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.