WHALING, or the pursuit of whales as an industry, existed in the North Atlantic Ocean at a remote period. There are obscure refer cam to it in Norwegian and English history as early as the beginning of the 10th century. Is the 11th century the Basques pursued the North Atlantic right whale, or black whale (8aferno glacialia). with harpoons, in open hosts It is even asserted that they crossed the Atlantic in pursuit of their quarry before the time of Columbus, but this has not been sub stantiated. Certain it is that they visited New iomsdland immediately after the discovery of America and captured the same species of right whale in those waters. They are supposed also to have first seen the Arctic right whale, or bow-head (Bairn° nopticettss), in the Strait of Belle Isle. In 1607 Henry Hudson encountered the towhead in the vicinity of Spitsbergen. The Spitsbergen fishery developed rapidly on ac count of the large amount of od yielded by this species and was extensively ed in by various European nations, especiartte Dutch, who in 1689 employed aso vessels and about 14,000 men in the industry. During the decade beginning 1679, the Dutch took an average of about 1,000 whales annually. As the bowheads decreased about Spitzbergen, they were sought for to the westward, and in 1719 a Dutch ves sel first entered Davis Strait. This fishery was developed chiefly by the British. Danes and Americans; in 1789 there were 255 British ves sels engaged in it. The first American vessel visited Davis Strait in 1732. The number in creased rapidly and at the height of the fishery, just before the Revolutionary War, Massa chusetts alone sent 183 vessels to the strait.
About 1670, the American colonists suc ceeded in establishing a boat shore-fisher• for the Atlantic right whale, which in those days was abundant on the coast, especially off Long Island and in Delaware Bay, and was well known from a much earlier date through stranded individuals. Later the colonists pur sued the whales in sailing vessels farther from shore and in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. but finally turned their attention to the Arctic right whale, or bowhead, in Davis Strait, as already mentioned.
About 1712 the first sperm whale was cap tured at sea by a Nantucket whaler. This fish err rapidly rose in importance and was pursued in all the oceans of the globe, especially by the Americans. The British did not apply them selves to it until 1775, hut in 1790 a British whaling vessel rounded Cape Horn and opened tip the Pacific fishery, which immediately grew to enormous proportions, and was at its height is IR.17 The American whaling fleet in 1R39 tomprised 555 vessels. of which the majority nye engaged in the Pacific sperin•whak fish ery. In 1847 the number rose to 594, while the loveiga wfsahng fleet numbered 230 vessels. The axe of the American fleet reached its meirimum in 1/146, when 729 vessels were cm Oared While a large part of the American fleet was engaged in the pursuit of the sperm whale, the remaining vessels were chiefly employed in hunting right whales, especially in the North Pacific. As the sperm-whale fishery declined,
this branch increased in importance. In 1835 the famous Kadiak ground was discovered. A new epoch opened in 1843 when bowhead whales were first taken off the Kamchatka Coast. In 1848 the first vessel passed through Bering Strait to pursue these large whales in the Arctic Ocean. The fishery in the North Pacific and adjoining Arctic was at its height in 1852, when 278 vessels were employed. In 1856 the first American steam whaling-vessel was brought into use, and in IMO two steamers were added to the Pacific-Arctic fleet.
The introduction of mineral oils for illumi nating and other purposes and the decrease in the abundance of whales gradually broke down the fishery for right and sperm whales and at the present time the number of vessels engaged in the industry is negligible. A few sailing vessels still pursue the sperm whale, but in 190.2 only five British vessels (steamers from Dun dee, Scotland) entered Davis Strait in pursuit of the bowhead. The American whaling fleet in 1902 comprised 38 vessels, including eight steamers engaged in the Pacific-Arctic bowhead fishery. Of the remaining 30 sailing vessels, 21 engaged in sperm whaling in the A.tlantic; six visited Okhotsk Sea and the coast of Japan, two entered Hudson Bay and one remained about Desolation Island. To-day (1918) there arc so few that little record is kept of their activities.
The humpback whale was always pursued to some extent right-whale whalers, but the finbacks and sal urbottoms, besides furnishing a relatively amount of oil, were too swift to be attacked successfully with hand-harpoons. About 186S, Svend Foyn, a Norwegian fisher man, invented a method of shooting them with a combined harpoon and bomb fired from a swivel gun mounted at the bow of a small steamer and for 30 years large numbers of sul phurbottoms, finbacks and humpbacks were killed annually at stations established on the coast of Finmark. Later the same method was employed at Iceland, The Faroe and Shetland Islands and also about Japan. In 1898 this mode of whaling was introduced into New foundland, where a number of sulphurbottoms, common finbacks and humpbacks are still killed annually.
A considerable number of common finbacks and humpbacks have been killed in Massachu setts Bay and the Golf of Maine by means of explosive bombs attached to a special form of hand-harpoon, called a •darting gun.° A boat fishery of limited extent has been in existence for many years on the coast of California. It has for its object the capture of the California gray whale, and the humpback, which are killed by harpoons fired from a swivel gun mounted at the bow of a whale boat. Similar boat-fisheries exist on the coast of New Zea land, in the West Indies and in other parts of the world.