166 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



practically all the Dutch seaports were engaged in 

 the Greenland whaling. Van Oelen gives the 

 names and ports of , all the Dutch ships which left 

 for the whaling at Greenland in 1683. The leading 

 ports at this time and the number of vessels fitted 

 out from each is given here. 



Amsterdam, thirty-four ; Rotterdam, thirty-two 

 and a " hooker " ; Hoorn and Saardam, twenty-nine 

 each; Ryp, twenty; Jispi, seventeen; Dordrecht, 

 fourteen; Saendyck, twelve; Enckhuysen, Meden- 

 blick and Uytgeest, six each; Texel and Edam, five 

 each; Stavoren and De Coog, four each; Delf- 

 shaven, Zeelandt and Knollendam, three each; 

 Schiedam, Westsanen and Haarlingen, two each; 

 and finally De Creyl, one ship. 



This year Hamburg also sent fifty ships to the 

 whaling, and sometimes the German ships numbered 

 eighty. The Dutch names at this time are very 

 curious, some vessels, e.g., De Brewery of Hoorn, if 

 they lived up to their names would doubtless be 

 popular amongst the seamen. 



Some Dutch whalers went a great many times to 

 the fishing, the record for a Dutch Commandeur 

 being held by Roelof Gerritsz. Meyer, who went 

 forty-four times, capturing two hundred and eighty- 

 seven whales. 



At the end of the seventeenth and the commence- 

 ment of the eighteenth centuries English whaling 

 was practically extinguished, yet the Dutch, in the 

 ten years, 1699-1708, equipped one thousand six 

 hundred and fifty-two ships, which caught eight 



