THE WHALE FISHERY. 193 



which was found at Saint George's Bay, where it was said to have been left three years before by a 

 wrecked Biscayan ship. This whalebone is supposed to be the first ever imported into England. 

 There are no records to show to what extent the fishery was carried on at this early period by 

 either the Biscayans or the English. If the industry had been very important some historical data 

 would remaiu. When this fishery by the French ceased is a matter of doubt, but it was probably 

 about the close of the sixteenth century. 



EAELY WHALING AT GREENLAND AND SPITZBEEGEN. 



The Spitzbergeu whale fishery was the first of great importance. It was begun by the English 

 in 1611, when two vessels made voyages there under the direction of Capt. Jonas Poole, who 

 had previously visited the coast. The island of Spitzbergen had been discovered about the year 

 1596 by explorers in search of a passage to India, who, though they failed of their main object, made 

 known the haunts of the polar whale. Although the English were the first to enter upon the new 

 fishery, they were not -the most energetic, for the Dutch soon outstripped them in the number of 

 vessels engaged and the profits of the voyages. The first effort of the English was to obtain 

 supreme control of whaling in the seas about Spit/bergen 011 the pretext that the island had 

 been discovered by an Englishman. The Muscovy Company, under wliose auspices the first 

 English whalers were sent out, obtained a royal charter prohibiting all other nations from fishing 

 in the seas round Spitzbergen. Efforts were made to enforce this charter by force, and several 

 encounters took place between the Dutch and English vessels, until it was finally agreed to divide 

 the island and adjacent waters into districts that were assigned, respectively, to the English, Dutch, 

 Hamburgers, French, Danes, &c. 



Whales were so abundant that extra vessels were sent out to bring home the oil and bone, and 

 a village was built on the island of Spitzbergen, where the blubber was tried out. " Nothing can 

 give a more vivid idea of the extent and importance of the Dutch fishery in the middle of the 

 seventeenth century than the fact that they constructed a considerable village, the houses of 

 which were all previously prepared in Holland, on the Isle of Amsterdam, on the northern shore 

 of Spitzbergen, to which they gave the appropriate name of Smeereriberg (from smeeren, to melt, 

 and bery, a mountain). This was the grand rendezvous of the Dutch whale ships, and was amply 

 provided with boilers, tanks, and every apparatus required for preparing the oil and bone. But 

 this was not all. The whale ships were attended with a number of provision ships, the cargoes of 

 which were landed at Smeerenberg, which abounded during the busy season with well furnished 

 shops, good inns, &e., so that many of the conveniences and enjoyments of Amsterdam were found 

 within about eleven degrees of the pole. It is particularly mentioned that the sailors and others 

 were every morning supplied with what a Dutchman regards as a very great luxury, hot rolls for 

 breakfast. Batavia and Smeerenberg were founded nearly at the same period, and it was for a 

 .considerable time doubted whether the latter was not the more important establishment."* 



From 1611 to about 1700 the Spitzbergen fishery was important, and was participated in by 

 most of the northern nations of Europe. About 1680 the Dutch whale fishery in those seas was at 

 its height and employed some two hundred and sixty ships and fourteen thousand sailors. Whales 

 finally became scarce about Spitzbergen and were pursued along the east coast of Greenland. From 

 here it was found more convenient to bring the blubber home and not try it out on land, as they 

 had been accustomed to do. As whales became less and less numerous on the old grounds, new 



* De Reste, Histoire clos Peaches, &c., tome 1, p. 42. 

 SEC. v, VOL. ii 13 



