WHALE FISHERIES. The dangerous craft of whaling undoubtedly occurred in times too early for systematic record. The Eskimos traded the "bone" to the Greenland whalers, having apparently attacked the whales when they rose to breathe in the narrow water-lanes among the ice—a position the great whaling fleets of the Antarctic to-day find favourable for their operations. In the 9th century whaling was carried out by the Northmen, as is clear from Ochthere's account of his voyage, given to King Alfred; and according to a later statement it took place off the Flanders coast in the same century. Alfric, archbishop of Canter bury, mentions whaling in the 11th century, though it is not clear that he claims it as an English fishery. The Basques also made a very early start, and by the 13th century had made whaling an important industry. At first only whales approaching close to the shore were attacked—very possibly, in the first instance, only those which accidentally had stranded. Later, watch was kept from specially built towers, and on a whale being sighted near shore the men put out in boats to the attack, armed with harpoons and lances, killed the whale and towed it to shore. The whales becoming more inaccessible, either from lessening numbers or from increased wariness, or from both these causes, and the possi bility of boiling down (or "trying out") the blubber on a ship having been demonstrated, ships of as much as ioo tons burden were built for whaling, ships of a specially seaworthy type, and the whalers went further afield. They reached Newfoundland waters, apparently, before the end of the 14th century, and later those of Greenland, where they took a different whale, evidently the right Greenland whale, Balaena mysticetus, and not the Biscay whale, B. biscayensis of their own coasts.
of which eight kinds are mentioned, were taken at first in the bays, and one of the reasons for the Dutch predominance, which was well developed by about 165o, was that when the whales dis appeared from the coast they followed them along the ice more constantly than did the British ships. The boats carried 300 fathoms of rope for their "harping irons" or harpoons. On shore the boiling vats were built in, with a stokehold below. Extensive stations grew up in the islands; Smeerenburg or "Blubbertown," a Dutch station had bakeries, traders in spirits and tobacco, and a church, and was visited by a thousand whalers annually. Early in the i8th century the whaling had spread as far as Davis straits, and over 35o ships took part in it.
The Dutch predominance continued until the middle of the cen tury, whose latter half witnessed a recrudescence of British whal ing, assisted by bounties, which at first did much for American (then colonial) whaling also. Hull, Liverpool, Whitby, became whaling ports, and Leith, Dunbar and Dundee participated. The whaling vessels were of some 35o tons burden, carried so men and six whaleboats. They used to barrel the blubber for trying out on return; but later the Scottish brought it back in bulk in large tanks; the whalebone was brought whole, as was, for its oil, the jawbone. The rest of the carcase was abandoned. The high price of whalebone, reaching at times isoo per ton, was a material factor in the success of whaling during this period, particularly in America. The fishing was prosecuted vigorously; at times as many as 5o ships being in sight of one another on the grounds. Before the middle of the 19th century, however, it had begun to wane, owing apparently both to the growing scarcity of right whales and the use of substitutes for whale products, particularly of coal gas as an illuminant. Hull, the last English port for the Greenland grounds, ceased whaling in 1868; Dundee and Peter head, owing in part to a strong local demand in the jute factories for whale oil, continued to a later date, but, in spite of the intro duction of whalers with auxiliary steam power, and the capture of seals and other animals as well as whales, their fleets decreased and ultimately disappeared.