EARLY HISTORY OF WHALING 79 



although the voyage in 1608 had shown forty per 

 cent profit. 



Apparently it was in 1610 that the Muscovy 

 Company first made a serious attempt to exploit the 

 whale fishery in Arctic waters. In that year the 

 Company set forth a voyage to Cherry Island; and 

 for a further discovery to be made towards the 

 North Pole in the ship Amitie of seventy tons, of 

 which Jonas Poole was master, having with him 

 fourteen men and a boy. With her was the 

 Lionesse, Thomas Edge commander. On the 

 9th March Poole weighed and put to sea (blessed 

 bee God). They saw the North Cape on the 2nd 

 May and on the 6th encountered much ice, being 

 then in the neighbourhood of Cherry Island. On 

 the 1 6th May they saw land (Greenland or 

 Spitsbergen as it is now called). They saw great 

 store of whales particularly in Deere Sound and to 

 the northward of Knottie Point. Those in charge 

 of this expedition were censured by the Company 

 for having brought home blubber instead of oil, the 

 dividend paid for 1610 being only twenty per cent. 

 At this time train oil was in great demand for the 

 manufacture of soap so the Company at once 

 decided to fit out a whaling expedition for 1611. 



The two vessels sent out were the Elizabeth and 

 the Mary Margaret, the former a small bark of fifty 

 tons under the command of Jonas Poole, the latter 

 a ship of one hundred and fifty tons commanded by 

 Steven Benet (Edge being on board as agent of 

 the Company). The former was fitted for 



