196 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



French and Dutch privateers. In the following 

 year the Molly made a record voyage, returning 

 to Hull after an absence of only eighty-seven 

 days. 



The first three decades of the nineteenth century 

 were the high water mark of Hull whaling. At the 

 commencement of the century the capture or 

 destruction of the Dutch ships led to the growth 

 and prosperity of the trade from Hull and other 

 ports. According to Scoresby " the greatest cargo 

 ever brought into Hull from Greenland was pro- 

 cured by Captain Sadler in the Aurora " in 1805; 

 twenty-six whales yielding six hundred butts of 

 blubber and nine tons of bone, the blubber when 

 boiled yielding two hundred and forty-four tons of 

 oil. 



The following year the Truelove made her first 

 voyage to Davis Strait, her previous twenty-one 

 Arctic voyages being to the Greenland Seas in the 

 direction of Spitsbergen. 



The first participation of Hull in the Southern 

 fishery took place towards the end of the eighteenth 

 century. In 1812, twenty years after Colnett's 

 exploratory voyage, the Comet (Captain Scurr) left 

 for the fishery. She took three hundred barrels of 

 sperm oil and put into Talcahuano at the time of the 

 war between the Chilians and the " Patriots." She 

 was requisitioned from time to time and detained for 

 over a year. Afterwards she resumed fishing, made 

 a successful voyage, returning to Hull after an 

 absence of three years a.nd three months. 



