Nantucket, Massachusetts was a town different from others in budding America. Nantucketers believed wholly in signs and superstitions, with good reason. Unpredictability was a driving force in their lives, led by the sea. In 1659, when Nantucket’s English settlers arrived, they attempted farming and shepherding. As the numbers of livestock and farms grew, the island was threatened to become a wasteland, so they looked seaward. The hunt for whales began slow, first by Wampanoags harvesting whales that washed up onto the shore. The first whaleships were only twenty feet long, and after killing the whale, they would bring it back to shore to remove the blubber and boil it into oil. The Nantucketers relied heavily on the labor of the native Wampanoags.