The British whale fishery of 1814 was uncom monly prosperous, especially at Greenland; 76 ships on this fishery having procured 1437 whales, besides seals, &c. the produce of which in oil only, was 12,132 tons, being an average of fish, or 159.6 tons of oil per ship ! The average fishery of Davis' Straits the same season, was about one third less per ship. The gross value of the freights of the British Greenland and Davis' Straits fleets (bounties included), estimating the oil at X32 per ton, which was about the average price, and the whalebone at £80 per ton, exceeds in this one year £700,000.
Though the profits to the merchants on this oc casion were singularly great, yet, on the average of the four years, ending with 1817, we find the car goes brought from Greenland and Davis' Straits were only 93 tons of oil, and 4 tons 12 cwt. of whalebone per ship, value about 3700. This, though a degree of success which would have been considered as very great fifty years ago, is now, on account of the extraordinary increase which has taken place in the expenses of a whale ship, but barely sufficient to afford an encouraging profit to the adventurers. But when we consider, that while the general profit reaped from the trade was only moderate, some individuals and concerns have been almost invariably successful; it is clear, therefore, that some others must have been con siderable losers by this speculation.
In a national view, however, the benefit has been very different. In the five years ending with 1818, about 68,940 tons of oil, and 3420 tons of whale bone, of British fishing, have been imported into England and Scotland. If we calculate the oil at J.:36 108. per ton, which was about the average price, and the whalebone at £90, and add to the amount £10,000, for the probable value of the skins and other articles,—the gross value of goods imported into Britain from Greenland and Davis' Straits in five years, free of first cost, will appear to have been near three millions sterling.
The greatest cargo ever brought into Great Britain in one vessel from the whale-fishery., was procured near Spitzbergen, by Captain Sauter in the Resolution of Peterhead, in the year 1814. It consisted of 44 whales, which produced 299 tons of oil, value, reckoned at £32 per ton, the average price that year, £9568; if to this we add the value of the whalebone and the bounty, the gross freight of this ship will appear to have been near X11,000. Other ships, however, with less cargoes, have made still greater freights, particularly in 1813, when oil sold for near £60 per ton. In this year, the John of Greenock, commanded by my father, made above £11,000 freight; and the cargo of the Esk of Whitby, commanded by myself, sold for near the same sum. The Augusta of Hull, Cap
tain Beadland, procured a still greater cargo; and the Lady Jane of Newcastle, Captain Holmes, which brought home a larger cargo from the fishery that season than any other vessel, realized, I believe, the greatest profit ever made by one ves sel in any one season, since the northern whale fisheries were practised." The following very interesting table will show the relative success of the ships fitted out at different ports during the four years ending with 1317.
The ships intended for the Greenland and Da vis' Straits fishery should be from 300 to 400 tons burden. They should be strengthened with an ad ditional series of planks, and fortified by the ap plication of timber and iron plates to the exterior, and a great number of timbers and stauncheons to the interior. To preserve the stem from the ice, it is provided with a false or ice-stem, and on the sides of this are placed the ice-knees, or angular blocks of wood, filling up the concavity formed by the stem and fore planks. The stem is also de fended by of half inch iron.
Each ship has generally six or seven boats, car they vary from 23 to 28 feet in length, and are capable of carrying six or seven men, and seven or eight hundred weight of whale lines, and various other materials.
The crew of the whale ships generally consist of forty or fifty men, including several classes of officers or harpooners, boat-steerers, carpenters, coopers, &c. together with foremast-men, lands men, and apprentices. Every individual, from the master to the boys, has, besides his monthly pay, a gratuity for every size fish caught during the voyage, or a certain sum for every ton of oil pro duced from the cargo.
The weapons generally used in capturing the whale are the harpoon and the lance. The harpoon is made of iron, and is three feet long. It consists of three conjoined parts, the socket, the shank, and the mouth, the mouth includes the barbs, within each of which there is another small barb like the beard of a fish hook, in a reverse position. The lance is a spear of iron, six feet long. It consists of a hollow socket six inches long, swelling from half an inch, the diameter of the shank, to nearly two inches, into which a four-feet fir handle is fitted,—a shank five feet long, and a mouth of steel, very thin and sharp, seven or eight inches long, and two or two and a-half broad. A harpoon gun is sometimes used for throwing the harpoon to a greater distance than it can be done by the hand. In its most improved form it is made of a swivel, with a barrel of wrought iron about twenty-five inches long, three inches diameter, and one and a-half inch internal bore. It is fired by two locks which act together.