ch. xxi] The British Whale Fishery 191 
managers, coopers, carpenters, etc., were also given an 
interest in getting a full ship. 
Sailing in the end of March the whaling fleet made the 
ice in 70 0 to 72 0 N. ; the sea between 78 0 and 79 0 being 
most productive. Then the captain was in the crow's- 
nest for long hours at a stretch, conning the ship through 
the ice, watching every change, and looking out for 
whales ; all on board being on the alert and watching for 
every sign from the crow's-nest. 
Foremost among a splendid set of men stand the two 
Scoresbys for the Spitsbergen fishery, and Captain 
Marshall for that of Davis Strait. 
Thanks to the pious tribute of his son we can trace 
the career of the senior William Scoresby from his boy- 
hood. He was born at Nutholm farm near Cropton, 
about 20 miles from Whitby, and was intended to follow 
his father's profession of a farmer. But at the age of 
eighteen he resolved to go to sea, and got a recommenda- 
tion to Mr Chapman, an opulent ship-owner at Whitby. 
He walked to Whitby one February day, and got a berth 
in a ship destined for the Baltic, but as she was not 
sailing until April, he set out for his home, taking a short 
cut across the moors. When miles from any house, he 
encountered a furious gale with a blinding snowstorm, 
and lost all the tracks. He was in no little danger. 
But he had noted the angle of the wind while he was 
on the road, and by that means he recovered the track 
and finally reached a house nearly exhausted. The 
intelligence and endurance he evinced on this occasion 
foreshadowed his future career. In his Baltic voyages, 
while doing his duty as a foremast hand and learning 
seamanship, young Scoresby also diligently studied the 
theory and practice of navigation. 
In 1782 Scoresby joined the Speedwell cutter, taking 
stores to Gibraltar, but he had the ill-fortune to be 
captured and became a prisoner of war in Spain. He 
fled from San Lucar, and his final escape appears to have 
been due to the sympathy of some Spanish girls for the 
handsome young Englishman. They fed him and con- 
cealed him, until at last he got on board a cartel, and 
returned home. After his return he married and was two 
or three years at home. In 1785 he entered the whaling 
