306 FOLLOW THE WHALE 



year, the first Norwegian station was founded in the Pacific, at Van- 

 couver, although Norwegians had already been supplying, manning, 

 and sailing a fleet of chasers out of Japanese shore stations for some 

 years. 



In 1906 the Japanese Government banned the operation of all for- 

 eign whalers from their ports, and also denied command of any 

 Japanese ship to any but their own citizens. Whaling in Japanese- 

 owned, Norwegian-built chasers with rating Japanese and subordi- 

 nate but controlling Nor^^egian double crews continued for twenty 

 years. Meantime, stations were established at other points all around 

 the Pacific — on the Galapagos Islands, along the coast of Chile, on 

 the Sandwich Islands, and finally in Alaska and Australia. Along the 

 routes to the Pacific, both east and west from Europe, other outposts 

 were built — on the coasts of Brazil, in Portuguese West Africa, in 

 South Africa, in Mozambique, and on such distant oceanic isles as 

 Kerofuelen. 



By 1905 there were no fewer than eighteen stations on Newfound- 

 land alone; the first all-year station in Spitsbergen was used in 1904; 

 and by the following year the activity was so great around the Falk- 

 land Islands that the British Government sought to levy from it their 

 usual impositions. They demanded payment of twenty-five pounds 

 sterling for permits to whale in their waters, and they endeavored 

 to charge a royalty of ten pounds on each right whale, ten shillings 

 on each sperm, and five shillings on all other whales taken there. The 

 idea, of course, did not bear any fruit except international friction, 

 and the law was repealed in 1908 when a new ordinance was pro- 

 mulgated demanding a flat license fee and prohibiting the killing of 

 female whales with calves. No such licenses were ever issued, and 

 the prohibition on killing nursing mothers was ignored. The latter 

 idea did, however, signify the first move in an entirely new approach 

 to whaling, namely that of conservation. 



By 1 9 10 Norwegian whaling was really in high gear and was going 

 full blast all over the world. The production in the North Atlantic, 

 exclusive of Newfoundland and Greenland, in that year totaled 

 59,000 casks of oil and 60,000 sacks of fertilizer, the product of some 

 2000 whales. There were six companies working in the Faeroes, an- 

 other six in Iceland, seven around the British Isles, and two in Spits- 

 bergen. At the same time, six other companies were operating out of 



