Early Mom in the North 153 



showed themselves on the coast of Greenland" (Spitsbergen, in this 

 case.) By this time, however, the profits of the Muscovy Company 

 were deplorable from the point of view of the capital invested, and 

 the directors were finally goaded into a proper investigation of the 

 possibilities of whaling. 



Consequently, they re-equipped the Lionesse and fitted out the 

 Amitie, giving the former to Thomas Edge and the latter to Jonas 

 Poole. These two sailed on the ninth of March, 16 10, and reached 

 Spitsbergen, where they whaled in Deere Sound with some success, 

 but instead of trying out the oil there or at sea, they brought home 

 only the blubber and were heavily censured. The profits of the com- 

 pany dropped again. In 161 1 the Elizabeth, 2i barque of 50 tons, and 

 the Mary Margaret of 150 tons, with Thomas Edge shipping on the 

 latter as agent, were dispatched and, as we have seen, were successful 

 in fishing, but the latter ship was lost on the return journey. Thomas 

 Edge left for us a fantastic story of the privations suffered by him- 

 self and his crew. This was found years later hidden in a cairn of 

 stones on Spitsbergen. In 161 2, four larger British ships accompanied 

 by a Dutchman and a Spaniard, both piloted by Englishmen, took 

 seventeen whales and the Muscovy Company paid a 90 per cent 

 dividend. 



The next year, encouraged by this success, five ships and a little 

 pinnace with a crew of five made the two-thousand-mile passage in 

 eighteen days' sailing, killed thirty whales, and bagged the proceeds 

 of eight others from two Frenchmen taken as prizes. But this year 

 there were eight Spanish, four French, two Dunkirk, four other 

 English "interlopers," two Dutch, and a 700-ton Basque ship on 

 hand. Numerous squabbles broke out, and one British captain records 

 that "for pilfering and for some perempterorie, two of the Rochellers 

 were dunked at our yards arme, the one on the one side, and the 

 other on the other." From then on until 1625 the Muscovy Company 

 sent an average of eleven ships per year to the Spitsbergen whale 

 grounds, but the success varied widely from year to year and the 

 whole company gradually declined. 



Throughout, the British were up to their old tricks, first claiming 

 everything and giving their ships' captains grandiose letters of patent 

 and monopoly but with no arms to back them up, so that they could 

 not enforce their claims and often lost their cargoes or even their 



