LAWS OF THE FISHERY. 327 



The crew of the Mars of Whitby, commanded by 

 my Father, killed a whale at the commencement of 

 a storm in the beginning of INIay 1817. It was 

 taken to the ship and secured by a new nine-inch 

 hawser; but such was the violence of the sea, that 

 when the ship was on the point of rounding a pro- 

 montory of ice, which was capable of affording ex- 

 cellent shelter from the sea, the hawser broke. 

 When the gale abated, my Father proceeded in 

 search of his fish, found it, and got up to it, a few 

 minutes after the people of another vessel had seiz- 

 ed it. His claim was, therefore, at an end with 

 regard to the fish, and even the part of the hawser 

 which was fast to it, was exultingly refused him. 

 But the triumph of the new possessors was short ; 

 the swell drove their ship against the ice, and they 

 were obliged to cast the fish adi'ift. A third ship 

 then found it, and succeeded in making prize of 

 it. 



If, when a person, from friendly motives, sends 

 his boats to assist those of another ship in the cap- 

 ture of a fish, it should happen that the fish slips 

 loose, and his boats succeed in first re-striking it, 

 the whale in this case, according to the Greenland 

 law, is the prize of the last striker, because it was 

 loose : but according to principles of right and strict 

 honour, I conceive it is the property of the first strik- 

 er, and as such, ought to be given up. Three reasons 

 occur to me for enforcing such a doctrine : \st. The 



