THE DUTCH WHALERS PREDOMINANT 173 



Holstein coast, the home of a colony of Spitsbergen 

 whalers. His information was collected from the 

 whalers direct. For the ten years previous to 1796 

 it was only the English who were successful at this 

 fishery. The reasons he gives are (i) the greater 

 courage and skill of her seamen, (2) the better builo 

 of her boats which can hunt the whale in the opeu 

 sea even in bad weather, and (3) the ice-free harbour^ 

 of Britain enable the whalers to start off early so that 

 they get the best fishing ; the Dutchmen and Hani- 

 burgers only arriving when the whales have been 

 hunted a lot and are scarce and shy. Posselt says 

 the " Greenland Law " permitted the whaler who was 

 fast to a whale to have the sole right of its capture. 

 This he regards as natural, and " it is only the proud 

 English who look upon themselves as Lords of the 

 Ocean and all its inhabitants, who disobey the law 

 and according to general complaint they do so 

 frequently." 



When the English first went to Spitsbergen for the 

 whales in 1609 they took with them Biscayan 

 harpooners, and when in 1724 the South Sea Com- 

 pany decided to resuscitate the whaling industry they 

 had to seek foreign assistance, since, by then the 

 original industry had died out, and there was no one 

 in the country skilled at the trade of hunting, killing, 

 and cutting-up whales. This time the English 

 sought expert assistance from the Frisian islanders, 

 and it is interesting to see how these men kept in the 

 trade while it had disappeared entirely in the neigh- 

 bouring island of Great Britain. 



