202 WHALES AND WHALE FISHERIES xiv 



Greenland and Spitzbergen, and the discovery of the Arctic 

 right whale, an animal up to that time practically unknown 

 to man. This being much more valuable, both on account of 

 the larger quantity and finer quality of the whalebone it 

 produced, and also the larger amount of oil, for many years 

 attracted the principal attention of the whaling ships of 

 Europe. The English entered into the business at a very 

 early period, but, being unacquainted with the methods of 

 capturing whales, engaged Basque harpooners for all their 

 earliest voyages, and closely followed their methods. The very 

 word " harpoon " is said to be Basque. The Dutch also took 

 the fishing up on a very extensive scale, and established a 

 permanent settlement upon the northern shore of Spitzbergen, 

 which they named " Smeeremberg," which was the rendezvous 

 of the whaling fleet during the summer, and to which the 

 blubber was brought for boiling. In its most flourishing 

 period, about the year 1680, the Dutch whale fishery employed 

 as many as 260 ships and 14,000 men. When, however, the 

 whales became scarcer in the neighbourhood of the coast, and 

 the ships had to seek them further in the open sea, it was 

 found more economical to bring the blubber direct to Holland, 

 and Smeeremberg was deserted. The great war at the end of 

 the last century, in which England kept possession of the 

 North Sea, put an end to the whale fishery, not only of 

 Holland, but of France and of all other countries which had 

 engaged in it, and henceforth we maintained a monopoly of the 

 trade. From the year 1*732 to 1824, our government paid 

 bounties, amounting altogether, it is calculated, to 2,500,000, 

 to vessels engaged in the northern whaling business, with a 

 view to encourage the enterprise. The ships at first sailed 

 from London, then Hull, Yarmouth, and Whitby entered 

 into the field. In 1819 as many as sixty-five ships went 

 to the north from Hull. Since 1836 no ship has gone 

 from London, and now Dundee and Peterhead are the only 

 ports in the British Islands which keep up the northern 

 whale fishery, though on a much more limited scale than 

 formerly. 



The fishery between Greenland and Spitzbergen, which in 

 the last century proved so productive, is almost played out, 



