THE ROLE OF FOREIGN EXPERTS IN THE REVIVAL OF SCOTTISH NORTHERN WHALING: 1750–1784

References

• Ciriquiain-Gaiztarro , M. 1985 . “ Vizcaya en el Siglo XV ” . In Los Vasco en la Pesca de la Ballena (San Sebastian, 1961); Edited by: Garcia de cortazar , J. A. Bilbao For probable origins of pre-commercial European-based whaling, see C.W. Sanger, ‘The Origins of the Scottish Northern whale fishery’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Dundee, 47–57. The Bay of Biscay whale fishery, according to Basque scholars, had evolved by the twelfth century into a relatively large-scale, sophisticated commercial enterprise. See, for example, (1966; and J. Agirreazkuenaga Zigorraga et al. Historia de Euskal Herria (San Sebastian, 1980). In English the best studies of early Basque whaling in the Bay of Biscay are by W.A. Douglass and J. Bilbao, Amerikanuak: Basques in the New World (Reno, 1975); S.F. Harmer, ‘History of Whaling’, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London (1927–8), 51–95; and C. Markham, ‘On the whale-Fishery of the Basque Provinces of Spain,’ Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (1881), 969–76
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• Purchas , S. 1906 . Purchas: His Pilgrims Glasgow Details of the two-vessel Muscovy company expedition in 1611, commanded by Jonas Poole, are provided by ‘commission for Jonas Poole our Servant’, in (: first published 1625), vol. 14; and ‘Commission to Thomas Edge’, master of their second vessel, ibid. The struggle for control of the land-based and off shore Spitsbergen whale fisheries has been well researched by M. Conway, No Man's Land: A History of Spitsbergen from its Discovery in 1596 to the beginning of Scientific Exploration of the Country (Cambridge, 1906) and ed., Early Dutch and English Voyages to Spitsbergen in the 17th Century, 2 vols (London, 1904); C. de Jong, A Short History of Old Dutch Whaling (Pretoria, SA, 1978); Sanger, ‘Origins’, 72–112; and W. Scoresby Jr, An Account of the Arctic Regions with a History and Description of the Northern Whale-Fishery 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1820)
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• 1995 . An Account , : 46 Scoresby, 2. Information on seventeenth and early eighteenth century British attempts to establish a presence in the northern whale fishery is provided by G. Jackson, The British Whaling Trade (Hampden, CT, 1978; C.W. Sanger, ‘The Origins of British Whaling: Pre-1750 English and Scottish Involvement in the Northern Whale Fishery’, The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du Nord, V 15–32; and Scoresby, An Account. For website information based primarily upon the latter, see B. Stonehouse, ‘British Arctic Whaling: An Overview’. (http://www.hull.ac.uk/baw/overview/overview.htm)
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• Butt , J. and Ward , J. T. , eds. 1976 . Scottish Themes: Essays in Honour of Professor S.G.E. Lythe Edinburgh The importance of the bounty is discussed by G. Jackson, ‘Government Bounties and the Establishment of the Scottish Whaling Trade’, in 46–66. The increase of the government's whaling bounty, first introduced in 1733, to 40s per ton at the end of the 1749 season acted as the trigger mechanism although Westminster's success was also abetted by a confluence of particularly favourable circumstances. See, for example, Sanger, ‘Origins’, 380–2. The complicated set of social, political and economic factors which influenced the variable nature of annual participation rates during the latter half of the eighteenth century are described by D. Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, Manufactures, Fisheries, and Navigation, with Brief Notes of the Arts and Sciences Connected to them, 1–4 (Edinburgh, 1805). While the virtual elimination of the American whaling fleet during the War of Independence (reduced competition, higher oil and bone prices, etc.), the relocation of a number of former colonists, primarily from Nantucket, to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Milford Haven, England, and Dunkirk, France, had little impact on the English and Scottish Northern whale fisheries. These enterprises were small and short-lived. They did, however, assist England establish a Southern whaling trade. See, for example, Jackson, The British Whaling Trade, 91–116; and Sanger, ‘Origins’, 508–67
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• 1750 . This notion of the essential and long-lasting role foreign whaling experts played in the successful involvement of Scottish companies in Northern bowhead whaling after is discussed, and the literature analysed, by Sanger, ‘Origins’. See specifically 22–30 and 406–15
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• 1750 . Tnal , Dunbar and Edinburgh/Leith in 1784 (NAS E 508/82/8 Series) All Bounty Payment Certificates (hereafter BPC) are located in the National Archives of Scotland (hereafter NAS), Edinburgh. They include the first voyage of the Edinburgh, in (NAS E 508/47/8/1) through to the seven whalers that cleared from Aberdeen, Bo'ness, a total of 328 trips covering the foreign whaling expert period
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• BPC NAS E 508/47/8/1
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• 1817 . : 1991 The East Greenland whaling grounds referred generally to the south-west—north-east cant of the retreating Greenland Sea ice-edge running from north of Iceland to Spitsbergen each spring. The Davis Strait hunting areas on the other hand lay to the west of Greenland and also followed a northward retreating ice mass. It included the early ‘Southwest’ fishery off Labrador and followed migrating bowheads north-east to Disco. After whaling grounds in Baffin Bay (‘North Water’, Pond Inlet, Lancaster Sound and the ‘Fall Fishery’ along the east coast of Baffin Island) were also often considered to be part of Davis Strait whaling. Maps showing the temporal and spatial characteristics of individual whaling grounds in both regions are provided by C.W. Sanger, ‘Environmental Factors Affecting 17th- 19th Century Whaling in the Greenland Sea’, Polar Record 27, 77–86; and C.W. Sanger, ‘“We are now in a splendid position for whales”: Environmental Factors Affecting 19th Century Whaling in Baffin Bay’, Mariner's Mirror, 80:2(1994, 159–177
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• 30 July 1751 . The Hopeton 30 July , BPC NAS E 508/47/8/2 and NAS E 508/48/2, 3 and 4. may also have carried foreign whaling experts. Edinburgh Courant
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• For detailed analysis of off-shore hunting conditions on a seasonal basis betwee 1750 and 1801, see Sanger, ‘Origins’, 390–610
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• 2008 . Ibid. For full and detailed analysis of the entire range of Scottish involvement i Northern whaling, see Jackson, The Britis Whaling Trade; C.W. Sanger, ‘Scottis Northern Whaling and Sealing’, in J.R. Coul A. Fenton and K. Veitch, Boats, Fishin and the Sea, 4, Scottish Life and Society: A Compendium of Scottish Ethnolog (Edinburgh, 389–458; and Scoresby, A Account.
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• Sanger, ‘Origins’, 380–415
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• BPC NAS E 508/47/8/1 through NA E 508/56/8/6
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• 1859 . Select Collection of Scarce and Valuable Traci on Commerce London For statistical profiles (numeric an graphic) of the Dutch whale fisheries at Ea Greenland and Davis Strait, see H. Elking, ‘J View of the Greenland Trade and Whal Fishery, With the National and Privat Advantages Thereof’, in J.R. McCulloch, ed., 82–4; Sange: ‘Origins’, 112; and Scoresby, An Account,; 150–61
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• Sanger, ‘Origins’, 425–82
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• BPC NAS E 508/81/8/2, 3, 4 and 5
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• BPC NAS E 508/82/8/1, 2, 5 and 7
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