398 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



described the whales, their tameness and multitude, and 

 added, "A goodly fishery might be made upon these 

 animals, if people would turn their thoughts that way.* 

 But in the next years nobody did. The novelty and risk 

 of the thing probably deterred single-handed enterprise ; 

 and subscriptions towards a whaling company are not 

 reported to have been collected until the year 1611. The 

 two first D.utch whalers sailed to Spitzbergen in 1612, but 

 failed utterly : firstly, in consequence of outrages committed 

 upon the ships by English concurrents, and, secondly, from 

 lack of experience how to manage the business. Having 

 sailed in quest of the whale, the Dutch found securing and 

 killing him a very different sport from their accustomed 

 business of netting the herring and hooking the cod, and 

 were unsuccessful till the fashion of hiring harpooners from 

 the Bay of Biscay came into use, when the trade at once 

 proved a promising business. Frenchmen from Biscay, 

 and from St. Jean de Luz especially, had practised whaling 

 at a more remote period, when a peculiar kind of whale 

 was found off their own coasts. They seem to have 

 afterwards followed the animals to Greenland and acquired 

 a degree of training which fitted them to teach the Dutch 

 the art of whaling, in which the latter soon became such 

 adepts as to find plenty of skilful harpooners in their own 

 country. 



The command of a whaling expedition was at first 

 divided. The navigation department belonged to the ship's 

 master ; but when in sight of the fish he abdicated, and the 

 harpooner took the direction of the further proceedings 

 upon himself. By his orders boats were manned, fish 

 attacked or left alone, and when killed towed alongside 

 and left in the water till they " rose," so as to enable the 



* P. 7. 



