413 
FISHERY. 
three feet thick and eight long, which are hauled up at 
the capftan or windlafs. When the fat is all taken, they 
Cut off the whifkers of the upper jaw with an axe. Be¬ 
fore they cut, they are all lathed to keep them firm; 
which alfo facilitates the cutting, and prevents them from 
falling into the fea: when on-board, five or fix of them 
are bundled together, and properly flowed ; and after all 
is got off, the carcafe is turned adrift, and devoured by 
the bears, who are very fond of it. In proportion as the 
large pieces of fat are cut off, the reft of the crew are 
employed in Dicing them fmaller, and picking out all the 
lean. When this is prepared, they flow it under the deck, 
where it lies till the fat of all the whales is on-board ; 
then cutting it ftilt fmaller, they put it up in tubs in the 
hold, cramming them very full and clofe. 
A whale, the longeft blade of vvhofe mouth is nine or 
ten feet, generally fills thirty butts with blubber ; but 
one of the largeft fifti will fill feventy butts and more. A 
good large whale is valued at about 1000!. fterling. A 
full (hip of three hundred tons is worth, clear of all ex¬ 
pence, at leaft 5000I. There is a premium afligned to 
every perfon in the (hip for every whale : the captain has 
three guineas; the mate, one; each harpooner, one; the 
furgeon, one ; carpenter, one ; cook and boat-fteerers, half- 
a-guinea each ; a common man, a crown ; and each boy, 
half-a-crown. The captain and harpooners have no wages; 
but the captain is allowed twenty-five pounds, and the 
harpooners nine guineas each. In a fuccelsful voyage they 
have fix (hillings for every ton of oil boiled in Greenland- 
<dock; but the reft of the (hip’s company have monthly 
wages, befides the fifh-money, but no oil-money. 
Numerous have been the (‘peculators who have written 
on the immenfe advantages that may be derived to Great 
Britain from the whale-fiftiery. Anderfon, in his valua¬ 
ble Commercial I-Iiftory, dates, in voi. iv. p. 184, “ that 
in the year 1775, the confumption of fifh-oii, as a futfti- 
tute for tallow, amounted in London to 300,0001. and that 
this demand continued annually ! We (hall only remark, 
that the legiflature, juftly confidering this trade as of great 
national importance, beftovved upon it at different periods 
very confiderable encouragements. In particular, every 
Britifti vefl'el of 200 tons or upwards, bound to the Green¬ 
land feas on the whale.fifnery, if found to be duly quali¬ 
fied according to the aft, obtained a licence from the com- 
millioners of the cuftoms to proceed on fuch voyage : and 
on the (hip’s return, the mafter and mate making oath that 
they proceeded on fuch voyage and no other, and ufed 
all their endeavours to take whales, &c. and that all the 
whale-fins, blubber, and oil, imported in their ftiip, were 
taken by their crew in thofe feas, there was allowed 40s. 
for every ton, according to the admeafurement of the (hip. 
It was afterwards found, however, that fo great a boun¬ 
ty was neither neceffary to the fuccefs of the trade, nor 
expedient with regard to the public. In 1786, therefore, 
the afts conferring the faid emoluments being upon the 
point of expiring, the fubjeft was brought under the con- 
fideration of parliament; and it was propofed to continue 
the former meafures, but with a reduftion of the bounty 
from 40s. to 30s. In propofing this alteration it was dated, 
“ that the fums which this country had paid in bounties 
for the Greenland fifhery amounted to 1,263,4611. ; that, 
in the laft year, we had paid 94,8381.; and that, from the 
confequent deduftion of the price of the fifh, the public 
at prefent paid fixty per cent, upon every cargo. In the 
Greenland filhery there were employed 6000 feamen, and 
thefe feamen coft government 13I. 10s. per man per ann. 
though we were never able to obtain more tlian_ 300 of 
that number to ferve on-board cur (hips of war. Be¬ 
fides, the vaft encouragement given to the trade had oc- 
cafioned fuch a glut in the market, that it was found ne¬ 
ceffary to export confiderable quantities ; and thus we 
paid a large (hare of the purchafe-money for foreign na¬ 
tions, as well as for our own people, befides fupplying 
them with the materials of feveral important manufac¬ 
tures.” This propofition, though at firft oppofed, was 
Vol.VII. No. 437. 
finally carried ; and the propriety of the meafure became 
very foon apparent. At that time (1786), the number 
of (hips employed.from England in the whale-fifliery to 
Davis’s ftraits and the Greenland feas amounted to 139, 
befides fifteen from Scotland. The propofed alteration 
took place the next year (1787); and notwithftanding the 
diminution of the bounty, the trade increafed ; the number 
of (liips employed the fame year from England amounting 
to 217, and the next year (1788) to 222. 
In the night of the 13th of Oftober, I.S02, two Dover 
boats, going to meet the paffage-veffels from Calais, (ell 
in with a whale of a fize very uncommon in the Britifh 
channel. They towed it to Dover, and dragged it on- 
fliore. It meafured eighty-five feet from the fnout to the 
tip end of the taii, including the fvvell of the belly, and 
feventy-feven feet when meafured from the fnout to the 
tip of the tail at the back part; the real length about 
eighty-one feet, and the circumference between fifty and 
fixty feet; the head about one-third of the whole length. 
The Southern whale -fifhery, fo called from its extenfion 
beyond the moft foutherly point of Greenland into Davis’s 
Strait, or Baffin’s Bay, is a new and very valuable branch 
of this trade, which commenced in the year 1785. Eigh¬ 
teen (hips were firft employed, which produced 29,0001. 
In 1787, thirty-eight (liips were employed, which pro¬ 
duced 107,0001. and this fifliery has ever fince been pur- 
fued with confiderable fuccefs.—For a correft engraving 
of the whale, its natural hiftory, and other particulars, 
fee the article Baljena, vol. ii. p. 637. 
Cod Fishery. —The high importance of this fifhery 
both to the commerce and the marine of Great Britain, 
is unqueftionably an objeft which merits our moft ferious 
regard. 1 1 comprehends three diftinft advantages. Firft, 
the people employed in taking and curing the fid), may, 
with infinite propriety, be confidered as fo many manu- 
fafturers, who bring forward a certain commodity to en¬ 
rich our market, equally adapted to the purpofes of home 
confumption, or as a valuable article of export. Second¬ 
ly, this fifliery is of very great commercial value, as it 
gives freight from two to three hundred fail of (liips an¬ 
nually to the ports of Europe—chiefly to Spain, Portu¬ 
gal, Italy, and other Roman-catholic countries ; exclufive 
of our Englifti veflels. Thirdly, the cod-filliery proves a 
moft extenfive nurfery for feamen, and of the very heft 
fort: inafmuch as thefe temperate voyages produce hardy 
and intrepid bailors; while the African and Indian voy¬ 
ages deftroy many, and debilitate more. In all the fifii- 
ing-veffels from England, Scotland, Ireland, Guernfey, 
Jerfey, See. befides the ordinary complement of feamen, 
there are a number of apprentices and hired fervants, who 
foon become converfant witli the duties on-board a ftiip, 
and who, in their turn, enter asable and diligent bailors. 
Befides the large veffels, there are upwards of two tliou- 
fand fmaller craft, from ten to twenty tons each, which 
are employed in catching the fifti on the banks of New. 
foundland, the g.ilf of St. Lawrence, Nova Scotia, &c. 
exclufive of the thips and boats employed nearer home 
on the Dogger-bank, the Weftern ides, and coafts of Eng¬ 
land and Ireland. In 1772, the number of perfons em¬ 
ployed in the different avocations of our fifhery at New¬ 
foundland and Cape Breton, amounted to upwards of 
23,000; and in 1787, our veffels brought home no leis 
than 732,000 quintals of white fifti: add to this, that the 
markets are for ever open to the produce of their induftry. 
For the method of taking, drying, pickling, and barrel¬ 
ing, cod-fifh, fee the generic term Gadus, and the En¬ 
gravings adapted to that article. 
Herring Fishery. —This extenfive fource of national 
wealth is at prefent principally carried on upon our own 
coafts. It appears to have been firft ufed by the people 
of Holland, in the year 1164; who repaired for this pur- 
pofe to the coafts of Pomerania and Rugen, and to Scho- 
nen in the Baltic Sea, where the herring-fifhery was then 
carried 011 to very confiderable extent, and for feveral 
centuries. It feems to have flourifhed there moft abunf 
* 5 N dantly 
