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Schokkenbroek, J. C. A. (2008, April 2). Trying-out. An Anatomy of Dutch Whaling and Sealing in the Nineteenth Century, 1815-1885. Retrieved from
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/12669
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In Dutch historiography, whaling and sealing seem to have drawn less attention than the respective trading companies, the admiralties, and subsequent activities of the Royal Netherlands Navy, or the endeavours of the merchant fleet setting sail for the Mediterranean or Baltic regions. Dutch whaling and sealing activities during the nine- teenth century in particular have been almost completely neglected so far.1
This situation not only relates to historiography in general, but one may also dis- cern this neglect (or modest attention at best) in a rather unexpected field: the realm of Dutch maritime historiography. Nearly all studies about whaling and sealing that have seen the light during the last 30 years or so concentrate either on the heyday of the ‘old’ seventeenth- and eighteenth-century whaling expeditions to the Arctic, or on the brief, albeit intensive involvement of the Netherlands in modern, post-war whal- ing in the Antarctic waters during the period 1946-1964. This statement is corroborated by a number of fairly recently published overviews regarding Dutch maritime histo- riography. In 1994 Louwrens Hacquebord presented the harvest of one hundred years of historical research concerning Dutch whaling.2In this overview – a lengthy article with a close to conclusive listing of publications hidden in the annotations – Hacque- bord mentioned Cornelis de Jong and Frank Broeze and their works on nineteenth century whaling.3His remarks about the writings of the two authors, however, were rather flat. Hacquebord stated:
1. In the index of his widely acclaimed book about the socio-economic history of the Netherlands between 1795 and 1940, I.J. Brugmans adopted no more than two entries on whaling. These entries briefly mention the inter- est of the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (NHM) in South Sea whaling, and King Willem I’s financial par- ticipation in the whaling company of Harlingen, respectively. See I.J. Brugmans, Paardenkracht en mensenmacht.
Sociaal-economische geschiedenis van Nederland, 1795-1940 (’s-Gravenhage 1976; reprint of 1960 edition), 110, 154.
More recently, J.L. van Zanden and A. van Riel published their important work entitled Nederland 1780-1914. Staat, instituties en economische ontwikkeling (Amsterdam 2000). While discussing at length the financial involvement of the national government and king in numerous industries, the authors do not discuss whaling at all.
2. L. Hacquebord, ‘Van Noordse Compagnie tot Maatschappij voor de Walvisvaart. Honderd jaar onderzoek naar de geschiedenis van de Nederlandse walvisvaart’, Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis 13 (1994), no. 1, 19-40.
3. C. de Jong, Geschiedenis van de oude Nederlandse walvisvaart. Three volumes (Pretoria/Johannesburg
Introduction
“De Jong beschreef de achteruitgang en de uiteindelijke teloorgang van de Nederland- se walvisvaart in de negentiende eeuw in zijn tweede deel van de Geschiedenis van de oude Nederlandse walvisvaart […]. F.J.A. Broeze schreef een boeiend artikel over de po- gingen die in de negentiende eeuw werden ondernomen, om Nederland aan de Zuide- lijke walvisvaart te laten deelnemen”
(“De Jong described the recession and eventual decline of Dutch whaling in the nine- teenth century […]. Broeze wrote an intriguing article about the attempts, made in the nineteenth century, of the Netherlands participation in Southern whaling”).4
He concluded his article with a short chapter on the future of historical whaling re- search. Albeit the great number of suggestions, ideas, and research projects mentioned there, nothing was devoted to the fact that the nineteenth century deserved more at- tention than it had received.
Coincidentally, that same year (1994), J.R. Bruijn in his 17-page contribution about the state of naval and maritime history in the Netherlands devoted just one paragraph to whaling historiography.5He mentioned, among others, Cornelis de Jong’s magnum opus on the history of ‘old’ Dutch whaling, Louwrens Hacque- bord’s multi-disciplinary study of Spitsbergen, Piet Dekker’s manifold articles vis- à-vis whaling masters and their backgrounds, and Ad van der Woude’s work on the social and economic history of the Noorderkwartier (the present-day province of North Holland) in which whaling study has been imbedded. Most of these works date from the 1970s.6Furthermore, recent studies with regard to modern whaling were mentioned by Bruijn as well.7Their numbers have increased over the last de-
20 Trying-out
1972; 1976-1978). For this study volume II, 449-494 has been very useful; F.J.A. Broeze, ‘Whaling in the South- ern oceans. The Dutch quest for Southern whaling in the nineteenth century’, Economisch- en Sociaal-Historisch Jaarboek (ESHJ), volume 40 (1977), 66-112. It should be noted that no mention was made of Piet Dekker’s lengthy, yet fuzzy article on Dutch whaling in the Arctic during the last decade of the eighteenth and first de- cade of the nineteenth centuries. See P. Dekker, ‘De Nederlandse arctische walvisvaart tijdens de Bataafse Re- publiek’, Mededelingen van de Nederlandse Vereniging voor Zeegeschiedenis, no. 38 (August 1979), 40-70.
4. Hacquebord, ‘Noordse Compagnie’, 22-23.
5. Jaap R. Bruijn, ‘The Netherlands’, John B. Hattendorf (ed.), Ubi Sumus? The State of Naval and Maritime History (Newport 1994), 227-243; esp. 238.
6. The most important works regarding this period are: S. Hart, ‘De eerste Nederlandse tochten ter wal- visvaart’, Jaarboek Genootschap Amstelodamum, vol. 49 (1957), 27-64 (also in S. Hart, Geschrift en getal. Een keuze uit de demografisch-, economisch- en sociaal-historische studiën op grond van Amsterdamse en Zaanse ar- chivalia, 1600-1800 (Dordrecht 1976), 209-246); C. De Jong, Geschiedenis van de oude Nederlandse walvisvaart.;
C. de Jong, ‘Walvisvaart’ in: J.R. Bruijn e.a. (eds.), De Maritieme Geschiedenis van Nederland. Volume 3 (Bus- sum 1977), 335-352; A.M. van der Woude, Het Noorderkwartier (Wageningen 1972); J.R. Leinenga, Arctische walvisvangst in de achttiende eeuw: de betekenis van Straat Davis als vangstgebied (Amsterdam 1995); J.R. Bruijn,
‘De walvisvaart: de ontplooiing van een nieuwe bedrijfstak’, in: W. Vroom & L. Hacquebord (eds.), Walvis- vaart in de Gouden Eeuw (Amsterdam, 1988), 16-24; L. Hacquebord, Smeerenburg: het verblijf van Nederlandse walvisvaarders op de westkust van Spitsbergen in de zeventiende eeuw (Amsterdam/Groningen 1984).
7. Bruijn mentioned W.J.J. Boot, De Nederlandsche Maatschappij voor de Walvischvaart (Amsterdam 1987);
cade.8In this same paragraph on Dutch whaling historiography, one sentence was de- voted to nineteenth-century whaling. Bruijn wrote:
“F.J.A. Broeze has demonstrated why the Dutch failed to participate in nineteenth- century whaling in the Southern Hemisphere”.
And, in 1994, Bruijn was right. Except for Frank Broeze’s article, based on a wide va- riety of primary sources, hardly anything else had been published on this era. This will be discussed later. Bruijn then concluded his overview of whaling historiography by stating:
“Further whaling research will probably serve only to refine the available knowledge [my italics]”.
This statement is odd as well as challenging. Odd, as Bruijn seemed satisfied with the body of knowledge concerning Dutch whaling and sealing. Moreover, his remark dis- regards the possibility that new sources about these two intertwined maritime indus- tries may be found and may lead to new interpretations of old facts or even to ‘new knowledge’ based on hitherto unreleased data.
Seen in a more positive context, Bruijn’s remarks are provocative and challeng- ing. As such, his claims about the failure of Dutch whaling in the nineteenth century and the presumed relative unimportance of new whaling research form the basis for the present study of relatively unchartered grounds in Dutch maritime historiogra- phy: Dutch involvement in nineteenth-century whaling and sealing both in the South- ern Hemisphere and in Arctic waters.
As stated earlier, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dutch whale fishery is well-documented and broadly studied. Cornelis de Jong not only followed in the wake of S. Muller Fzn.,9but went far beyond the point of presenting ‘just an overview’ when he wrote down the results of his groundbreaking research on this period. With respect
J.R. Bruijn, ‘De Nederlandsche Maatschappij voor de Walvischvaart, 1946-1967’, ESHJ 48 (1985), 233-257. He left out an important study with regard to the composition of the crew on board the Dutch factoryships and catcher boats: A.M.C. van Dissel and J.E. Oosterling, ‘Aan boord van de ‘Willem Barendsz.’ Enkele sociale aspecten van de Nederlandse walvisvaart, 1946-1964’, Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis, vol. 5, nr. 2 (oktober 1986), 146-164.
8. Many of these recent publications were written by historians focusing on specific events, persons, or po- litical and economic developments, or by men who were employed in modern whaling, be it on board the factory ships or catcher boats. See for instance W. van der Plas, Katwijkers op de walvisvaart (Katwijk/Krom- menie 2002) and A. Schols, Ter walvisvaart. Dagboek van een jonge walvisvaarder op de Willem Barendsz (Leeu- warden 2002). Louwrens Hacqebord remains one of the leading scholars when it comes to old Dutch whal- ing. Jurjen Leinenga has published his book on Dutch whaling in Davis Strait, while Piet Dekker and the author of this dissertation have written about whaling from an art-historical perspective. These publications are mentioned in the Bibliography.
9. S. Muller FZn, Geschiedenis der Noordsche Compagnie (Utrecht 1874).
to nineteenth-century whaling, however, much less study has been conducted. In their standard work on modern whaling, J.N. Tønnessen and A.O. Johnson were short- sighted and erroneous when it came to the presence of Dutch whaleships in North- ern waters:
“In 1869 and 1875 the Dutch had attempted to resume their whaling activities in these waters [off Iceland] where they had a centuries-old tradition of whaling. These enter- prises might have been expected to discourage others to try their hand: company after company went bankrupt, and was forced to go into liquidation. The reason was not a lack of whales, but a lack of technical know-how”.10
Cornelis de Jong’s and Frank Broeze’s studies of Dutch nineteenth-century whaling in the Arctic and in the South Seas were heavily focused on catch results (De Jong) or frustrated attempts (Broeze), but have high academic merit. A handful of nineteenth- century publicists like C. Brandligt, A.J. ten Brink, S.C.J.W. Van Musschenbroek, and A. Beaujon wrote about certain aspects of Dutch whaling in remote areas. Here, au- thors like S. Haagsma and H. Halbertsma, publishing their articles about Frisian in- volvement in nineteenth-century whaling, should also be mentioned.11They rarely provide an overview, however, in which the dynamics playing such an important role in the whale fishery – people, ships, finances, know-how – were integrated or analysed in full.
In his three-volume work on ‘old’ Dutch whaling C. de Jong devoted one chap- ter of about 50 pages to developments in the Dutch whale fishery after 1813. He intro- duced a number of participants, named some of the ships, and (probably the best part of his brief overview) discussed the political, financial, and economic context within which whaling and sealing emerged. In the tables related to this era (in volume III), most numerical data referred to whaling activities taking place during the first few
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10. J.N. Tønnessen and A.O. Johnson, The History of Modern Whaling (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1982), 75.
Although this translation is a much shortened version of the original, published in Norwegian in four vol- umes under the title Den Moderne Hvalfangst Historie: Opprinnelse og Utvikling (Oslo/Sandefjord 1959-1970), both authors suggest that the Dutch have tried to resume whaling only in these two years. Not only did the Dutch resume whaling earlier, but the authors also seem to neglect Dutch whaling and sealing off Greenland and Spitsbergen.
11. C. Brandligt, Geschiedkundige beschouwing van de Walvisch-visschery (Amsterdam 1843); A.J. ten Brink, Blik op den hedendaagschen toestand der Europeesche Noordpool-visscherij (Enkhuizen 1876); S.C.J.W. Mus- schenbroek, ‘Cachelot-Visscherij in den Nederlandsch Indischen Archipel’, Tijdschrift ter bevordering van Nij- verheid, vol. XVIII, part 11 (Haarlem 1877); S. Haagsma, ‘Friesland’s Groenlandvaart’, Ons Zeewezen 1904, 310- 314; republished in Jaarboek Fries Scheepvaartmuseum en Oudheidkamer (1964/1965), 41-53; H. Halbertsma,
‘Uit het zeemansleven van Geert Oenes Dolstra (1792-1886)’, Jaarboek Fries Scheepvaatmuseum en Oudheid- kamer (1964/1965), 59-61; Anne J. Dijkstra, ‘De Groenlands- en Straat Davids-Visserij Sociëteit te Harlingen’, Jaarboek Fries Scheepvaartmuseum (1964/1965), 54-58; J. v.d. Weide, ‘Het leven aan boord van de Dirkje Ade- ma’, Ons Zeewezen 1921.
years after the Peace of Amiens (1802-1803), or up to 1826 at best. Here again, nine- teenth-century Arctic whaling received the most attention, while whaling in the South Seas was only briefly mentioned.12
Brandligt, Ten Brink, and Van Musschenbroek were some of the very few con- temporaries who wrote about the necessity of Dutch whaling entrepreneurs to explore new whaling grounds in the East Indies. Written about one century later, Frank Broeze’s lengthy article on Dutch involvement in the South Seas whale fishery was a brilliant, encompassing (although incomplete) overview of Dutch exploration and ex- ploitation of this specific type of whaling. In my treatise on Dutch whaling activities in Southern waters, his work will be quoted frequently. Some two decades after Broeze’s important article – and one year after Bruijn wrote his overview of maritime historiography – C. de Jong contributed to the historiography of Dutch Southern whaling with his publication on Western whaling in the East Indies in the nineteenth century.13
The present study intends to push ahead research on Dutch whaling and sealing in the nineteenth century, focusing attention on the very nature of the expeditions.
The scope, quality, and profitability of these industries will be discussed, and, where applicable and suitable, compared with those industries in other countries. Much at- tention will be paid to the people involved in whaling and sealing in this era. In other words, what companies and individuals contributed to nineteenth-century whaling and sealing under the Dutch flag?
To write a new history of Dutch whaling and sealing in the nineteenth century re- quires developing an innovative approach to the exploration and interpretation of na- tional, municipal and local archives. Moreover, this study goes beyond the exclusive use of written sources: three-dimensional objects – stowed away in private or muse- um collections – were also occasionally the basis of analysis.
Next to secondary sources, many unknown, or at least hitherto unused or un- quoted primary sources were studied and analysed. Crew lists in the archives of the lo- cal waterschouten (harbourmasters), notary records, minutes of meetings of town councils, archives related to orphanages, documents regarding nautical colleges and the training, and, consequently, the quality of their pupils during this era, ship’s jour- nals and business archives in libraries and museums in the Netherlands and abroad, and a wide array of local and national newspapers, all contained an overwhelming
12. The figures De Jong presented regarding the seal hunting industry after 1830 were murky and lack trans- parency. See for example his Oude Nederlandse walvisvaart, vol. II, 283.
13. See citations in note 3. See also C. de Jong, Westerse walvisvangst in Oost-Indië in de 19eeeuw (Amster- dam 1995), and S.J. de Groot, ‘Het voorkomen en de vangst van walvissen en walvisachtigen in de Indo-Austra- lische archipel, en de zaak van de walvisvaarder “Costa Rica Packet” (1891-1897)’, Mededelingen van de Neder- landse Vereniging voor Zeegeschiedenis, vol. 30 (1975), 20-29.
body of new data. Contrary to what Bruijn assumed, these primary sources provided not only a refinement of available knowledge, they enabled a filling of the gap between two well-documented eras – the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries and the twentieth century.
Chapter 1 briefly discusses the nature of Dutch whaling and sealing as conduct- ed in the seventeenth, eighteenth and very early nineteenth centuries. Attention is paid to the composition of crews, shipbuilding technology, governmental involvement, and profitability of the industries. In early 1802, the Treaty of Amiens enabled Dutch entrepreneurs to undertake a number of whaling expeditions. Their initiatives are also discussed. Modest in scope, and non-transparent in organisation, these early nine- teenth-century whaling voyages can nevertheless be considered the overture to later developments under Dutch management.
Whaling under the Dutch flag took place both in the South Seas as well as in the Arctic. A fairly generous system of subsidies – issued by the King and his ministers as of 1815 and continued until 1855 – supported Dutch entrepreneurs in their endeavours in the respective ‘theatres of whaling and sealing’. In Chapter 2 the nature and scope of the financial involvement of the King and his government in whaling and sealing after 1815 are discussed and placed within a broader international context. Therefore, international developments, in the fields of whaling and seal hunting are also briefly described as well as the financial involvement of the respective national governments.
In the wake of the British and Americans the Dutch also made attempts, from the 1820s onward, to organise whaling in the South Seas. Chapter 3 introduces the com- panies and individuals behind these whaling expeditions to southern latitudes and contains analyses of their activities.
Similarly, the actors who had chosen northern latitudes as their theatre of hunt are presented in Chapter 4. Companies and individuals with their personnel and ships are put to the fore, while overviews of their activities in the cold coastal waters off Greenland and in Davis Strait are provided.
Chapter 5 elaborately dwells on two crucial factors in whaling and sealing, or ac- tually in any maritime enterprise: ships and crews. As the lack of quality in both fields has frequently been regarded as very important factors for the failure in the Dutch whaling industry, an assessment of the actual state of the art concerning shipbuilding and training of the seamen is made. Crews of Dutch whaleships are scrutinized and analysed. Where did these sailors come from? What wages did they earn? What back- ground and level of education did they have when they signed up for their expeditions?
Under what circumstances did they live their lives and perform their duties?
In Chapter 6 data concerning the commodities (whale and seal products) and the business customers are presented. Sources are such that these results only account for Arctic whaling. Who were involved in the selling and buying of these products? How
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was the sale and subsequent distribution organised? And, of course, for what purposes did people use the whale oil and seal oil, the baleen, and seal furs?
The seventh chapter seeks to present calculations regarding the profitability (or lack of profitability) of nineteenth-century Dutch whaling and sealing expeditions. In- vestments in ships, gear, and men are compared with revenues from their catches.
Many questions are addressed such as who paid for the expeditions? And how prof- itable was participation in whaling and sealing to nineteenth-century investors?
The final chapter has a more summary character as all conclusions presented sep- arately in the preceding chapters will be brought together. This chapter also provides recommendations for further study. The appendices at the end present numerical as well as socio-economic data to back up statements and interpretations of facts, and may also serve to stimulate others to pursue research on various aspects of Dutch whaling and sealing.
