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 Smeerenburg quite deserted. His history of the voyage contains the first detailed account of Spitsbergen, with notices of the fauna and flora[106]. 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[107].
The revival of the English whale-fishery was due to the fostering care of Sir Robert Walpole’s government. In 1733 a bonus of 30s. per ton was offered to owners of whaling ships, increased to 40s. in 1740. Then the fishery began to flourish. Previously there were only from three to six ships going north, but in 1749 there were 40, soon increased to over a hundred from Hull and London. In 1787 there were 162 English and 23 Scottish whalers, and in 1788 there were 255 ships going to the Spitsbergen seas and Davis Strait, bringing back 5989 tons of oil, 380 tons of whalebone, and 13,386 skins of seals and bears. It was then considered safe to reduce the bounty, the British whale-fishery being established on a firm basis. From 1788 to 1790 London was the chief port, Hull being a good second in 1788 with 29 sail for Spitsbergen, and 7 for Davis Strait. Whitby began the whaling business in 1753. Mr Pitt, by an Act of Parliament (26 Geo. III, c. 41) enumerated the conditions constituting a whaling ship, the crew, boats, implements, lines, etc., with so many apprentices according to tonnage, to be indentured between the ages of 12 and 20. The Act was altered and amended by later Acts down to that of 1815 (55 Geo. III, c. 32).
The whalers were vessels of 300 to 400 tons, doubled and strengthened with plates of half-inch iron round the stem. The working of the sails was arranged so as to be done by the fewest men, a bentick boom being fitted for the foresail instead of tacks and sheets[108]. The look-out had to be many hours at the mast-head, watching the ice and looking out for whales. As this duty had often to be performed in the intensest cold, the “crow’s-nest” was invented to protect the look-out men from the weather. The improved top-gallant crow’s-nest, used since 1807, was invented by Scoresby. It was fixed at the head of the main top-gallant mast, with nothing above it and consisted of a cylindrical frame 4½ feet by 2½, covered with painted canvas, open above, and closed below with a square hatch which served as the entrance. There was a small seat, and places for the telescope and other instruments. A screen worked on the upper hoop of the crow’s-nest, 2 to 3 feet long and 1 foot high, which was moveable, and adjusted to windward. The vessels carried six or seven boats, carvel-built, 26 to 28 feet long by 5 feet 9 inches beam, of fir planks half an inch thick; the keel, gunwales, stern and stem posts being of oak. They had six oars, 16 feet long, the steer oar being 18 to 20 feet. The oars were fixed to thole-pins by rope grummets. When the ship reached the fishing ground, the boats were kept at the davits, ready to lower. The whale lines, beautifully “flaked down” in the boats, were of 2½-inch rope, and a total of 4320 feet of length was carried in the six lines supplied to each boat, each line being 120 fathoms. A bollard for passing them round was fixed near the boat’s stem.
The harpoon consisted of socket, shank, and “mouth” or point with barbs or “withers,” and was 3 feet long. Later, the harpoon gun came into use. Lances were 6 feet long, the socket, into which is fitted a stock or handle, a shank 5 feet, and a sharp point 8 inches long. The fore ganger is an important part of the harpoon gear. It consists of 8 or 9 yards of 2½-inch rope, spliced round the shank of the harpoon, the swelling socket preventing it from being drawn off when the harpoon is thrown. When a harpoon is ready with stock and foreganger, it is said to be “spanned in.” The point, when not in use, is guarded by a shield of oiled paper.
Each boat had two harpoons, six or eight lances, a pole and flag to signal when a whale is struck, and a tail knife to perforate the tail or fins of a dead whale. There was also an axe for cutting the line if necessary, the mik to support the stock of the harpoon, and a piggon for baling and for wetting the running lines to prevent the bollard from catching fire.
It was thought politic to arouse the zeal of the chief officers by giving them an interest in the work. The captain got three guineas for each fish, 10 to 20 shillings per ton of oil, and a twentieth of the value of the cargo besides. A harpooneer got six shillings per ton of oil and 10 shillings for every fish he struck. The chief mate was generally a harpooneer. The “speksioneer,” who directs the cutting of the blubber, the boat-steerers, line 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° to 72° N.; the sea between 78° and 79° 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 boyhood. 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 recommendation 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 snow-storm, 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.