THE DUTCH WHALERS PREDOMINANT 155 



and small are about six hundred, four hundred and 

 sixty whereof being merchandable) we cut them one 

 by one out of the gumms and having rubbd them 

 clean we bind them up sixty in a bundle, and so 

 taking account of them ship them aboard in our 

 Long-boat. 



" Upon the shoar we have a Tent for our Land- 

 men, built of stone, and covered with Deals, and 

 Cabbins made therein for our Blubber-men to lodge ; 

 And we have a great Working-tent with a Lodging- 

 room over it, where, about six Coopers work to get 

 ready Cask to put the Oyle into." 



The Germans first participated in the whale 

 fishery in 1640, by which time the first prosperous 

 period (the bay fishery) was over. The first oil- 

 houses were built in Hamburg in 1648 ; in 1674 there 

 were nine in existence. Hamburg whalers did well 

 in the period 1669-98, especially in the years 1669, 

 1671, 1672, 1673, 1682, and 1697. In these years 

 the average was from seven to eleven whales per 

 ship. Whaling at this time does not appear to have 

 been such a hazardous occupation as one would 

 have thought, for of one thousand five hundred and 

 forty-nine ships which voyaged to the Arctic regions, 

 only fifty-six, i.e., three and a half per "cent, were 

 lost. The merchants, however, frequently sustained 

 other losses owing to the action of privateers. One 

 of the oldest accounts of the German fishery is given 

 by Martens in 1671. l Martens, in the capacity of 



1 Friedrich Martens. " Spitzbergische Reise-beschredbung," 



