Exterminating the Greenland Whale

The Greenland ships were still killing immature fish; whilst 193 whales killed by 19 Davis Straits ships produced 2803 tons of oil and 117 tons of bone, the 281 whales killed by 19 Greenland ships only produced 2235 tons of oil and 62 tons of bone. Again we have the Aurora (Captain "But" Sadler) killing 26 whales, boiling out 244 tons of oil and 9 tons of bone, as against the Samuels', whose 15 whales boiled out 247 tons of oil and 81/2 tons of bone.

These figures give one a hint of the way in which the Greenland whale, though still very prolific, was rapidly being exterminated.

(p. 169)


A Hull advertisement which provides further evidence of the wholesale killing of immature fish runs as follows:

FOR SALE BY PRIVATE CONTRACT.

Whale Oil Ready for Delivery.

About 50 tons of whale oil of superior quality being part of the produce of 22 fish under 7 feet 6 inches bone.

(Signed) CHRIS BRIGGS

Hull, July, 1805. 

 (p. 170)

(From The Arctic Whalers by Basil Lubbock)