142 FOLLOW THE WHALE 



In 1596 a Dutch ship with the famous Barents as pilot, owned by 

 J. Hendrick Heemskerke and J. Cornelius van Rijp, discovered the 

 islands of Spitsbergen; a few years later a Basque whaler blown off 

 his course happened to arrive there too, and found a surfeit of 

 whales. The whaling fleets of his countrymen followed him there, 

 but by this time both the Dutch and the English had organized com- 

 panies to exploit whaling, and had hired Basque harpooners and 

 flensers to teach them the trade. Also, they had learned of Francois 

 Sopite's invention, and they began not only to rival, but to harry the 

 Basque ships. Finally, British-French rivalries ended in the loss of 

 Newfoundland by the latter to the former and Basque ships were ex- 

 cluded from the Grand Banks. 



These events dealt a death blow to Basque whaling, and when the 

 Basque ports themselves were laid waste in 1636, a change of objec- 

 tive appears to have taken place. Henceforth we have less and less 

 whaling and more and more piracy, which in turn became more and 

 more respectable, was called privateering, and often obtained official 

 blessing. The Basques continued to fish for cod and also started the 

 sardine industry in which they are still engaged. But after five hun- 

 dred years, probably nearer a thousand, and perhaps several mil- 

 lennia, they fade from our picture, leaving others to follow the 

 whale. 



