the 19th century the Massachusetts towns of New Bedford, Nantucket and Edgartown were three of the busiest whaling ports in the state, if not the country. By 1775 the whaling vessels of Edgartown were realizing $150,000 a year from the industry. It was a dangerous industry. In one 60-year period, two local clergymen recorded the deaths of 72 men in the whaling industry from their congregations alone; inscribing in their journals phrases like, "lost at sea," and "killed by a whale." A gravestone in an island cemetery states, "John and Lydia, That lovely pair, A whale killed him, Her body lies here."