134 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



Reference has already been made to the exploits 

 of these vessels, which were commanded by Mignet 

 de Haristiguy, Michel d'Etchepare, and Silhouette. 

 These vessels fished in Bell Sound, which was even 

 then known as the Bay of the French, this pointing 

 to the existence of previous expeditions. AllVecord 

 of these expeditions is now lost, and in fact there is 

 little evidence that the French participated to any 

 extent in the first phase of the Spitsbergen fishery. 



The history of the early French adventures in the 

 Spitsbergen whale fishery is obscure, although some 

 research into the history of the subject has recently 

 been undertaken, notably by Hamy. 



In 1621 there was founded a society in France 

 entitled " Royale et Generale Compagnie du com- 

 merce pour les voyages de long cours es Indes 

 occidentales, la pesche du corail en Barbarie et celle 

 des baleines." The history of this French company 

 is imperfect; the records of the voyages have 

 disappeared, leaving hardly a trace behind. The 

 great French market for whale oil at this time was 

 Havre de Grace, whither the Bayonne ships, for 

 example, took their cargoes. The leader in French 

 whaling enterprise was Jean Vrolicq, whom we first 

 hear of in 1631, entering into partnership with 

 Johann Braem of Copenhagen who had obtained a 

 charter from Christian IV., giving him the right to 

 send six ships to Spitsbergen. 



Vrolicq, who had already applied to the French 

 King for a charter, fished in partnership with the 

 Danes in 1631. The following year Vrolicq went 



