29 GEO. III. Cap. 53.
An act for further encouraging and regulating the Newfoundland, Greenland, and southern whale fisheries.
Preamble. No fish, unless caught by subjects of Great Britain, or of the British dominions in Europe, to be landed or dried at Newfoundland, the right as ceded to the French excepted.
Whereas, as well by immemorial usage as by the provisions of former laws, the right and privilege of drying fish on the island of Newfoundland do not belong to any of his Majesty’s subjects arriving there, except from Great Britain, or one of his Majesty’s dominions in Europe; for preventing frauds, and thereby better securing to his Majesty’s said subjects of Great Britain, and of the other British dominions in Europe, the full advantages of the fishery carried on from thence, and of drying fish on the shores of the island of Newfoundland, be it declared and enacted by the King’s most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That no fish, taken or caught by any of his Majesty’s subjects, or other persons, arriving at Newfoundland or its dependencies, or on the banks of the said island, except from Great Britain, or one of the British dominions in Europe, shall be permitted to be landed or dried on the said island of Newfoundland, always excepting the rights granted by treaty to the subjects of his most Christian Majesty on that part of the island of Newfoundland beginning at Cape Saint John, passing to the north and descending by the western coast of the said island to the place called Cape Raye.
26 Geo. III, cap. 41, recited. After Jan. 1, 1790 ships to be intitled to the bounties granted by the recited act, that shall sail by April 10, yearly, tho’ they leave the Greenland seas or Davis’s streights before Aug. 10 following, and shall not be laden agreeable to the regulations of the recited act, upon the conditions herein specified.
2. And whereas it is thought expedient that the owners of ships employed in the Greenland fishery should be allowed to receive the bounty granted by an act, passed in the twenty-sixth year of his present Majesty’s reign, intituled, An act for the further support and encouragement of the fisheries carried on in the Greenland Seas and Davis’s Streights, although such ships depart from those seas before the tenth day of August then following, and although they be not laden with the quantity of whale fins, and of oil or blubber in proportion thereto, required by the said act, in case it shall appear by the log books of such ships that they have not departed from those seas till the end of sixteen weeks from the day they respectively sailed from the ports where they were surveyed and cleared out; be it therefore further enacted, That any owner or owners of any ship or vessel shall be allowed and intitled to receive the bounty granted by the said act, for any ship which shall have proceeded, or shall proceed upon the said whale fishery from any port of Great Britain, or the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, or Man, after the first day of January one thousand seven hundred and ninety, and shall have sailed, or shall sail from the port where she was surveyed and cleared out, directly on her intended voyage on or before the tenth day of April in each and every year, although she shall depart from the Greenland seas or Davis’s streights, or the adjacent seas, before the tenth day of August then following, and although she shall not be laden, if of the burthen of three hundred tons, with thirty tons of oil, or blubber in proportion thereto, the blubber to be rated with respect to the oil as three to two, and one ton and a half of whale fins; or if she be of greater or lesser burthen, with a quantity of oil or blubber and whale fins in like proportion to the tonnage of such ship, being the produce of one or more whale or whales, caught by the crew thereof, or with the assistance of the crew of some other licensed ship, in case it shall appear by the log book of such ship that she had continued with her crew in the said seas, diligently endeavouring to catch whales or other creatures living in those seas, and did not depart from thence till the expiration of sixteen weeks from the time of her sailing from the port where she shall have been surveyed and cleared out; provided such ship shall not have touched at any other port during her voyage, and shall have complied with all the other regulations, conditions, and restrictions, imposed by the said act.
28 Geo. III, cap. 20, recited, and after passing this act the three ships entitled to the bounties thereby granted on doubling Cape Horn, or passing through the Streights of Magellan to be entitled thereto, if they shall not return in less than 16 months, and by Dec. 10, in the second year after clearing out.