CHAPTER III 



THE EARLY HISTORY OF WHALING (TO 1623) 



The Basque whalers The discovery of " Greenland " ( Spits- 

 bergen) The first British whalers The Spitsbergen fishery 

 The whales found there The disputes between the English 

 and the Dutch Edge's description of the fishery* 



ALTHOUGH the general opinion is that the Basques 

 were the earliest whalers, Noel de la Moriniere 1 

 says that this is a misapprehension and that the 

 Northmen were really the first in the field. 



He quotes the voyage of Ochther, 2 who travelled 

 towards the end of the ninth century beyond the 

 North Cape to Perm, and afterwards described his 

 journey to King Alfred. There was evidently a 

 hunting of whales and walruses in northern waters 

 at this time, but there is no evidence that it developed 

 into a regular fishery such as that of the Basques. 



The Norwegians are stated to have used a 

 balista for the discharge of the harpoon with an 

 attached rope, thus anticipating the harpoon gun of 

 the English (1731). At the time of the Norman 

 invasion of France there is evidence of whaling in 



1 Hi stoire generale des Peckes, 1815, Vol. i., p. 218. 



3 Schneider. Sammlung vermischter Abhandlungen zur 

 Aufklarung der Zoologie und der Handlsgeschichte t Berlin, 

 1784- 



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