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The Old Whaling Days

The Greenland Whalers' Complaint, 1838

The Greenland Whalers' Complaint, 1838.

Whalebone, under the designation of whale fins, came under the legislation providing preferential duties in favour of British trade. The duty provided in this case was £1 per ton if British caught, and £95 per ton if Foreign.

In 1838 a Petition was presented to the Lords of the Treasury, from the merchants and shipowners interested in the Greenland and Davis Strait whaling, praying for an investigation of the condition of things prevailing in the whaling trade of the South Pacific. It stated that for a considerable time the signatories had seen whalebone received into London as British caught which bore evident marks of being American or Foreign, but, because it was accompanied by a British Certificate, it escaped a duty of £94 per ton. The petitioners suggested that British ships met those of America on the high seas and bought the whalebone, which was incorporated in the cargo and covered by the certificate. This applied to ships from Sydney and Hobart Town. The petitioners stated that the proportion of whalebone in the North and South should agree, while in the North 1 to 2 tons of bone were procured with every 100 tuns of oil, in 1837 the total importation from the South Pacific showed 5 tons of bone to 100 tuns of oil, by which alone £12000 of duty was lost. They asked that where the bone exceeded 2 per cent, of the oil it should be refused admission.

Copies of the Petition were at once forwarded to the Collectors of Customs at Sydney and Hobart Town for investigation.

The Sydney evidence challenged the statement that 1 to 2 tons of bone was a fair average, and contended that not less than 5 tons to every 100 tuns of oil was the proper amount.

page 272

The various elements which affected the proportion of oil and bone were stated to be:—

1.

Whales were sometimes killed for the bone only, there being no casks for saving the oil.

2.

Whales were sometimes found so long dead, either afloat or stranded on the shore, that only the bone could be saved.

The latter was very common in New Zealand, as great numbers of vessels were engaged, and the wounded whales, died and were washed ashore.

The Hobart Town investigations were more complete than the Sydney, and the replies of the different whaling firms went to establish the following propositions:—

1.

The whales when they first arrived were fat and yielded less than 5 per cent, of bone to oil. If they came late, and remained to September and October, they got much thinner and the proportion of bone to oil was more than 5 per cent.

2.

Entire heads were sometimes lost through stress of weather, and then no bone at all was secured.

3.

All but the bone was sometimes lost, by the “fish” becoming putrid, or being driven ashore out of reach.

4.

Some oil was consumed in the Colonies, but all the bone was exported. This increased the proportion of bone.

5.

The experience of 3 years with one owner, and 7 years with another, was that 5 per cent, of bone was procured.

6.

One owner gave his figures for the New Zealand trade for the year 1835, as 7 tons of bone to 120 tuns of oil.

Dealing with the charge of British vessels purchasing whalebone from American, the Hobart Town Customs considered that the belief of the Petitioners on this point was wholly without foundation, as the crews were paid by “lays,” which were a substantial part of the value of the bone, and they did not consider that the crews would give-up their rights to their share of all bone procured, which would make it too costly for the owners.

page 273

In the light of the Sydney and Hobart Town information supplied to London, it is quite certain that the proportion of bone to oil was not from 1 to 2 per cent. The evidence everywhere was that it was about 5, and the figures of Weller's Establishment at Otago showed 1 to 21 or very nearly 5. But while that was so, it is equally certain that bone was purchased from the Americans. In the New Bedford Library, in the log of the American whaler, Tuscaloosa, for 1836, and while the vessel was whaling in Cloudy Bay, the following entries are to be seen:—

Sunday, August 28, 1836.

“Sold 200lbs. whale Bone to an English Brig.”

Wednesday, August 31, 1836.

“Sold 250lbs. bone to an English ship.”

No argument or reasoning can overcome the evidence of such entries. The English vessels purchased the American whalebone when they wanted to, and probably got over the difficulty with the men by giving them a small allowance. After a long voyage the prospect of getting home sooner would prepare the crew to allow the vessel to be at once filled, provided a correspondingly early start was made for home. The English Petitioners had not definite enough information at hand and they made the mistake of setting out to prove too much.

There might have been added to the reasons given above which determined the proportion of bone to oil, the case of whales being driven ashore and the natives securing, the bone and selling it to the whaling ships. This was a common practice. The capture of the Lord Rodney by the natives was preceded by negotiations for the purchase of whalebone which the natives had procured, and whalebone also figured at the capture of the Active shortly afterwards. This was all Foreign bone, quite as much as if bought from the Americans, but it all seems to have been put away as British bone, and covered by the one certificate.

Whether this preferential tariff that we have discussed, had the effect of reducing American competition, can be gathered by a perusal of the chapters which deal with the American whalers on our coast.