CHAPTER XXI 
THE BRITISH WHALE FISHERY AND THE SCORESBYS 
A history of polar discovery would be incomplete 
without some notice of the whaling trade in the Spits- 
bergen Seas and in Davis Strait, for scientific observations 
were taken by some of the whaling captains, and many 
discoveries were made. Their duties, of course, obliged 
them to give the first place to the work on which they 
were employed. Sir Martin Conway puts it very well 
when he says of Scoresby that " he never neglected 
business in the cause of science, but was always mindful 
of science when business permitted." 
The Dutch, at first our rivals, were for a long series 
of years far superior to the English as successful whale- 
fishers. While the English continued to fish round Bell 
Sound and the number of their vessels decreased year 
by year, the Dutch, when the whales ceased to come to 
the bays, sought them by facing the dangers of the open 
sea, abandoned Smeerenburg, adopted new methods, 
and became very expert. 
When the learned Frederik Martens of Hamburg 
made a voyage to Spitsbergen in 1671, on board a whaling 
ship called the Jonah in the Whale, he found Smeeren- 
burg quite deserted. His history of the voyage contains 
the first detailed account of Spitsbergen, with notices of 
the fauna and flora 1 . Although Smeerenburg was so 
early abandoned, the Dutch fishery continued to flourish 
for another century, enriching the communities of the 
Netherlands with products annually yielding great wealth. 
In 1709 their fishery in Davis Strait was commenced. 
In the unsuccessful whaling captain Zorgdrager the 
Dutch found a diligent historian 2 . 
1 F. Martens. Voyage to Spilzbergen. Translation edited for the 
Hakluyt Society by Adam White (1855). 
2 C. G. Zorgdrager. Bloeyende Opkomst der Aloude en Hedendaagsche 
Groenlandsche Visscherij (Amsterdam, 1720). 
