70 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



Spitsbergen, in fact the earliest references are 

 exclusively to the latter. 



The first attempts to establish a whale fishery in 

 Spitsbergen were the occasion of considerable 

 disputes between the English and the Dutch, both 

 of whom claimed territorial jurisdiction over Spits- 

 bergen and the adjacent seas by right of discovery. 

 The Dutch claim was based on the discovery of 

 Spitsbergen by Van Heemskerk in 1596, that of the 

 British Muscovy Company on the discovery of the 

 same land by Willoughby in 1553. The British 

 claim was strongly supported by King James I., 

 notwithstanding the statement supporting the other 

 side which had been drawn up by Plancius. Sir 

 Hugh Willoughby set out in 1553 to discover the 

 north-east route to " Cathay," and perished at the 

 river or haven called Arzina in Lapland. Richard 

 Chancellor, pilot-major under Willoughby and 

 captain of the Edward Bonaventure^ one of 

 Willoughby's fleet, had better luck and was the 

 discoverer " of the kingdome of Moscovia by the 

 North-east in the year 1553." 



Early in the seventeenth century English whalers 

 began to fish at Spitsbergen, where whales were 

 found in enormous numbers. The voyagers of the 

 Muscovy Company had reported this in the previous 

 century. Anthonie Jenkinson, who made his first 

 voyage to Russia in 1557, reported " thus proceeding 

 and sailing forward, we fell in with an island called 

 Zenam, being in the latitude of 70 degrees. About 

 this island we saw many whales, very monstrous, 



