C17th Arctic whaling

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C17th Arctic whaling

Editorial history

15/10/12: CSG created page


Purpose of this page

This week (W/C 15/10/12) Jill's and Colin's teams are working on a case involving a failed whaling adventure to the Arctic Ocean ("Batson against Goslin and others")

We plan to publish a blog article on the case, placing it in a broader context of the whaling fisheries off Spitsbergen (alt. Spitzbergen) in the 1650s. (The first thing to note is that C17th "Greeneland" is what we now call "Spitsbergen")

Jill and Colin would like to encourage their team members to use this page to share quotes, and to explore places, people and activities mentioned in the pages they are transcribing




Suggested links



People mentioned in case


Richard Batson

- London merchant; part owner and freighter of the Owners Adventure and the Greyhound

- Appears in other archival records sometimes as "Battison" (Batson & Company; Battison and Company)

- He may be Richard Batson, citizen and cutler (b. ?, d. ?), whose daughter married John Bendish, son of Sir Thomas Bendish, the English ambassador to Constantiniople (a friend of Sir George Oxenden). See possible will PROB 11/424 Carr 59-116, Will of Richard Batson, Cutler, June 16th 1667

Humfrey Beane

- London merchant; part owner and freighter of the Owners Adventure and the Greyhound

- Humphrey (alt Humfry) Beane may be the same Humphrey Beane as PROB 11/362 Bath 1-59 Will of Humphry Beane of Ebbisham, Surrey 14 January 1680

Mr. Child

- Captain of another English whaling ship

John Colville

- Mariner, Gunner of the Owners Adventure, of Ratcliff in the parish of Stepney, Middlesex

Thomas Damerell

- Captain of the Owners Adventure and Commander of the Greyhound

- Mariner, of Lymehouse, in the parish of Stepney, Middlesex

John Ely

- Mariner, of Saint Mary Magdalen Bermondsey, county of Surrey, aged 28 in late 1656

Gowen ?Golderne (alt. Goldagne)

- Part owner and freighter of the Owners Adventure and the Greyhound

Edward Gosling (alt. Goslin)

- Masters mate and harpooner

Richard Kirton

- Overseer of the "Landsmen" on the Owners Adventure and the Greyhound, who were to go ashore and boil and barrel the whale blubber

- Of Ratcliff, in the parish of Stepney, Middlesex

Richard Maundrie (alt. Maundrey)

- Masters mate and harpooner

Mr. Pybus (alt. Pibus)

- Captain of another English whaling ship


Places mentioned in case


Detail showing Bell Point and Bell Sound, from Edge's map, ca. 1611[1]

CAPTURE EXTRACT Map Edges Greenland ca1621 Travis JT 1921 facp58 CSG DL IA 151012 copy.JPG

Bell point(alt. "Bell Poynt") (HCA 13/71 f.463v, f. 469v, f.474v)

- "neere Bell Point" (HCA 13/71 f.469v)

- "Bell Pointe in Greeneland" (HCA 13/71 f.479v)

Bell sound

- ""the shipp was gone too farr Northwards of the harbour of Bell sound" (HCA 13/71 f.465r)

- Wikipedia article: Bellsund

Blackwall

- "all which when it was boyled at Blackwall after the retourne home of the sayd shipps from the sayd voyage, amounted to eighteene Tonnes of oyle or thereabouts" (HCA 13/71 f.480v)

  • Worth exploring what can be found about whale oil processing at Blackwall and Blackwall docks in 1650s


- The English East India Company leased (1653), then sold (1655) the Blackwall docks to the shipwright Henry Johnson, who had been apprenticed to Phineas Pett, the Royal shipwright at Deptford[2]

- The Survey of London has provides some limited details of commercial and industrial activities in the mid to late C17th. Mention is made of a ropeyard on the west side of Blackwall Causeway, of several ship building and repair yards, a wharf and warehouses, but no whale processing activities are described[3]

- Plan of Old Blackwall and Coldharbour, 1740

Darke Cove (HCA 13/71 f.477v)

Greene harbour

- "Bell Sound or Greene harbour" (HCA 13/71 f.479v)

- Wikipedia article: Grønfjorden

Detail showing Spitzbergen and surrounding seas, from Augustus Petermann (1853)

CAPTURE Sea Of Spitzbergen Petermann A JRGSoc 1853 vol23 Betwp130 131 FreeJournal CSG DL 151012.JPG

Greeneland

- "at Greeneland the Ice doth usually open and shutt, and men that goe thither when great yeares of Ice are most watch their opportunitie to get into harbour" (HCA 13/71 f.477r)

- Wikipedia article: Spitsbergen

Hope islands (HCA 13/71 f.466v)

- "the backside of Greeneland" (HCA 13/71 f.466v)

Point Negro (HCA 13/71 f.475r)

- "Point Negro being a Point to the Eastward beyond darke Cove" (HCA 13/71 f.475r)

Port of Bell point

the West Ice

- "hee hath heard the sayd Damerell say that the Owners Adventure and Greyhound were designed first for the West Ice which is called commonly Greane land, and there to goe to the Coast of Greeneland to fish in any place according to his the sayd Damerells direction" (HCA 13/71 f.477r)


Ships mentioned in case


The Owners Adventure

The Greyhound


Animals and technology mentioned in case


Boyler

Furnace

- "this rendent beleeveth that the Dutch & ffrench having their ships usually fitted with furnaces & other materialls in their ships, & not being prmitted to have the freedome of harbors there, in Greeneland fish at sea but this rendent beleeveth that the use with the English is the contrary"[4]

Jubartas

- "comming up with the sayd ffish found them to bee certaine ffish called Jubartas, which are a ffish the English use not to fasten upon by reason of their swifte motion and for that they are of smale profitt and more dangerous to deal with than whales are" (HCA 13/71 f.464r)

Launce

- After a whale had been exhausted from a pursuit by its hunters in multiple shallops, the hunters approached the whale on the surface and struck it with lances[5]

Right whale

- The species favoured off Spitsbergen by early C17th whalers of all European nations, given that it was calm, slow moving, and floated when dead [6]

Sea horse (?walrus)

- "(on Hope Island) the dutch having killed about a hundred sea horses" (HCA 13/71 f.466v)

- "about twenty butts of blubber of sea horses" (HCA 13/71 f.480v)

Shallop (small boat)

Pinke

- "did alsoe committ the Ordering and Command and direction of the sayd shipp Greyhound for the same voyage to him this deponent shee being a Pinke appointed to attende the sayd shipp Owners Adventure, and bee assistant to her in her sayd ffishing voyage" (HCA 13/71 f.479r)


Economics


Revenue

- "the sd ship came & arrived at a place called Hope Iland as he hath heard & there the M:r & Comp:ie of her did get the blubber of some seahorse w:ch the fflemings had left ther as not thinking the same worth taking which sd blubber this rendent beleeveth was brought home in the sd ship to this rendent & Comp:ie the whole of whale blubber & horse blubber did amount unto 16. or 17. tonnes of course oyle and not above as he beleeveth & also about halfe a tonne of whale bone & not above as he beleeves all w:ch together w:th the charges of boyling custome & excise & other petty charges after the comming home therof deduced did extend to about 165:li or 170:li & noe more as he beleeveth" ('Answer to fifth pretended position', HCA 13/128 (1656-1658), no foliation, recto, P1110041)


Trade and political rivalry


The Spitsbergen whale fisheries were fought over, commercially and physically, by the English, the Dutch, the French and the Spanish, amongst others (Appleby, 2008: 29-30, 33)

By the early to mid C17th Appleby suggests that informal separate spheres of interest had been established, with the Dutch concentrating on the northern shores of the archipelago, and the English on "the bays and harbours of the south-west" (Appleby, 2008: 33))

There was considerable rivalry between the English Muscovy company, which supposedly monopolised the Spitsbergen whale trade, and the English whalers of the port of Hull (Appleby (2008: 34)). Appleby suggests that Hull men were involved in the whale trade from an early date, rather than being latecomers, and had their own special islands and bays separate from the English Muscovy company (Appleby, 2008: 35, 37)


Crews


Appleby, writing of the Hull whalers in the early C17th, states that:

unfortunately the men who served aboard these vessels, who formed part of the first generation of English whalemen, are almost invisible. Little evidence survives for the manning of, or recruitment to, Hull whaling ships; nor is much known about conditions of work, discipline and pay. (Appleby, 2008: 45)

Extrapolating from Dutch and French whaling vessel data, he suggests that an average Hull whaling vessel would have been crewed with between 30 and 55 men. Hull men received wages, together with "oar and fin" money (Appleby, 2008: 45-46)

  • It will be interesting to compare the wages and structure of wages stated in the litigation brought by Richard Gosling and others against Batson et al., with Appleby's data.


- See: Case: Edward Gosling, wages: Answer: Richard Batson: Date: XXXX

Appleby suggests that Hull whaling masters may previously have served on similar voyages as mates and harponists, and cutes "John Pybus, aged 44, of Greenwich, who was employed as master aboard the Adventure of Hull in 1656" who "had served under other masters on five previous voyages to Spitsbergen, and as "Master & harponeere" on another eleven" (Appleby, 2008: 46), Appleby's primary source for this is our very own HCA 13/71, and "Mr. Pybus" is one of the four other whaling merchants mentioned by the deponents in Batson against Goslin and others

Appleby also states that little is known about the Hull and York merchants who promoted and financed the whaling trade in the early C17th (Appleby, 2008: 46-47)


Depositions


1. John Ely of Saint Mary Magdalen Bermondsey in the County of Surrey Mariner aged twenty eight yeares


- Deposition made on 18/12/1656

"the sayd Damarell sawe some fish spoute among the Ice neere where the sayd shipp lay and cryed out to the Company a whale a whale and commanded the sayd Maundrey and Gosling and the rest of the harponeeres to manne their shallops and make after the sayd ffish which they did, and comming up with the sayd ffish found them to bee certaine ffish called Jubartas, which are a ffish the English use not to fasten upon by reason of their swifte motion and for that they are of smale profitt and more dangerous to deal with than whales are; which the Company having discovered did not strike at the sayd fish..."[7]


2. John Colvile of Ratcliff in the parish of Stepney and County of Middlesex Mariner Gunner of the Owners Adventure aged thirty sixe yeares


- Deposition made on 29/12/1656

" did expect that the sayd Damarall the Master would have given order to have wrought the sayd shipp further into the Ice or at least made her fast to the Ice" [8]


X. Thomas Damerell of Lymehouse in the parish of Stepney and County of Middlesex Mariner Master of the shipp the Owners Adventure and Commander alsoe of the Greyhound aged 37 yeares


- Deposition made on 23/12/1656

"did alsoe committ the Ordering and Command and direction of the sayd shipp Greyhound for the same voyage to him this deponent shee being a Pinke appointed to attende the sayd shipp Owners Adventure, and bee assistant to her in her sayd ffishing voyage"[9]


6. Richard Kirton of Ratcliff in the parish of Stepney and County of Middlesex Overseer of the Landsmen in the XXXX XXXX XXXXX aged forty yeares


- Deposition made in 29/01/1656 (i.e. modern 1667)


C17th and later maps


Edges’s map of "Greenland" (Spitzbergen), ca. 1611[10]

Petermann, Augustus, 'Map of the Sea of Spitzbergen', to illustrate 'Sir John Franklin, the Sea of Spitzbergen, and Whale-Fisheries in the Arctic Regions', Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. 23, 1853, betw. p. 130 & 131[11]

Sources


Primary sources


BL


BL, London, Sloane MS. 3986, ff. 78v, 79-79v (and others)


TNA


C (Chancery)

C 6/134/15 Short title: Batson v Colvile. Plaintiffs: Richard Batson and Gowen Goldagne. Defendants: Robert Colvile, John Colvile and William Clarkson. Subject: money matters. Document type: answer only. 1657

- CSG: There must be a very good chance that the above Chancery case involves two of the three partners of Richard Batson and Company

- CSG: Gowen Goldagne (and variants of that name) is mentioned in HCA 13/71 f.479r; there is also a mention of "Mr. Covell" (one of the owners of the Owners Adventure) (HCA 13/71 f.466v)

HCA (High Court of Admiralty)

HCA 13/128

- Case: XXXX: Answer: Richard Batson, Humphrey Beane, & Gowen Goldegay: Date: January 13th 1656 (modern 1657)

- Case: Edward Gosling, wages: Answer: Richard Batson: Date: XXXX

- Allegation: XXXX: Answer: Richard Batson, Humfry Beane & Gowden Goldgue (als. Goldeye): Date: Feb ?8th 1656

- Case: XXXX: Personal answeres: Edward Goslin & XXX XXXXXX: Date: XXXX


Printed


Pelham, Edward, God's Power and Providence (?London, 1631)

- account of first English wintering in Spitsbergen in 1630-31

de La Peyrère, Isaac, Histoire du Groenland (XXXX, XXXX)


Secondary sources


Acebes, Jo Marie V., 'Historic whaling in the Philippines: origins of 'indigenous subsistence whaling', mapping whaling grounds and comparison with current known distribution', HMAP Asia Project Paper, no. 161, October 2009[12]

Appleby, John C., 'Conflict, cooperation and competition: The rise and fall of the Hull whaling trade during the seventeenth century', The Northern Mariner/le marin du nord, XVIII No. 2, (April 2008), 23-59[13]

Bourne, Arthur G., 'Exploitation of the Small Whales in the North Atlantic', Oryx / Volume8 / Issue03 / December 1965, pp 185-193; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300004531 (About DOI), Published online: 24 April 2009

Brown, Brenna A McLeod, Timothy R Frasier, Robert Grenier, Stephen L Cumbaa, Jeya Nadarajah, Bradley N White, 'Genetic analysis of 16th-century whale bones prompts a revision of the impact of Basque whaling on right and bowhead whales in the western North Atlantic', Canadian Journal of Zoology, 2004, 82(10): 1647-1654[14]

Conway, Martin, No man's land: a history of Spitzbergen from its discovery in 1596 to the beginning of the scientific exploration of the country (Cambridge, 1906)

Hacquebord, Louwrens, 'Three 17th century whaling stations in southeastern Svalbard: an archaeological missing link', Polar Record, 24 (1988), pp. ?-?

van Holk, A.G.F. (ed.), Early European exploitation of the Northern Atlantic 800-1700 (Groningen, 1981)

Jackson, Gordon, The British whaling trade (London, 1978)

Jenkins, James Travis, A history of the whale fisheries: from the Basque fisheries of the tenth century to the hunting of the finner whale at the present date (London, 1921)[15]

Ch. 1: A history of the whale fisheries (pp.11-38)
Ch. 2: The economics of whaling (pp.39-58)

Vaughan, Richard, The Arctic: a history (Stroud, 1994)

Vaughan, Richard, 'Bowhead whaling in Davis Strait and Baffin Bay during the 18th and 19th Centuries', Polar Record / Volume23 / Issue144 / September 1986, pp 289-299; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0032247400007117 (About DOI), Published online: 27 October 2009

White, Adam (ed.), A collection of documents on Spitzbergen & Greenland (Hakluyt Society, 18, 1855)[16]
  1. ↑ James Travis Jenkins, A history of the whale fisheries: from the Basque fisheries of the tenth century to the hunting of the finner whale at the present date (London, 1921), facing p.58, viewed 15/10/12
  2. ↑ 'The Years of Expansion: Henry Johnson, senior, and Blackwall Yard, 1653–83', in XIX - Blackwall Yard', Hermione Hobhouse (ed.), 'Blackwall Yard: Development, to c.1819', Survey of London: volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs (1994), pp. 553-565,viewed 15 October 2012
  3. ↑ 'Hermione Hobhouse (ed.), 'Old Blackwall', Survey of London: volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs (1994), pp. 548-552, viewed15 October 2012
  4. ↑ Case: Edward Gosling, wages: Answer: Richard Batson: Date: XXXX; HCA 13/128 (1656-1658), no foliation, recto, P1110041, viewed 15/10/12
  5. ↑ Appleby, John C., 'Conflict, cooperation and competition: The rise and fall of the Hull whaling trade during the seventeenth century', The Northern Mariner/le marin du nord, XVIII No. 2, (April 2008), p. 26), viewed 15/10/12
  6. ↑ Appleby, John C., 'Conflict, cooperation and competition: The rise and fall of the Hull whaling trade during the seventeenth century', The Northern Mariner/le marin du nord, XVIII No. 2, (April 2008), p. 24), viewed 15/10/12
  7. ↑ Deposition of John Ely of Saint Mary Magdalen Bermondsey in the County of Surrey Mariner aged twenty eight yeares, TNA, HCA 13/71 f.464r
  8. ↑ Deposition John Colvile of Ratcliff in the parish of Stepney and County of Middlesex Mariner Gunner of the Owners Adventure aged thirty sixe yeares, TNA, HCA 13/71 f.469r
  9. ↑ Case: Richard Batson Humfrey Beane Gowan Golderne and Company against Edward Goslinge Richard Maundrie and William Humfreye: Thomas Damerell of Lymehouse in the parish of Stepney and County of Middlesex Mariner Master of the shipp the Owners Adventure and Commander alsoe of the Greyhound aged 37 yeares, TNA, HCA 13/71 f.479r
  10. ↑ James Travis Jenkins, A history of the whale fisheries: from the Basque fisheries of the tenth century to the hunting of the finner whale at the present date (London, 1921), facing p.58, viewed 15/10/12
  11. ↑ Petermann, Augustus, Map of the Sea of Soitzbergen, to illustrate 'Sir John Franklin, the Sea of Spitzbergen, and Whale-Fisheries in the Arctic Regions', Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. 23, 1853, betw. p. 130 & 131, viewed 15/10/12
  12. ↑ Acebes, Jo Marie V., 'Historic whaling in the Philippines: origins of 'indigenous subsistence whaling', mapping whaling grounds and comparison with current known distribution', HMAP Asia Project Paper, no. 161, October 2009), viewed 15/10/12
  13. ↑ Appleby, John C., 'Conflict, cooperation and competition: The rise and fall of the Hull whaling trade during the seventeenth century', The Northern Mariner/le marin du nord, XVIII No. 2, (April 2008), 23-59), viewed 15/10/12
  14. ↑ Toolika Rastogi, Moira W Brown, Brenna A McLeod, Timothy R Frasier, Robert Grenier, Stephen L Cumbaa, Jeya Nadarajah, Bradley N White, 'Genetic analysis of 16th-century whale bones prompts a revision of the impact of Basque whaling on right and bowhead whales in the western North Atlantic', Canadian Journal of Zoology, 2004, 82(10): 1647-1654, 10.1139/z04-146, viewed 15/10/12
  15. ↑ James Travis Jenkins, A history of the whale fisheries: from the Basque fisheries of the tenth century to the hunting of the finner whale at the present date (London, 1921), viewed 15/10/12
  16. ↑ White, Adam (ed.), A collection of documents on Spitzbergen & Greenland (Hakluyt Society, 18, 1855), viewed 15/10/12

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