466 WHALE-FISHERY. 



crew, by the unavoidable separation of the ships, shall Be 

 carried to Whitby, a reasonable allowmice for their travels 

 ling expences homewards, shall be paid them. r. 



And, V. It is mutually agreed by all parties^that should 

 any dead fish be found or other whale be captured within 

 the limits of this contract, whichever of the ships' crews it 

 or they may be seen, struck, or killed by, the whale or 

 whales so found or captured, shall be equally divided be- 

 tween the two ships. 



[Signed by all Hands of each Ship.] 



I preferred thus giving up a quantity of blubber 

 to paying any pecuniary salvage, for two particular 

 reasons : First, Because, should the ship eventually 

 have been lost, the above award would become no 

 gift at all, since any ship which had fallen in with 

 the wreck, might have appropriated the same to 

 their own use, with the probability that no part of 

 it could be claimed by the owners of the Esk : 

 Secondly, Because any pecuniary salvage that might 

 have been agreed on must have been paid, whether 

 the ship might eventually have been saved or lost ; 

 for, as the people of the John, in affording assist- 

 ance, would be obliged to sacrifice their future pros- 

 pect in the fishery of the same season, they would 

 have a reasonable claim on a remuneration for the 

 sacrifice they made, whatever might be the result 

 of their endeavours to save the ship. Thus, by 

 giving blubber as a salvage, we gave away merely 

 what we were unable to take home of ourselves, or, 

 in other words, what we could not keep. 



