WHALE FISHERY OF NEW ENGLAND 13 



1261, using the whale for food. Also the Icelanders are believed to 

 have whaled some time during the twelfth century. The first reference 

 to English whaling appears during the fourteenth century, and by 

 statutory law the whale was declared "a royal fish." Another curious 

 law was that the King, as Honorary Harpooner, received the head, and 

 the Queen the tail of all whales captured along the English coast, which 

 is very much like halving an apple, there is so little left. 



In 1612 the Dutch became the leaders and were still very active about 

 1680, employing two hundred and sixty ships and fourteen thousand sea- 

 men, and during the last part of the seventeenth century they furnished 

 nearly all Europe with oil. To them is attributed the improvements 

 in the harpoon, the line, and the lance, and to their early prominence 

 in the industry we owe the very name "whale," a derivation from the 

 Dutch and German word "wallen," meaning to roll or wallow. They 

 established a whaling settlement at Spitzbergen, only eleven degrees 

 from the North Pole, where they boiled the oil; in fact, during the early 

 days of whaling all nations "tried out" their oil on land. The Dutch 

 continued to be the leaders until about 1770, when the English super- 

 seded them owing to the royal bounties. 



EARLY NEW ENGLAND WHALING 



The history of American whaling really begins with the settlement 

 of the New England Colonies. When the "Mayflower" anchored in- 

 side of Cape Cod, the Pilgrims saw whales playing about the ship, and 

 this was their chief reason for settling there. It afterwards proved that 

 the products of the whale formed an important source of income to the 

 settlers on Massachusetts Bay. 



The subject of drift, or dead whales which were washed ashore, first 

 attracted the colonists, and there are numerous references to them on 

 record. It was the invariable rule for the government to get one-third, 

 the town one-third, and the owner one-third, and in 1662 it was voted 

 that a portion of every whale should be given to the church. The 

 whale fishery increased steadily, so that in 1664 Secretary Randolph 

 could truthfully write to England, "The new Plymouth colony made 

 great profit by whale killing." The success of the settlers on Cape Cod 

 and elsewhere encouraged Salem to consider ways and means of whal- 

 ing; for as early as 1688 one James Loper, of Salem, petitioned the 

 Colonial authorities for a patent for making oil, and four years later 

 some Salem whalers complained that Easthamptonites had stolen whales 

 that bore Salem harpoons. As early as 1647 whaling had become a 

 recognized industry in Hartford, Conn., but for some reason did not 

 prosper. 



The first white people to explore our New England coasts discovered 

 that the Indians were ahead of them in the pursuit of the whale. The 

 Red Men in canoes attacked these beasts with stone-headed arrows 

 and spears which were attached to short lines. Usually wooden floats 

 were tied to the line, which impeded the progress of the animal, and by 



