THE DUTCH WHALERS PREDOMINANT 139 



Man's Land." They are still in existence and in a 

 good state of preservation. Practically all trace of 

 the blubber-houses or cookeries, which must have 

 been built all over the West European coast from 

 Liibeck to the north of Spain, has now vanished. 

 After the period of the bay fishery at Spitsbergen 

 was over, all the whalers, with the exception of the 

 Basques, brought the blubber home to be boiled 

 down. The first German oil cookeries were erected 

 at Hamburg in 1 649 ; not much is known about them, 

 but they were developed and increased until 1675, 

 when they were burnt down. In 1753 Conrad von 

 Uffenbach described those on the banks of the Elbe 

 near the Altona gate at Hamburg. These blubber 

 factories, which belonged to Mennonites, are fully 

 described and figured by Uffenbach. 1 



The first Dutch cookeries were built at Oostzanen, 

 on the Twisk near the Overtoom, they are illustrated 

 in Conway's " No Man's Land." 



The Noordsche Company lost their monopoly in 

 1642, and immediately the Dutch whaling showed 

 signs of rapid improvement. Meanwhile the 

 English trade languished. The Civil War exer- 

 cised a detrimental effect on the commerce of the 

 country, and from this even the whaling was not 

 exempt. The disputes between the Monopolists 

 and the Interlopers dragged along interminably. 



After the Dutch whaling became free to all 

 (circa 1645), a great number took part in it, and for 

 that very reason the increased quantity of whale 



1 " Merkwiirdige Reisen durch Niedersachsen," 1753. 



