1749.] CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY. 73 



Five English Greenland ships in 1739, fitted out 

 by private gentlemen, obtciincd Hi whales *. 



The encouragement of duty-free imports, and a 

 bounty of 20s. ^ler ton on the whole tonnage of the 

 vessels employed in the northern whale-fisheries, not 

 being found sufficient to induce any extensive em- 

 barkation in the trade, the act of Parliament en- 

 titling adventurers to these privileges was extended 

 in the year 1740 to the 25th of December 1750, 

 with the addition of 10s. more per ton as bounty, aiui 

 tlie protection of fishing officers from being impres- 

 sed into his JMajesty's service. These additional en- 

 couragements were stipulated to continue only du- 

 ring the war with Spain. 



A heavy storm occurred on the coast of Spitzber- 

 gen, in the month of May 1746, in ^v]lich thirty 

 Dutch vessels and tliree English were wrecked, and 

 several others sustained material damage f . 



The im.portance of the whale-fisheries in a na- 

 tional view, became more and more evident to the 

 British I^egislature, who, therefore, to encourage 

 still more its prosecution, enacted, in 1749, that the 

 original bounty of 20s. should be increased to 40s. 

 2Kr ton. By this act, ships of not more than two 

 years old, built in the British colonies in America, 



* Gent. Mag. vol. ix. p. 495. 

 t Idem, vol. xvi. p. 328. 



