History of Svalbard - Whaling

Whaling

The first hunting expedition was organized by the Muscovy Company led by Steven Bennet to Bjørnøya in 1604. Although they found thousands of walrus, they were only able to kill a few because of their lack of experience. The following year he was more successful and returned annually until they in a few years had achieved local extinction. After Jonas Poole reported seeing a "great store of whales" off Spitsbergen in 1610, the Muscovy Company sent a whaling expedition to the island under command of Poole and Thomas Edge in 1611. They hired Basque experts to hunt the bowhead whale, but both ships were wrecked and the crews rescued by English interlopers. The following year, the Muscovy Company sent a new expedition, but was met by both Dutch and Spanish whalers. The company claimed exclusive rights to the area and sent away the contenders. In 1613, seven armed English ships were sent on the expedition which expelled a few dozen Dutch, Spanish and French vessels.

This led to an international political conflict. The Dutch rejected the English exclusive rights, claiming the mare liberum principle. Christian IV claimed that Denmark–Norway had the rights to all of Northern Sea in lieu of Greenland being an old Norwegian tax-land. England offered to purchase the rights from Denmark–Norway in 1614, but the offer was turned down, after which the English reverted to their exclusive rights claim. In 1615, Denmark–Norway sent three man-o-wars to collect taxes from English and Dutch whalers, but all refused to pay. The issue ended in a political deadlock, with Denmark–Norway and England both claiming sovereignty and France, the Netherlands and Spain claiming it a free zone under mare liberum.

In 1614, the English and Dutch partitioned the island, as the aggression was hampering the profitability of both groups. That year, the Netherlands created Noordsche Compagnie as a whaling cartel. After the Muscovy Company fell into financial difficulties some years later, the Noordsche Compagnie got the upper hand and was able to dominate the whaling and fend off the English. They established themselves in the northwestern corner of Spitsbergen (around Albert I Land) and only permitted a limited Danish presence. The English whaled further south, while the French were allocated to the north coast and the open sea. From the 1630s, the situation stabilized and there were only a limited number of aggressive incidents.

Initially, all nations hired Basque whalers, although they gradually disappeared after their knowledge was learned by their companions. The whaling method was based on landing the whale, where it would be partitioned and the blubber boiled. With a high concentration of whales close to land, the method was efficient, as the companies would split the crew between the land station and hunting. The most famous land station was the Dutch Smeerenburg on Amsterdamøya which had up to 200 people employed. Because of the high costs involved, only larger companies conducted whaling. By the late 17th century there were between 200 and 300 ships and in excess of 10,000 whalers around Spitsbergen. The first overwintering was involuntarily undertaken by an English group in Bellsund in 1630–31. The first planned overwintering was done by Noordsche Compagnie in 1633–34.

A limited amount of open-sea whaling was performed by interlopers—independent entrepreneurs. Noordsche Compagnie was disbanded by the government in 1642. The decade also saw an increase of whaling outside the main bays and fjords. This gradually resulted in the abandoning of land stations as technological innovation allowed flensing along the ship, which allowed for pelagic whaling. Cooking of the oil was moved to the mainland. While more cost-efficient, it resulted in a large portion of the meat being wasted. During the 18th century, Dutch whaling was reduced, until it ceased after 1770. The British gradually took the lead in Arctic whaling, but by around the start of the 19th century bowhead whales were scarce around Spitsbergen and the whalers moved elsewhere.