THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 399 



men to stand on them, which period was the fit one for 

 slicing or " flensing " the blubber. As the harpooning and 

 blubber-carving business was the most important in the 

 eyes of the ship-owners, the harpooner of course was a 

 great personage on board, and his authority seems at first 

 to have exceeded that of the skipper or " commandeur."* 



Spitzbergen, as said before, was the cradle of the whaling 

 industry. Its seas were then alive with whales ; and, 

 moreover, its geographical position and the nature of its 

 coasts afforded the trade peculiar advantages.! In con- 

 sequence the shores of the newly-discovered island were 

 soon the theatre of contentions between British and Dutch 

 whalers, as both nations claimed to be its first discoverers. 

 A collision between the rivals in 1612 (see Chap. V.) led 

 to the chartering of the Dutch Arctic Company (Noordsche 

 Compagnie}. 



This company appears at first to have borne a merely 

 private character. Subscriptions towards it, as said above, 

 were raised as early as 1611. In 1612 they made their 

 first and unlucky whaling attempt, after which the States 

 made it their business to succour them. This was first done 

 in 1613, by a prohibition to all Dutchmen fit for whaling 

 service to take such service abroad,J in order to prevent 

 a scarcity of men trained to the business. In the same 



* Zorgdrager, Bloeyende Opkomst der aloude en hedendaagsche 

 Groenlandsche Visschery, p. 99. The author speaks of but one 

 harpooner, but of course the vessels carrying five or six whaling boats 

 had several men to perform this part of the service. The personage 

 mentioned by Zorgdrager is probably the chief harpooner, who in the 

 first years of the trade was always a " Biscayer." Several harpooners 

 are mentioned in the lists of some whaling crews which have been 

 preserved. 



t Zorgdrager, Bloeyende Opkomst, etc., p. 160. 



\ Res. St. Gen., March 23rd, 1613. 



