SOUTH SEAS AND THE NORWEGIANS 59 



Cape Horn, though from there they followed the whales in their 

 seasonal migrations over what does indeed seem "the whole 

 expanse of ocean." The Pacific grounds, the Japan groimds, 

 New Guinea all were objectives, each in turn, on the same 

 cruise of a "Southern" whaler. Sometimes they went as far 

 north as Bering Strait, for they hunted both sperm and right 

 whales and the right whale is a great traveller. " The Spermaceti 

 Whale Fishery," Enderby tells us, "is carried on in the Pacific 

 Ocean from latitude 50° south to 20° north, between the longi- 

 tudes of 75° west and the Indian Ocean, as also on the coasts 

 of Japan as far north as 45°. Its principal seats in the Pacific 

 include the coasts of Chili and Peru, the Polynesian Islands, 

 Japan, New Zealand, and the coasts of New Holland. The 

 fishery prosecuted in the Indian Ocean extends, on the one 

 hand, from the Cape of Good Hope to the western coast of 

 New Holland; embracing also Molucca Island and those of Java 

 and Sumatra; and, on the other, from Madagascar to the en- 

 trance of the Persian Gulf. The Spermaceti Whale Fishery is 

 likewise carried on, on a small scale, in the Atlantic Ocean in 

 the neighbourhood of the Azores or Western Islands." 



Beginning in 1776, bounty was given to these Southern whalers 

 as to the Greenland v/halers; and the Southern fleet, in its 

 later days, included sperm whalers, right whalers, and those 

 who killed the southern walrus for "elephant oil." But for 

 one reason or another, they could not make a success of it. In 

 1846 the decay of the fishery was beyond dispute and only a few 

 hopeful souls ventured to attempt its reestablishment on a new 

 and different basis. Enderby drew up a detailed statement of 

 the case, a few items of which are very illuminating: for instance, 

 that between 1775 and 1844, 860 ships were fitted out for the 

 whale fishery, and they made 2,153 voyages: of these 860 ships, 

 180 were lost, 87 were captured in war, and 37 were condemned. 

 "This leaves six hundred and seven, but so many have been 

 withdrawn from the trade that only thirty-six are now actually 

 employed in it." Something was very radically wrong. The 

 Americans were whaling on the same grounds and making a 

 tremendous success of it, though equipment costs were about 



