Chapter IV: Fluctuating Fortunes

In certain parts of the east and north-east coasts of Britain one still comes across old buildings, such as in King’s Lynn, which remind us of their intimate connection with the Greenland whaling occupation of more than a century ago. Leaving in April, the ships would as a rule start back not later than August. But, just as the whale had migrated west from Spitzbergen after being mercilessly hunted, so that area between Spitzbergen and Greenland which the crews called the Greenland Sea had begun to show signs of thinning by the second decade of the nineteenth century.

And since the Davis Straits area was found to yield a more ample return, it was to this neighbourhood that the centre of interest now shifted gradually. This necessitated longer and therefore more costly voyages, and certainly far more dangerous. But the results were so good as to outweigh these drawbacks. Up to about 1820 three-fifths of the northern whalers were still using the Greenland Sea, and two-fifths were trying the Davis Straits. But ten years later there were not more than four ships fishing in the former, and thus we come to a fresh development in our subject. And here at last Government exploration was to do something for the fisherman. Strictly speaking, of course, the whale is not a fish: but by time-honoured custom generations of sailors, statesmen and others have spoken of the whale-_fisheries_, and with this proviso it is permissible so to refer to the matter.

In 1818 Ross’s naval expedition went north through the Davis Straits and explored Baffin’s Bay. With him went Parry, who was to make further Arctic voyages in the next and some subsequent years. So far as the whalers were concerned one important result from these Government expeditions was to make known a number of admirable localities which had previously been scarcely frequented. The first man to have discovered this bay, or rather sea, was William Baffin, who after going whaling in 1613-1614 off Spitzbergen, joined Captain Bylot in 1615 aboard the _Discovery_ to look for the North-West Passage by Davis Straits. This passage was never discovered until in our own time when the 70-ton _Gjoa_ set out from Christiania in 1903 and after three and a half years navigated safely that which had frustrated three centuries of seamen, and then arrived at San Francisco.

But if Baffin failed in his primary purpose he discovered and charted what we now call Baffin’s Bay. His observations were discredited during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but were verified by Ross in 1818, and actually used by the Franklin expedition. It is a huge area over eight hundred miles long and about a third of that wide; and thanks to the information confirmed by Ross and Parry there was now available a whaling ground just at a time when it began to be needed most. So the whalers soon began sailing from the east and north-east coasts of Britain, usually in March, and crossed the Atlantic to the Davis Straits, and then till the beginning of May hunted the whale off the north coast of Labrador or by the mouth of the Cumberland Sound. This was known as the south-west fishery. They would next cross to the eastern side of Davis Straits and fish along the western side of Greenland: this being done, they moved further up in July to Lancaster Sound and even to Barrow’s Strait, which is right in the Arctic regions in lat. 74° N. On their way down Baffin’s Bay they used to fish the western shore, especially at such places as Pond’s Inlet and Home Bay. Three or four whales made quite a fair average catch in one season, but as many as nine were sometimes caught by one ship.

If a ship had been unlucky she might remain in Baffin’s Bay as late as October looking for whales. The expression used by the crews when a vessel had captured none was to say she was “clean.” Now one of these ships from Peterhead was clean on the last day of September, having been out all those months, but by October 27th she had caught five whales and got back to Peterhead with an average cargo. But the toll of losses in those lonely seas naturally mounted up. In the year following Ross’s voyage there were lost up there ten whalers out of sixty-three. In 1821 eleven out of seventy-nine, and in the following year seven out of sixty whalers never came back. These disasters were brought about principally owing to having been crushed by the ice or squeezed out of the water on to the ice whilst trying to get across to Lancaster Sound.

Owing to the necessary doubling of the strength in building these northern whalers; owing also to their equipment of boats and cordage and casks and implements, the capital needed was greater than that for sending a merchantman to sea. On the other hand, no cargo was required to be taken out, no capital needed for purchasing homeward freights, for it was there in the sea for the asking. And in good seasons the reward was well worth the money expended. Moreover, if these staunch-built vessels could possibly avoid accidents, they were good for an exceptionally lengthy service. The initial cost of a 350-ton whaler varied in different decades. In 1813 the 354-ton _Esk_ of Whitby, including the sum of £1,700 expended on her outfit for her first voyage, cost £14,000. Ten years later £10,000 would have covered the entire outlay, and by 1830 such a ship could have been provided for £8,000. Half the amount went to pay for the hull and spars: the balance being for sails, rigging, casks, line, and fishing gear. The sum of £1,700 just mentioned covered the provisioning, insurance, advance money to the seamen; but prices varied at different ports, Leith being cheaper than Aberdeen and Hull being the most expensive of all.

The master and harpooner received no pay but were wisely given a certain sum for every whale struck and for every tun of oil extracted. The seamen, in addition to their wages, were allowed a bonus if the voyage were prosperous. About the year 1830 quite one-third of British whaling belonged to Hull, and thirty-three whaling ships sailed out from the Humber that year to the Davis Straits. These averaged about 330 tons: but in this season, which was a very bad one, eight of the thirty-three came home “clean,” that is to say, without having killed a whale, and six never came home at all, having been lost in the ice. Thus fourteen of the fleet failed to earn a penny dividend. The return on the owners’ capital fluctuated in ninety years according to the market price of the oil: which was £18 a tun in 1742, £60 in 1813, but £24 in 1830. There was, therefore, always something of the gambling element in the whaler industry. It was only by an average number of seasons, and with fair luck in regard to sighting whales and avoiding ice, that such ships could ever be expected to pay their way.

On the other hand, a whaler might be fortunate beyond all expectation, as the Peterhead _Resolution_, which in 1814 made (including bounty) about £11,000. Again, the personal practical knowledge and the skill of a good skipper had a lot to do with success. Scoresby’s father in twenty-eight seasons brought home oil and bone to the value of £150,000 from the North. During the eighteenth century London had been the principal whaling port, but by 1830 there were only a couple of ships which used to leave the Thames for the northern whaling seas. Decentralization was going on and other ports, almost exclusively on the North Sea, were usurping this trade. The reason is not hard to find, for the two biggest ports of London and Liverpool were now concerned more with the vessels carrying cargoes to and from the Indies or America. Presently the China clippers and the Australian packets, and, later, the newly built ocean steamships, were to occupy the attention of these two ports. Thus in the year 1818 there were eight English whaling ports--Hull, London, Whitby, Newcastle being the principal--with Berwick, Grimsby, Liverpool, and Lynn all about equal, but Hull being far and away the leading centre. By 1830, however, when London owned only a couple of whalers, Liverpool had none and Lynn had none, nor had Grimsby any; Hull having thirty-three out of the total of forty-one. But in Scotland matters were different, and in 1818 Aberdeen was the chief whaling port, with Leith second, Dundee third, and Peterhead fourth. By 1830 Peterhead owned thirteen whalers, Aberdeen ten, Dundee nine, Leith seven: the other Scotch ports sending ships to this fishery being Burntisland (Firth of Forth), Greenock, Kirkcaldy, and Montrose.

Where the fortunes by whaling depended so entirely on the movements of the mammal, to say nothing of the sea’s own perils, it was natural enough that not merely local but national enterprise should have varied from epoch to epoch. As I have shown in another volume, the migration of the herring into the North Sea was responsible for bringing that wealth to Holland which enabled her to rise to the importance of a great sea power. In like manner the whale has played pranks in the careers of communities and individuals. And, without boring the reader too much, we may illustrate this by a few facts from history. Many people in our own time have often asked the question what is the practical good of all those Arctic and Antarctic expeditions which we have recently seen go forth. Apart from their exhibition of gallantry and endurance, what is likely to evolve for the good of the human race?

The answer is that a large mass of scientific data has been brought home, which may be of untold value at any future stage in the world’s development. Exactly in what respect these facts can be applied cannot always be immediately apparent. But the demand for whale oil in modern social life, such as in soap-making, glycerine for explosives, and the manufacture of margarine, is likely to increase rather than otherwise. Now these expeditions have thrown light on the habits and the homes of the whales from which these essential products come, and the sending forth by the British Government of a further research expedition in 1925 is evidence of the economic belief in the whale’s possibilities. The information which Ross and Parry were able to bring from Baffin’s Bay largely revolutionized the industry, and there is no reason why the possession of the largest and best whaling steam fleet in the future may not be of the highest value to a country in need merely of those three articles alone, quite apart from the other products which are available. And in these days of many inventions who can limit the possibilities or foresee the value of this old-time pursuit? Who can say whither the whale will wander? Where has he not wandered in the past?

We know from Hakluyt that already by the ninth century the Norwegians were hunting this animal off their coast. In the twelfth century whaling was being carried on in the North Sea off the east coast of Scotland, for Malcolm IV granted to Dunfermline Abbey one-tenth of all the whales and “marine monsters” which might be taken in the Firths of Forth and Tay: and in the following century Alexander II allowed half the blubber of these whales for providing the altar candles in that abbey. We know, too, that as early as 1575 the Basques used to hunt whales in the Bay of Biscay, and afterwards went north even to Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland, so that within twenty-five years it was no strange sight to find fifty or sixty Biscayan and Icelandish whalers at work in northern waters.

From 1598 Hull sent regularly for some years whalers to Iceland and the North Cape, and, after Hudson had rediscovered it, to Spitzbergen in the seventeenth century. It was from 1610 that the English syndicate known eventually as the “Russia Company” began. Two discovery ships, the _Marie Margaret_ of 160 tons and the _Elizabeth_ of 60 tons, were both lost, but a Hull ship managed to bring home the cargo. At that time, you see, whaling was like finding a gold mine. It was untapped wealth; the mammals had not been scared, and the rewards were immense. So, also, in 1594 an English whaling expedition had been sent from the west country to Cape Breton. There are references among the Pepysian manuscripts during the seventeenth century, too, in regard to English whalers proceeding for this purpose to Greenland seas.

But we see vessels being sent out from Bayonne, St. Jean de Luz, St. Sebastian, Bremen, Hamburg and Amsterdam--in the latter case, of course, by way of the Zuyder Zee and the Texel. The importance of whaling to Holland rivalled that of the herring, especially during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and many people have failed to realize how for generations this helped to build up that country’s wealth. If ever a nation raised itself by the sea it was the Low Countries, and the three main sources were--the herring fishery off their very coasts, the whale in northern waters, and the spice trade in the Dutch East Indies. Let us consider the whaling. In 1671 they sent no fewer than 155 vessels to Greenland which brought to Holland 630 whales’ produce. During the years of 1672-4, until the signing of the Peace of London, they were so busy with naval operations that the whaling men could not be spared from the fighting fleet: but in 1675 there were 148 Dutch whalers at work, and that brief rest to the whale was rewarded by the ships bringing back the produce of 881 mammals. In some seasons they killed as many as 1,600 and even 2,000.

Now, unfortunately, the English had in the meantime allowed their rivals to go on helping themselves to these riches, and practically retired from the industry. This is just one of those intermissions which have characterized the occupation throughout its history. We alluded in a previous chapter to the sudden interest in the first quarter of the eighteenth century by the South Sea Company after the “Bubble” had burst. How this came about is as follows. It was Henry Elking who drew up a report for the Court of Directors of that company in the year 1722. At this time the Dutch were in practical possession of that trade which the English had at one time so enthusiastically pursued. Other nationalities were a bad second, but our forefathers had lost heart. Elking felt very deeply on the matter and submitted his opinions to the Company plainly and with restraint.

“It will be found upon Examination,” he wrote, “a very great Mistake, that the English cannot manage this Trade, which the Hollanders, Hamburgers, Bremers, French and Spaniards, all carry on to Advantage, and by which means they are made rich, even out of our Pockets, who sit still and buy those Goods of them for our ready money.” Elking worked up the feelings of jealousy that all this wealth should be passing to our late enemies and sea-rivals. He contended, even, that whaling was more advantageous to the Dutch than were their East Indies, seeing that whaling took no money out of the country to purchase imports in the East, but brought home wealth without paying. It was the Dutch, let us remember, who had as recently as 1719 been the first to send whalers into the Davis Straits, and only two years later there were 355 foreign ships at work on these plentiful grounds. Why should the English be so despondent and unenterprising when the Dutch and other seamen were enriching themselves?

Elking made out a strong case, claiming that English-built ships if more costly were stronger and lasted longer. In Holland living and labour were cheaper than with us, and so vessels could be built more inexpensively. But, on the other hand, the Dutch whalers had to import many of their skippers, harpooners, steersmen for the boats, and even seamen from such localities as Jutland, Holstein, Scotland, Norway, Bremen and Friesland. These were taken on for the season and then returned to their homes. Numbers of Englishmen had also served in these Dutch whalers, and were quite as expert as their employers. This lull which had been going on in English whaling enterprise since the last quarter of the seventeenth century was most unfortunate for England.

What was the kind of craft to employ? Elking considered that the most suitable whalers were flyboats, cats or hagboats; “and should be very strong built, and doubled at the Bow, to resist the Shocks of the Ice.” The size varied from 200 to 500 tons, the former carrying four boats and twenty men and boys, while the latter had seven boats with a crew of fifty men and boys. The complement of a 300-ton whaler at that time with six “shallops” as they used to call the boats, consisted of one chief harpooner who was the whaling expert in command of the whole expedition; one master of the ship, five other harpooners, six boat-steersmen, six “managers of the Lines,” one surgeon, one boatswain, one carpenter, two coopers, sixteen “common sailors” and two or three boys: total, forty-two or forty-three to the ship.

These ships were worked in three watches, except that when a whale was sighted all hands were called. When the ship reached the ice-barrier she was anchored to the ice by a great “nose-hook.” The word “cachalot” was introduced by the French fishermen, the English whalers employing the word “pot-fish” or spermaceti fish. But though there was some sort of whaling industry off the east coast of Scotland in the early seventeenth century, and a hundred years later it extended north from the Orkneys, yet it had become unprosperous and languished as in England. But the revival of British whaling dates from 1725, when the South Sea Company, convinced by Elking’s arguments, sent their dozen ships which they had caused to be built specially on the Thames for this northern trade. They were each of about 300 tons, and at Deptford a wet dock was reserved for them, where also the boiling houses were erected for extracting the oil.

The unhappy result of this South Sea Company’s northern whaling adventure we have already observed. But the fact remains that the Dutch and foreign monopoly was from now seriously contested. There were periods of depression and despondency again, but the bounty offered by the Government saved the industry from dying a natural death. Thus if we take the year 1788 we find that, in spite of everything, British whaling had been so resuscitated that 255 vessels of under 300 tons were now sailing north from London, Hull, Liverpool, Whitby, Newcastle, Yarmouth, Sunderland, Lynn, Leith, Ipswich, Dunbar, Aberdeen, Bo’ness, Glasgow, Montrose, Dundee, Whitehaven, Stockton, Greenock, Scarborough, Grangemouth, Queensferry, and even from Exeter.

A great recovery had been made and this list of ports shows how universal was the interest now taken. The founding of the Dundee Whale Fishing Company at this time was to give that town a special importance which was to last for several generations. For it was the introduction of steam into the Dundee whalers during the year 1858 which was to alter the whole future of whaling. At the close of the eighteenth century the manufacture of jute had been introduced to British industrialists, though it was a long time before it became popular. About the year 1850, after being introduced to Dundee for less than twenty years, jute manufacturing in that town became extensive, and it was the large consumption of whale oil required in the jute fabrication which gave to Dundee the leading position in that trade. Thus it was that the building of whaling ships so long survived at this Scotch port.