Ships often return from the whale fishery clean—i.e., without having captured a single whale. The greatest number of whales known to have ever been captured by single vessel in a season is 44; yielding 299 tuns of oil, of 252 gallons each. This was iu 1811; the fortunate whaler belonged to Peterhead, in Scotland, and the oil alone, according to the price of that year, £32 per tun, was worth £9,568. When the price of oil and whalebone has been higher, even greater profits have been realized by whalers making fewer captures.
It is usual for whalers to resort to the arctic whale-fishery in spring, and to return in autumn; but capt. Penny adopted with great success, in 1853-54, the method of winter in the arctic regions.
The Norwegians sent vessels to Greenland for the whale-fishery in the 9th century. They had previously prosecuted it on their own coasts, and the Norman settlers on the bay of Biscay carried it on there, whales inhabiting that bay in considerable numbers, till, through the eager prosecution of the fishery, they became so few that about the 15th c. it became unprofitable, and was relinquished. In 1261 a tithe was laid upon the tongues of whales brought into Bayonne, they being then highly esteemed for food. The French, Spaniards, and Flemings early began to fit out vessels for the northern whale-fishery; the English entered upon it with great spirit in the end of the 16th c., and about the same time the Dutch, Danes, and Hamburgers. The British Muscovy com pany obtained a royal charter, giving them a monopoly of the whale-fishery of the coasts of Spitzbergen, on the pretense of its having been discovered by sir Hugh Willoughby, although, in fact, it was discovered by the Dutch navigator Barentz. Other nations were not disposed to acknowledge the claims of the English; the Dutch in particular sent out a strong fleet. between which and the ships of the Muscovy company an engage ment took place in 1618 and the English were defeated. The Spitzbergen bays and seas were afterward divided into fishing-stations, allocated to the whalers of the rival nations. No nation now asserts a claim to the exclusive right of whale-fishing in any quarter. The Spitzbergen fishery was thrown open to all nations in 1642.
The English for some time prosecuted the whale-fishery sluggishly and with incom petent means; the Dutch carried it on with great vigor and success. During the latter half of the 17th c. the Dutch furnished almost all Europe with oil. In 16S0 they had 260 ships and about 14,000 men employed in the whale-fishery; but from that time the Dutch fishery began to decline. In 1732 Great Britain attempted to encourage the whale-fishery by a bounty of 30s. a ton to every ship of 200 tons engaged it it, which was raised in 1749 to 40s., reduced to 30s. in 1777, and again raised to 40s. in 1781. The object of the bounty was not only to encourage the trade, but to make it a nursery for seamen.
Ships, however, Were fitted out rather for the bounty than for the capture of whales, and during the next five years after the reduction of the bounty 1i77 7 the number of ships employed in the trade was reduced from 105 to 09. After 1781 it rapidly increased, and continued to increase although the homily was reduced. The bounty was finally alto
gether withdrawn in 1824; yet in 1815, \\lien the British whale-fishery was in its most flourishing condition, only 104 ships were engaged in it. The Dutch whale-fishery had in the meantime almost entirely ceased, owing to the national calamities consequent on the French revolution. The British whale-fishery is still prosecuted, although not nearly to the extent that it was fifty years ago. The French whale-fishery has in like manner declined. The Americans are at present more actively engaged in the whale-fishery than any other nation. The New England colonies entered upon this enterprise at a very early period, at first merely by boats on their own coasts, which, however, were deserted by whales before the middle of the 18th c., and ships then began to be fitted out for the northern seas. For a number of years, however, the American whale-fishery also has been declining, owing to the scarcity of whales, and because substitutes for whale-oil and whalebone have been found.
Of all British towns Peterhead and Dundee are those which of late have shown the greatest enterprise in the whale-fishery, and next to them is Hull. In America, New Bedford demands special notice. It is at present the greatest whaling-port in the world.
The ships engaged in the whale-fishery generally add to their cargoes of oil by the capture of seals.
WilaLEs, in point of law, belong to the crown, according to the law of England, if they arc caught or found within the territorial sea—that is, within the limit of three miles from the shore; or in the inner seas, as distinguished from the open sea. This is contrary to the genera] rule—that he who first captures a wild animal is entitled to the property thereof. Whales are thus called royal fish; and it is said sturgeons and por poises also fall under the same class. If the whales are mot caught in the territorial seas which are part of the realm, but in the open sea, then the law of nature applies, or rather a secondary law or custom governs the right of property, and that law, though varying slightly according to locality, is, that the person who first captures the whale is entitled to keep it. In the Greenland seas the local custom is that the first harpooner who strikes the whale is entitled to the property only if he continue to hold the whale by the line attached to his harpoon; but if his line break, and a subsequent harpooner from another ship finish the capture by obtaining possession, then the latter is entitled, for it is a loose fish. This rule, however, has been qualified in this way, that the first harpooner who strikes the fish and keeps it entangled is entitled, even though a volunteer conic up and officiously strike the fish, thereby causing it to struggle and break from the first line. At Gallipagos, South America, the custom is that he who first strikes the whale with a drong, or loose harpoon, is entitled to receive half of it. The same rules govern the right of property in whales when similar questions arise between parties litigating in Scotland. The law of Scotland, as well as England, adopts whatever local custom pre vails where the whale was captured.