Whale ships in the American whaling industry are so concentrated out of New England that English tended to be the lingua franca, although there were many Cape Verdean sailors who would largely be speaking Portuguese.

美国捕鲸业的捕鲸船非常集中在新英格兰地区，因此英语往往成为通用语言，尽管有许多佛得角水手主要讲葡萄牙语。