186 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



fishery as is seen from a reference to the Custom 

 House returns for Scotland. Although the table 

 (Appendix II.) distinctly refers to Great Britain, it 

 is obvious that the return deals with England only, 

 since only English ports are specified in the detailed 

 statement, and since there is a separate table for 

 Scotland. It was in 1750 that the first Scottish 

 whale ship, a Leith vessel, applied for the bounty. 

 The number of Scottish vessels participating in the 

 benefits of the bounty system was never large ; there 

 was a steady increase from 1750 with one ship to 

 1762 with fourteen (the maximum being sixteen in 

 1755 and 1766), and thence a gradual decline to 

 1784. Leith, Dunbar, and Dundee were the chief 

 ports engaged in the whale fisheries at this 

 period. 



The increase in 1 749 of the tonnage bounty for 

 whalers to forty shillings a ton induced many seaport 

 towns to fit out one or more vessels for the whaling, 

 but except in the case of London, Hull, and Whitby 

 with only transient success. Bristol, for instance, 

 though it was engaged for several years in the whaling 

 industry, never sent out more than three vessels in 

 any one year. It is recorded that in 1750 two whales 

 were brought to the Sea Mills Dock at Bristol, and 

 the blubber boiled down there. About this time a 

 Joint Stock Company was formed in Bristol, the 

 capital being divided into ninety shares, all of which 

 were taken up. The Company fitted out two ships, 

 the Bristol and the 'Adventure, and Felix Farley's 

 Journal of the i8th July, 1752, reports the feturn of 



