The Origin of Whaling. 9 
Russia or Muscovy Company, of English merchant 
adventurers, had succeeded in obtaining a royal charter 
granting them a monopoly of whaling, and other mari- 
time nations of Europe had turned their attention to 
this new enterprise of capturing whales in the northern 
seas. It seems appropriate, therefore, in a history of 
the American whale fishery to trace briefly the origin 
and earlier history of the industry in other countries, 
for the sake of making clear whatever inter-relationship 
there may be. 
Most historians give the Biscayans the credit of being 
the first to succeed in capturing whales, the date of their 
operations being generally set as about 1575. It is hard 
to tell, however, whether this Bay of Biscay enterprise 
was the first regular whaling industry, for references to 
the capture and killing of whales may be traced as far 
back at least as the latter part of the ninth century.’ 
Probably the earliest authenticated account of a fishery 
for whales is referred to by Hakluyt.? Ohthere, a native 
of Halgoland, undertook a voyage to the north about 
890 A. D., skirting the coast of Norway to the entrance 
of the White Sea, until ‘She was come as far toward the 
north as commonly the whale hunters used to travel.’’® 
The fishery referred to was one carried on supposedly 
by the Norwegians at that time, but the importance of 
their industry is not known. 
The Normans, in their invasions of France may have 
carried with them the methods of harpooning and cap- 
turing whales. It is possible, however, that the Bis- 
cayans may have known these arts before the Normans 
1Most of the following references to whaling previous to 1600 are 
drawn from Scoresby: ‘‘A Voyage to the Arctic, and an Account of the 
Northern Whale Fishery.’’ [Scoresby states (note, p. 10) that a work 
by S. J. B. Noel, ‘‘ Mémoire sur 1’Antiquité de la Péche de la Baleine 
par les Nations Européannes,’’ Paris, 1795, is the best authority on 
ancient whale fisheries.] 
?Hakluyt: ‘‘Voyages” Vol. 1, p. 4. 
5 loc. cit. 
