4i8 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



senting that community. This variance in the denomina- 

 tion, and the fact that no such requests made by some in 

 behalf of all are on record in earlier years, justify the 

 supposition that an organisation of the trade had not taken 

 place since the downfall of the Arctic Company, and that 

 such an organisation, and the appointment 'of a perpetual 

 representative body, was effected between 1665 and 1675. 

 At any rate, the Committee, or central representative body 

 of whaling shipowners, never had anything like the attri- 

 butions of the Herring College, and they never seem to 

 have acted in any other capacity than as the spokesmen of 

 their constituents presenting requests to the States, and the 

 draftsmen of such bye-laws as seemed advisable for the 

 common weal. The vast power with which the Herring 

 Deputies were invested was a result of the herring legisla- 

 tion ; and no such power was held by the Whaling Com- 

 mittee, who had no laws to enforce, no licences to deliver, 

 and no skippers to swear in. In their quality as draftsmen 

 of bye-laws, the " Commissioners of the Greenland trade " 

 in 1677 issued an order, or regulation concerning the 

 salvage of ships wrecked, and goods lost in the northern 

 seas. They sued for the States of Holland's approbation 

 upon the document, which, however, was not granted till 

 January 22nd, 1695.* The order was, however, printed in 

 1677, and although as yet unapproved by the proper legis- 

 lator, was observed not only by whalers from the United 

 Provinces, but also by those of Hamburg, Bremen, and 

 Emden.f The above-named William Bastiaansz was again 



* Res. Holl. 1677, p. 87 ; Gr. PL Bock, iv. p. 1355. 



f The approbation was granted in 1695, because applied for anew 

 by the Committee who had in the course of eighteen years " on some 

 few occasions (soo nu en dan} experienced difficulties in the execution," 

 whence their authority appears as a rule to have been unquestioned. 



