THE "WHALE FISHERY. 79 



tuns. Ill October the " Eliza " was again in port wanting not 

 more than thirty tuns to complete her cargo. In November 

 the " Britannia" arrived with a complete cargo of oil. She 

 appears to have been the first ship filled with sperm oil from 

 Australian waters, as indeed eight years previously she had 

 been the pioneer ship in the Avhaiing industry. 



The early failure, for such it certainly was, of the whale 

 fishery on the Australian coast was attril^utable to two causes 

 — the heavy weather wdiich prevailed at the season of the 

 year when the trials were made, and the ignorance of the 

 masters of a coast hitherto so little frequented. However, upon 

 the breaking out of the late war between Spain and England, 

 the Spaniards of Peru and Chili fitted out privateers against 

 the whalers on that coast. The greater part of these whalers, 

 which had not expected, and consequently were not prepared 

 against attacks of the kind, were compelled to abandon those 

 seas and seek another scene for their adventures. It was, 

 thereupon, resolved to make trial on the coast of New Holland. 

 Eour of the ships arrived in 1798, and their numbers so 

 continued to increase that in the year 1800 there were quite 

 twelve or fourteen, with cargoes averaging not less than 

 from 150 to 160 tuns of oil, the current value of which 

 amounted to between £180,000 and £190,000. 



In later years the whale fisheries became of great import- 

 ance. The year 1830 was an especially prosperous season. 

 By the " Elizabeth," which arrived in Sydney on the IStli 

 May from the whale fishery at the Bay of Islands, the news 

 came that there were at the Bay ten vessels with full cargoes, 

 besides two others spoken at sea. These were carrying a 

 total quantity of 14,500 barrels, worth at a rough estimate 

 about £120,000. 



Sydney had now become a large whaling centre, with no 

 less than twenty- two vessels sailing out of Port Jackson. In 

 a paper published at the time it is recorded that, while three 

 years previously New South Wales had but three vessels 

 engaged in the whale fishery, altogether about 150 tons, at 

 that present time she had 1,000 tons of shipping so employed. 



Early in 1831 the " Elizabeth," belonging to Eobert 

 Campbell and Company, came into Sydney Harbour wdtli 

 361 tuns sperm oil, the produce of an eighteen months' 

 cruise. This was the most valuable cargo that had yet been 

 brought into port — its estimated value being £2], 600. In 



