EARLY HISTORY OF WHALING 113 



In 1619 a joint undertaking of the Muscovy and 

 the East India Companies engaged in the Spits- 

 bergen whale fishery, nine ships and two pinasses 

 being sent out under the command of Captain Edge. 

 The Dutch were also strongly represented. 

 Misfortune dogged the footsteps of the English 

 companies. A letter from John Chambers to 

 W. Heley from Bell Sound, i6th June, 1619, relates 

 a disaster which had occurred to one of the English 

 ships. By this time Salmon had killed ten whales 

 " whereof eight are made into oyle, which hath made 

 one hundred and eleaven tuns and a halfe, the other 

 two were killed the fourth of this present, being very 

 large fish, not doubting but they- will make sixe and 

 thirtie or fortie tunnes ; we have the hundred tunnes 

 aboard, the rest Master Barker taketh in." The 

 voyage was a great loss to the companies, and as 

 the Dutch brought home large quantities of oil and 

 sold it at low rates, the English companies were 

 compelled to hold theirs over for twelve months and 

 then sell it at a very low price. Moreover, one ship 

 was lost near Yarmouth on the return voyage. 



By this time the position of the Muscovy 

 Company was desperate, so that in 1620 a fresh 

 undertaking was formed, new capital being provided 

 by Ralph Freeman, Benjamin Deicrowe, George 

 Strowd and Thomas Edge. The liabilities and 

 assets of the old concern were taken over for a sum 

 of twelve thousand pounds. This included a claim 

 against the Dutch for damage in 1619 amounting 

 to twenty-two thousand pounds. 



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