Whales, cod, and Basques…
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Report of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson on the Subject of the Cod and Whale Fisheries. Click here to go to whaling section. Made conformably to an order of the House of Representatives of the United States.
Referring to him the representation of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on those subjects.
February 1st, 1791.
Published by order of the Senate of the United States, Philadelphia.
Printed by John Fenno, High Street
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REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
The Secretary of state, to whom as referred by the House of Representatives, the representation for the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on the subjects of the cod and whale fisheries, together with the several papers accompanying it, has had the same under consideration, and thereupon makes the following --
REPORT.
The representation sets forth that, before the late war, about four thousand seamen and twenty-four thousand tons of shipping were annually employed, from that state, in the whale fishery, the produce whereof was about three hundred and fifty thousand pounds lawful money a year.
That, previous to the same period, the cod fishery of that State, employed four thousand men, and twenty-eight thousand tons of shipping, and produced about two hundred and fifty thousand pounds a year.
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Their history, being as unconnected as their practice, they shall be separately considered.
Within twenty years after the supposed discovery of Newfoundland, by the Cabots, we find that the abundance of fish on its banks had already drawn the attention of the people of Europe. For as early as 1517 or 1519, we are told of fifty ships being seen there at one time. The first adventurers in that fishery were the Biscayans of Spain, the Basques and Bas-Bretons of France, all united anciently in language, and still in habits and extreme poverty. The last circumstance enabled them long to retain a considerable share of the fishery. In 1577, the French had one hundred and fifty vessels there; the Spaniards had still one hundred; and the Portuguese fifty, when the English had only fifteen. The Spaniards and Portuguese seem, at length to have retired silently, the French and English claiming the fishery exclusively, as an appurtenance to their adjacent colonies, and the profits being too small for nations surcharged with the precious metals proceeding from their mines.
Without materials to trace their intermediate progress, we only know that so late as 1744, the French employed there five hundred and forty-four ships, and twenty-seven thousand five hundred seamen, and took one million two hundred and forty six thousand kentals of fish, which was three times the extent to which England and her colonies together carried this fishery at that time.
The English, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, had employed generally about one hundred and fifty vessels in the Newfoundland fishery. About 1670, we find them reduced to eighty, and one hundred, the inhabitants of New England beginning now to supplant them. A little before this, the British parliament, perceiving that their citizens were unable to subsist on the scanty profits which sufficed for their poorer competitors, endeavoured to give them some advantage by prohibiting the importation of foreign fish; and at the close of the century, they formed some regulations for their government and protection; and remitted to them some duties. A successful war enabled them in 1713 to force from the French, a cession of the island of Newfoundland.
Spain had formally relinquished her pretensions to a participation in these fisheries, at the close of the preceding war; and at the end of this the adjacent continent and islands, being divided between the United States, the English and French (for the last retained two small islands merely for this object) the right of fishing was appropriated to them also.
France, sensible of the necessity of balancing the power of England on the water, and therefore, of improving every resource for raising seamen, and seeing that her fishermen could not maintain their competition without some public patronage, adopted the experiment of bounties on her own fish, and duties on that of foreign nations brought into her markets. But notwithstanding this, her fisheries dwindle, from a change taking place, insensibly, in the character of her navigation, which, form being the most economical, is now become the most expensive. In 1786, she is said to have employed but seven thousand men in this fishery, and to have taken four hundred and twenty-six thousand kentals; and in 1787, but five thousand men, and one hundred and twenty eight thousand kentals. She seems not yet sensible that the unthriftiness of her fisheries proceeds form the want of economy, and not the want of markets; and that the encouragement of our fishery abridges that of a rival nation, whose power on the ocean has long threatened the loss of all balance on that element.
The plan of the English government, since the peace, has been to prohibit all foreign fish in their markets and they have given from eighteen to fifty pounds sterling, on every fishing vessel complying with certain conditions. This policy is said to have been so far successful as to have raised the number of seamen employed in that business in 1786, to fourteen thousand, and the quantity of fish taken, to seven hundred and thirty two thousand kentals.
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The whale fishery was first brought into notice of the southern nations of Europe, in the fifteenth century, by the same Biscayans and Basques, who led the way to the fishery of Newfoundland.
They began it on their own coasts, but soon found that the principal residence of the whale, was in the northern seas, into which, therefore, they pursued him. In 1578, they employed twenty-five ships in that business; the Dutch and Hamburghers took it up after this, and about the middle of the seventeenth century, the former employed about two hundred ships, and the latter three hundred and fifty.
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The English endeavoured also to participate in it. In 1672*, they offered to their own fishermen a bounty of six shillings a ton, on the oil they should bring home, and instituted at different times, different exclusive companies, all of which failed of success. They raised their bounty in 1733** to twenty shillings a ton on the admeasurement of the vessel. In 1740, to thirty shillings, with a privilege to the fishermen against being impressed. The Basque fishery, supported by poverty alone, had maintained but a feeble existence, before competitors, aided by the bounties of their nation, and was, in fine, annihilated by the war of 1745, at the close of which, the English bounty was raised to forty shillings.
From this epoch, their whale fishery went on between the limits of twenty eight and sixty seven vessels, till the commencement of the last war.
The Dutch in the meantime, had declined gradually to about one hundred and thirty ships, and have since than fallen down to less than half that number: so that their fishery, notwithstanding a bounty of thirty florins a man, as well as that of Hamburgh, is now nearly out of competition.
In 1715, the Americans began their whale fishery. They were led to it by the whales which presented themselves on their coasts. They attacked them there in small vessels of forty tons. As the whale, being infested, retired from the coast, they followed him farther and farther into the ocean, still enlarging their vessels, with their adventures to sixty, one hundred and two hundred tons. Having extended their pursuit to the Western islands, they fell in, accidently, with the spermaceti whale, of a different species from that of Greenland, which alone had been known in commerce.
More fierce and active, and whose oil and head matter was found to be more valuable as it might be used in the interior of houses without offending the smell.
THOMAS JEFFERSON,
Secretary of State.
February 1st, 1791.
END
—-___—-
Report of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson on the Subject of the Cod and Whale Fisheries. Click here to go to whaling section. Made conformably to an order of the House of Representatives of the United States.
Referring to him the representation of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on those subjects.
February 1st, 1791.
Published by order of the Senate of the United States, Philadelphia.
Printed by John Fenno, High Street
----------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(3)
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
The Secretary of state, to whom as referred by the House of Representatives, the representation for the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on the subjects of the cod and whale fisheries, together with the several papers accompanying it, has had the same under consideration, and thereupon makes the following --
REPORT.
The representation sets forth that, before the late war, about four thousand seamen and twenty-four thousand tons of shipping were annually employed, from that state, in the whale fishery, the produce whereof was about three hundred and fifty thousand pounds lawful money a year.
That, previous to the same period, the cod fishery of that State, employed four thousand men, and twenty-eight thousand tons of shipping, and produced about two hundred and fifty thousand pounds a year.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(4)
Their history, being as unconnected as their practice, they shall be separately considered.
Within twenty years after the supposed discovery of Newfoundland, by the Cabots, we find that the abundance of fish on its banks had already drawn the attention of the people of Europe. For as early as 1517 or 1519, we are told of fifty ships being seen there at one time. The first adventurers in that fishery were the Biscayans of Spain, the Basques and Bas-Bretons of France, all united anciently in language, and still in habits and extreme poverty. The last circumstance enabled them long to retain a considerable share of the fishery. In 1577, the French had one hundred and fifty vessels there; the Spaniards had still one hundred; and the Portuguese fifty, when the English had only fifteen. The Spaniards and Portuguese seem, at length to have retired silently, the French and English claiming the fishery exclusively, as an appurtenance to their adjacent colonies, and the profits being too small for nations surcharged with the precious metals proceeding from their mines.
Without materials to trace their intermediate progress, we only know that so late as 1744, the French employed there five hundred and forty-four ships, and twenty-seven thousand five hundred seamen, and took one million two hundred and forty six thousand kentals of fish, which was three times the extent to which England and her colonies together carried this fishery at that time.
The English, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, had employed generally about one hundred and fifty vessels in the Newfoundland fishery. About 1670, we find them reduced to eighty, and one hundred, the inhabitants of New England beginning now to supplant them. A little before this, the British parliament, perceiving that their citizens were unable to subsist on the scanty profits which sufficed for their poorer competitors, endeavoured to give them some advantage by prohibiting the importation of foreign fish; and at the close of the century, they formed some regulations for their government and protection; and remitted to them some duties. A successful war enabled them in 1713 to force from the French, a cession of the island of Newfoundland.
Spain had formally relinquished her pretensions to a participation in these fisheries, at the close of the preceding war; and at the end of this the adjacent continent and islands, being divided between the United States, the English and French (for the last retained two small islands merely for this object) the right of fishing was appropriated to them also.
France, sensible of the necessity of balancing the power of England on the water, and therefore, of improving every resource for raising seamen, and seeing that her fishermen could not maintain their competition without some public patronage, adopted the experiment of bounties on her own fish, and duties on that of foreign nations brought into her markets. But notwithstanding this, her fisheries dwindle, from a change taking place, insensibly, in the character of her navigation, which, form being the most economical, is now become the most expensive. In 1786, she is said to have employed but seven thousand men in this fishery, and to have taken four hundred and twenty-six thousand kentals; and in 1787, but five thousand men, and one hundred and twenty eight thousand kentals. She seems not yet sensible that the unthriftiness of her fisheries proceeds form the want of economy, and not the want of markets; and that the encouragement of our fishery abridges that of a rival nation, whose power on the ocean has long threatened the loss of all balance on that element.
The plan of the English government, since the peace, has been to prohibit all foreign fish in their markets and they have given from eighteen to fifty pounds sterling, on every fishing vessel complying with certain conditions. This policy is said to have been so far successful as to have raised the number of seamen employed in that business in 1786, to fourteen thousand, and the quantity of fish taken, to seven hundred and thirty two thousand kentals.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(6)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-7-
The whale fishery was first brought into notice of the southern nations of Europe, in the fifteenth century, by the same Biscayans and Basques, who led the way to the fishery of Newfoundland.
They began it on their own coasts, but soon found that the principal residence of the whale, was in the northern seas, into which, therefore, they pursued him. In 1578, they employed twenty-five ships in that business; the Dutch and Hamburghers took it up after this, and about the middle of the seventeenth century, the former employed about two hundred ships, and the latter three hundred and fifty.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(8)
The English endeavoured also to participate in it. In 1672*, they offered to their own fishermen a bounty of six shillings a ton, on the oil they should bring home, and instituted at different times, different exclusive companies, all of which failed of success. They raised their bounty in 1733** to twenty shillings a ton on the admeasurement of the vessel. In 1740, to thirty shillings, with a privilege to the fishermen against being impressed. The Basque fishery, supported by poverty alone, had maintained but a feeble existence, before competitors, aided by the bounties of their nation, and was, in fine, annihilated by the war of 1745, at the close of which, the English bounty was raised to forty shillings.
From this epoch, their whale fishery went on between the limits of twenty eight and sixty seven vessels, till the commencement of the last war.
The Dutch in the meantime, had declined gradually to about one hundred and thirty ships, and have since than fallen down to less than half that number: so that their fishery, notwithstanding a bounty of thirty florins a man, as well as that of Hamburgh, is now nearly out of competition.
In 1715, the Americans began their whale fishery. They were led to it by the whales which presented themselves on their coasts. They attacked them there in small vessels of forty tons. As the whale, being infested, retired from the coast, they followed him farther and farther into the ocean, still enlarging their vessels, with their adventures to sixty, one hundred and two hundred tons. Having extended their pursuit to the Western islands, they fell in, accidently, with the spermaceti whale, of a different species from that of Greenland, which alone had been known in commerce.
More fierce and active, and whose oil and head matter was found to be more valuable as it might be used in the interior of houses without offending the smell.
THOMAS JEFFERSON,
Secretary of State.
February 1st, 1791.
END
