130 FOLLOW THE WHALE 



The right whale, found off the coasts of Europe migrates annu- 

 ally north in summer to far upper latitudes and south in winter 

 when at one time it appears to have bred in considerable numbers 

 off the coast of Spain and in the Bay of Biscay. The Basques had 

 been hunting this whale for more than five centuries, as we shall 

 see, and it is invariably stated that they had by this activity exter- 

 minated these whales off their shores and so had to hunt them in 

 larger ships farther and farther afield, first to the coasts of Holland, 

 then through the North Sea to Iceland and beyond. More careful 

 investigation of the history of their whaling industry, however, re- 

 veals from actual records that no one of the dozen coastal commu- 

 nities actively engaged in this enterprise appears ever to have killed 

 more than about half a dozen whales in any one year, and often none 

 at all. In fact, the record of the town of Lequeito shows only 48 

 killed during the 145 years from 15 17 to 1661, though this is admit- 

 tedly after the time when the whales are said to have already dis- 

 appeared. Some Spanish historians, however, state that right whales 

 always visited their shores annually and there is considerable doubt 

 that they ever became scarce or nonexistent in the Bay of Biscay 

 and, if they did, whether this was due to the whaling activities of 

 the Basques or to some natural causes such as changes in ocean 

 currents or the temperature of the water. 



Then again we may be putting the cart before the horse or rather, 

 let us say, the other way round, the whale before the ship. It is quite 

 possible that the development of shipbuilding among the Basques 

 made it possible for them to follow the whale ever farther along 

 its migration routes and to kill it on the high seas in greater num- 

 bers, rather than waiting ashore for it to come within rowing dis- 

 tance of land. And this brings us to the second cause of the almost 

 inevitable invention which happened finally to be undertaken by 

 Francois Sopite. This was the general expansion of western Europe 

 overseas, that had begun with the great Portuguese explorers two 

 centuries before. 



As European colonies sprang up overseas, maritime enterprises of 

 an oceanic rather than a coastal nature became increasingly impor- 

 tant, and shipbuilding received a great stimulus. In this the Basques 

 were in the lead, and once given the ships, they reached out over 

 the North Atlantic ahead of all others. In fact, despite all the debate 



