To John Adams from John Brown Cutting, 12 October 1788
From John Brown Cutting
London 12th. Octr. 1788
My Dear Sir,
The following was the return of the Greenland Fishery on the 17th of June last. made here1
| London ships | Number of Fish | Whitby Ships | Number of Fish |
| Broderick | 5 | Ann & Elizabeth | 2 |
| John and Margaret | 7 | El Falconberg | 2 |
| Butterworth | 3 | Resolution | 2 |
| Leviathan | 3 | Nautilus | 3 |
| Branthall | 4 | Freelove | 1 |
| Mellish | 4 | Friendship | 1 |
| Hannah | 1 | ||
| London | 2 | Sunderland Ships | |
| Supply | 2 | Blacket | 1 |
| Two Friends | 1 | Queen | 2 |
| Elipse | 1 | ||
| New Castle Ships | Hull Ships | ||
| Disco Bay | 3 | Gainsborough | 2 |
| Kitty | 3 | Palliser | 1 |
| Kingston | 3 | ||
| Mars | 3 | Ipswich Ships | |
| Sarah | 3 | Simon | 1 |
| Mathew & Thomas | 2 | ||
| Sarda | 2 | Scotch Ships } | 13 |
| Spencer | 2 |
At no period previous to the last war were there more than one hundred ships employed in this trade; in the year before last 151 ships were employed; and last year 248 the value of whose cargoes amounted to the fourth part of a million. Now let us attend to the account of the southern whale fishery as stated accurately on the 1st of June last. Viz
| London | 36 ships | 34 Fish |
| Whitby | 9 | 19 |
| Hull | 9 | 6 |
| Liverpool | 5 | 4 |
| Leith | 3 | 3 ½ |
| Montrose | 3 | 8 |
| Borrostoness | 2 | 3 |
| Lynn | 2 | 1 |
In the year 1785 there were but 18 ships employed in the southern whale fishery, and the amount of their cargoes was estimated at £30,000. Last year 38 ships were employed the cargoes of which are estimated at more than £100.000 So that in two years the number of ships employed have been more than doubled, and the value of the trade more than trebled. And this year the number of ships employed is upwards of 50, and their cargoes expected to exceed £200.000. On these facts I make no comment.
I have the honor to be (with an unavoidable brevity and abruptness), / Your Affectionate Respectful / And Most Obedt. Servt.
John Brown Cutting.
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “His Excellency John Adams Esquire.”
1. Cutting sent a similar set of statistics to Thomas Jefferson on 17 Oct., having compiled them from separate reports printed in the London Whitehall Evening Post, 17–19 July and the London World, 18 July. In the version sent to JA, under the 17 June heading Cutting added in figures for the ship London and itemized an extra fish for the ship Queen. Under the 1 June list, Cutting noted 36 total ships for London, five more than he listed in his letter to Jefferson. In his report to Jefferson, Cutting added information under the 17 June list regarding two ships lost at sea, the Trial and the Mary. There, Cutting also commented on prohibitions on American wheat, compared the whale fishermen of the United States and Britain, and mentioned his plans to visit Charleston, S.C. (, 14:12–16).