1 00:00:12,510 --> 00:00:14,830 Welcome to the London History Podcast. 2 00:00:15,070 --> 00:00:19,430 I'm your host, Hazel Baker, qualified London tour guide at 3 00:00:19,430 --> 00:00:24,790 londonguidedwalks.co.uk. Today we're stepping back into a 4 00:00:24,790 --> 00:00:29,430 very different London, one that looked outward across the seas. 5 00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:34,480 It's merchant ships pushing into dangerous Arctic waters and 6 00:00:34,480 --> 00:00:37,600 later voyaging as far as the Pacific. 7 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:44,080 Our focus is whaling, A brutal, perilous yet enormously 8 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:48,560 important trade that shaped the city's economy, culture and 9 00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:52,480 global reach from the early 1600s right through to the 19th 10 00:00:52,480 --> 00:00:55,880 century. The story doesn't begin in 11 00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:58,760 London. For centuries, Basque whalers 12 00:00:58,760 --> 00:01:02,240 had been hunting in the Bay of Biscay, developing techniques 13 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:05,120 that would later be carried into the Arctic. 14 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:09,640 As European powers competed for control of new fishing and 15 00:01:09,640 --> 00:01:14,680 whaling grounds, London found itself joining a race backed by 16 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:18,480 powerful trading companies, ambitious merchants and a 17 00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:24,720 growing demand for oil. And Berlin whaling was never 18 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:29,840 just about the hunt itself. Whale oil lit streets and homes, 19 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:33,720 powered industry, softened leather and lubricated 20 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:38,720 machinery, baleen, strong yet flexible, shaped fashion, 21 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:43,120 everyday objects, even the suspension of carriages. 22 00:01:43,960 --> 00:01:48,440 And behind those commodities lay stories of exploration, rivalry 23 00:01:48,440 --> 00:01:53,000 with the Dutch, ventures backed and broken by capital, and 24 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:57,040 eventually vast southern expeditions led by London 25 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:02,080 entrepreneurs like the Enderbiz to guide us through this 26 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:05,640 extraordinary history. From the bays of Biscay to 27 00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:10,880 Spitzbergian's ice, from corsets stays to Arctic disaster. 28 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:15,840 I am joined once again by historian and fellow tour guide 29 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:20,480 Ian Mcdermid. Today we'll explore how London 30 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:27,160 became, for a time, the world's greatest port and why by the mid 31 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:31,280 19th century, its dominance was already in decline. 32 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:35,320 All right, so let's get into it. Whaling from London really 33 00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:39,720 begins in the 1600s. But of course, the story doesn't 34 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:42,600 start there. In places like the Bay of 35 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:46,360 Biscay, busk whalers had already been active for centuries and 36 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:50,520 other European powers were also entering the trade. 37 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:57,160 Well, the this Bay of Biscay is the first documented place where 38 00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:00,720 whaling in the sense of hunting for whales takes place, and it 39 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:03,320 dates back to the 11th century. So people had caught whales 40 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:06,200 before them, but they're relying on stranded whales. 41 00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:08,880 Then in the whale caution and narrow confined to water. 42 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:11,360 They're not going right in boats to craps, which is what the 43 00:03:11,920 --> 00:03:15,160 stones are doing. And the written evidence goes 44 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:17,760 back to the 11th century for this. 45 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:22,480 And it's not entirely clear which animal they were hunting. 46 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:25,960 So the whale that they're hunting is called the Iskayan 47 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:29,080 whale in Latin Berliner iskayensis. 48 00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:33,600 And from the way they used it, it's obviously similar to what 49 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:36,560 we were in the 16th and 17th centuries, would later called 50 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:38,840 the right whale. But it's not at all clear. 51 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:42,720 And what happens in the Bay of Biscay is a model for what's 52 00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:45,920 going to happen because this is the first place they're they're 53 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:47,760 hunting whales. It takes a lot longer. 54 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:50,280 And that is what was stopped to become depleted. 55 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:53,360 And at the end of the 15th century, there are records of 56 00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:56,560 the people from Biscay going all the way over to the Gulf of 57 00:03:56,560 --> 00:04:02,200 Labrador being hunt for whales. But they also realise that there 58 00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:05,920 are whales further to the north in the Arctic. 59 00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:08,800 But the move to the north is actually going to be dominated 60 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:12,440 by the English and the dark and the English. 61 00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:15,480 And when we're talking about English throughout this period, 62 00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:20,279 London is by far and away the largest whaling pool throughout 63 00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:22,760 all the English activity. And the English are really 64 00:04:22,760 --> 00:04:27,880 active as whaling in in directly whaling from 1600 to 1850. 65 00:04:28,280 --> 00:04:32,440 The trade itself is very volatile and the English suffer 66 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:37,760 from competition from the duck and from American colonials. 67 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:41,440 The really took parts for English whaling in terms of 68 00:04:41,440 --> 00:04:46,480 persistent and sending ships out are the early 17th century and 69 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:49,480 then the late century and we to the early 19th century. 70 00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:51,720 And one of the extraordinary things, Hazel, is that in that 71 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:55,640 latter period, from roughly the 1780s to roughly the 1820s, 72 00:04:55,840 --> 00:04:59,240 London is actually the largest whaling port in the world. 73 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:03,240 In the world. Yes, it's quite extraordinary. 74 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:05,760 It all comes to a rather grinding halt, which we'll come 75 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:08,200 into. Essentially, the British 76 00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:12,560 government champions free trade and the importunities on 77 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:14,440 American oil are cut dramatically. 78 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:18,640 And this is really this with death of English whaling. 79 00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:21,840 And in the late 19th century the trade will be dominated by the 80 00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:25,040 Norwegians. And then in the 20th century, 81 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:27,720 things change again with technology, with factory ships, 82 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:32,040 with modernisation, which allows them to use whale oil, 83 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:35,000 margarine. And then the biggest buyer for 84 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:38,400 whale oil in the world in the 20th century will be Unilever. 85 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:40,200 Christian Salvator is another company. 86 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:45,400 But in in terms of sending out whaling fleets each year, London 87 00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:47,720 is actually from 1600 to about 1850. 88 00:05:49,640 --> 00:05:53,880 And at this point of period, it's the Dutch and the English. 89 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:58,000 Those ships are pushing into Arctic waters, developing what 90 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:00,720 became known as the northern fishery. 91 00:06:01,280 --> 00:06:07,000 A key motivation was the search for the Northeast Passage to a 92 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:10,640 cafe in the East Indies. But they never found that route. 93 00:06:10,640 --> 00:06:14,160 But they did find an abundance of whales. 94 00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:19,400 Can you explain how this shift shaped whaling and what it meant 95 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:22,000 for England's role in particular in the trade? 96 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:26,600 Yeah, the key location here, although they're sailing off the 97 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:28,720 north and looking for the Northeast Passage, The key thing 98 00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:33,000 for us is what is now known as the Svalbard archipelago, of 99 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:34,840 which the mainland island is Spitzbergen. 100 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:37,200 Back in the day, it was just known as Spitzbergen. 101 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:41,120 Spitzbergen was discovered in 1596 by the Dutch explorer 102 00:06:41,600 --> 00:06:45,800 barons, but nothing really comes of the discovery until around 16 103 00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:48,680 O 71. Important thing to notice that 104 00:06:49,120 --> 00:06:51,800 they've discovered Pittsburgen, but they think it's part of 105 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:54,480 Greenland. Very interesting, I would love 106 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:59,880 to go there. It's 78°, not the capital in 78° 107 00:06:59,880 --> 00:07:01,960 latitude. Just to orientate ourselves. 108 00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:06,520 London, the place from which we all orientate ourselves, is 51° 109 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:09,240 latitude. The most normally point in the 110 00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:11,920 British mainland, John O'Groats is 58.5. 111 00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:16,000 So 78° in Massachusetts for long year of BN. 112 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:19,160 It's the most normally placed inhabited in the world. 113 00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:22,720 If you want to get there, it's a 3 hour flight from Oslo. 114 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:24,680 We're talking somewhere quite far north. 115 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:27,520 If you look. At a map of the Arctic ice cap. 116 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:29,480 What's significant is the vain theory. 117 00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:32,000 It's free of ice. In the summer the ice extends 118 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:34,320 southwards down the East Coast of Greenland. 119 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:37,640 But where Spitzbergen is, it is in theory free of ice. 120 00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:40,360 And every now and then the temperature gets us high in 121 00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:42,560 August degree of centigrade. Can you imagine that an 122 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:45,720 Englishman, Henry Hudson, discovers this again? 123 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:50,040 Hudsley makes an unsuccessful attempt to get to the North 124 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:54,720 Pole, but is blocked by ice, and when he gets back to England, he 125 00:07:54,720 --> 00:07:58,560 reports that the West Coast of Spitsbergen is absolutely with 126 00:07:58,560 --> 00:08:02,800 giant whales. They inhabit the area where the 127 00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:06,280 ice is no longer solid, but breaking up Erie's upper levels 128 00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:10,000 of the ice edge. The waters are very ripped in 129 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:13,720 plankton which are then fed on by plankton, of which krill are 130 00:08:13,720 --> 00:08:17,680 the best known. The Wales return to the north in 131 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:21,800 the spring and on the way back they stop off in the bays or 132 00:08:21,800 --> 00:08:25,120 fjords on the coast of Spitsbergen. 133 00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:27,520 I mistakenly use the present tense there there. 134 00:08:27,600 --> 00:08:30,120 There are still some that were historically. 135 00:08:30,120 --> 00:08:32,600 That's what they did before they decimated. 136 00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:38,799 It was the Muscovy company that oversaw these early efforts. 137 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:43,520 What role did the company play in organising but also financing 138 00:08:43,559 --> 00:08:47,120 England's first ventures into whaling well? 139 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:50,880 They are vital because they have a monopoly on the areas. 140 00:08:50,880 --> 00:08:54,160 As the name suggests, the Muscovy Company is primarily 141 00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:56,880 interested in trading with Muscovy, initially with the 142 00:08:56,880 --> 00:08:58,240 search for the North East Passage. 143 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:01,720 There's a famous voyage in 1553 when Willoughby and Chancellor 144 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:04,320 go off and search the passage. They don't make it. 145 00:09:04,360 --> 00:09:08,400 Willoughby's dip is lost, but Chancellor reaches Archangel, 146 00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:11,400 we'd say, in 1555. The Muscovy Company is founded 147 00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:13,880 with Sebastian Kaboch and a group of London merchants 148 00:09:14,160 --> 00:09:19,160 granted a monopoly on the Russian trade, and the trade 149 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:22,840 with Muscovy consists of the export primarily of English wool 150 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:26,960 and cloth, but also the re export of manufactured goods 151 00:09:27,040 --> 00:09:30,040 from the Mediterranean. In return the English are 152 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:33,360 importing things like hemp, tallow and cordy. 153 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:37,680 They as I say, as part of the monopoly of trading in Russia, 154 00:09:37,680 --> 00:09:41,080 they organised the first whaling expedition to the Arctic with 155 00:09:41,080 --> 00:09:44,040 two whales shipped under the command of generous Poole. 156 00:09:44,480 --> 00:09:48,880 And very sensibly they take 6 Basque heart primers along with 157 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:53,520 them and they managed to spill 13 whales. 158 00:09:53,520 --> 00:09:55,280 So this is a very promising start. 159 00:09:55,920 --> 00:10:00,240 But unfortunately, the second ship under acted edge is lost 160 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:04,720 three eyes and he is subsequently rescued by another 161 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:07,160 ship. Paul then comes back, finds 162 00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:10,640 them, claims the oil, but as he's loading the oil onto his 163 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:13,880 ship, he mishandles the ballast and his ship goes over and 164 00:10:13,880 --> 00:10:16,280 sinks. Now all of the sailors are 165 00:10:16,280 --> 00:10:19,720 rescued, nobody loses their lives, but this is obviously a 166 00:10:19,720 --> 00:10:23,640 bit of a financial disaster. However, the company is very 167 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:27,600 much encouraged by the fact that they managed to kill 13 whales 168 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:29,400 before everything went badly wrong. 169 00:10:29,840 --> 00:10:33,720 And in 1612 another pair of ships are sent out and they 170 00:10:33,720 --> 00:10:37,360 managed to kill 17 whales plus a number of Walrusters. 171 00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:43,040 However, there's a piece of news and that is that they from this 172 00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:47,040 successful expedition. They cite other ships just off 173 00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:50,000 Spitzbergen, one from the Netherlands and one from the 174 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:52,360 Basque Country. They drive them off, but this is 175 00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:55,920 a very ominous Pines and subsequently the Dutch and 176 00:10:55,920 --> 00:10:59,560 English will square off against each other using the threat of 177 00:10:59,560 --> 00:11:02,120 violence and occasionally against one another, and 178 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:05,320 eventually they divide Spitzberg enough so the Dutch are given 179 00:11:05,480 --> 00:11:09,640 the northern part of the island and the English concentrate on 180 00:11:09,800 --> 00:11:11,000 they've. Already mentioned that they were 181 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:14,000 hunting for what was known at the time as the right whale, 182 00:11:14,280 --> 00:11:17,000 so-called because it was considered the right one to 183 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:20,160 catch. By the 19th century, zoologists 184 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:22,760 reclassified it as the bowhead whale. 185 00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:26,320 So can you explain what species were actually being hunted? 186 00:11:26,680 --> 00:11:29,040 Yeah, it is a little bit unfortunate from a historical 187 00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:31,360 point of view. So in the 19th century, they 188 00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:36,080 realised that the right whale, as formerly known, that exists 189 00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:39,360 in the Arctic, is not the same animal, not the same species, 190 00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:43,880 not even the same genus as the right whales that have found off 191 00:11:43,880 --> 00:11:47,240 the coast of America. And the one that we're 192 00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:50,560 interested in is, as you've mentioned, now known as the 193 00:11:50,880 --> 00:11:54,760 bowhead whale. Its Latin name is Beliner, Mr. 194 00:11:54,760 --> 00:11:58,040 Totus, and it is the own within its Venus. 195 00:11:58,320 --> 00:12:02,000 This is a little bit unfortunate because the term right whale is 196 00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:05,640 absolutely term that contemporaries use. 197 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:09,160 And it feels a little bit odd to me to use the term bowhead, 198 00:12:09,160 --> 00:12:13,040 though I think most people writing about whales use the 199 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:15,360 term bowhead. Bowhead is actually quite a good 200 00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:18,600 name because it describes very well the shape of the mouth of 201 00:12:18,600 --> 00:12:22,040 these animals, which is like a bow when you see them side on. 202 00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:28,160 And they, as you indicated, they are the right whale. 203 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:31,440 And I will probably call them right whales from this point 204 00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:35,280 onwards, although I'm referring to the liner Claytus. 205 00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:38,800 And they, there are a lot, as I said, there are lots of reasons 206 00:12:38,960 --> 00:12:40,960 for why they are the correct ones to go over. 207 00:12:41,160 --> 00:12:44,400 The key ones are they are slow swimming, so you can catch up 208 00:12:44,400 --> 00:12:46,880 with them in a rowing boat. And this is one of the the 209 00:12:46,880 --> 00:12:49,520 pieces of technology that marks off our periods. 210 00:12:49,520 --> 00:12:52,440 I was saying earlier that we're going to end in, in around 1850. 211 00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:58,080 Up until 1850, they are hunting whales using rowing boats, which 212 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:01,600 are known as fellow. So obviously they're limited by 213 00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:05,400 the speed rowers can go at and there are only a couple of kind 214 00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:09,680 of whales that go that slowly and one of them was our whale. 215 00:13:10,120 --> 00:13:13,040 The other key thing for weighing in this period is that the 216 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:15,640 carcasses float. So that's absolutely crucial in 217 00:13:15,640 --> 00:13:20,480 being able to process them. And they in addition to 218 00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:24,400 producing giving oil as a product, they also have their 219 00:13:24,400 --> 00:13:25,840 baleen. So when we're talking about 220 00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:29,600 whales, there are two broad categories of the whales. 221 00:13:29,880 --> 00:13:33,080 There are the whales with Billy, which feed on the plankton, and 222 00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:36,280 then there are whales with teeth And the whale with teeth that 223 00:13:36,280 --> 00:13:38,720 will be important to us later on is the sperm whale. 224 00:13:39,160 --> 00:13:42,360 But when you have Billy, they are feeding on plankton and 225 00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:44,840 therefore they are geographically circumscribed. 226 00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:47,240 They have to feed where the plankton are. 227 00:13:47,440 --> 00:13:50,080 Whereas the toothed whales like the sperm whales and only 228 00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:53,840 pelagic whales, that means ocean whales that they can be found 229 00:13:53,840 --> 00:13:57,480 all over because the sperm whale feeds on squid and cuttlefish, 230 00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:01,440 which can be example in cherry whales and they are the the 231 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:05,960 right whales, bowhead whales by by liner mystery pages. 232 00:14:05,960 --> 00:14:10,040 They are amazing animals. And when you start listing of 233 00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:12,520 all all these features of them, they just sound absolutely 234 00:14:12,520 --> 00:14:15,640 incredible and it sounds like a kind of poem to their sublimity. 235 00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:19,920 And these are further reasons why they were the right whale to 236 00:14:19,920 --> 00:14:22,160 Crouch. But obviously to a modern era, 237 00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:25,240 they sound like very good reasons for not killing these 238 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:27,760 animals at all. So they are masses. 239 00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:30,160 They grow to about 60 feet in length. 240 00:14:30,600 --> 00:14:33,840 They, as I mentioned, you can have it very cold water. 241 00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:36,400 So their bodies have enormous and thick rubber. 242 00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:40,200 On a white whale this can be 12 to 18 inches. 243 00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:41,880 And this is the thickest venue whale. 244 00:14:42,360 --> 00:14:47,560 Their heads are massive. They are about 1/3 of their body 245 00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:50,280 size. And the skulls are massive 246 00:14:50,280 --> 00:14:54,360 partly to accommodate the believe, but also they have 247 00:14:54,360 --> 00:14:56,400 these massive skulls from garden Bruins. 248 00:14:56,720 --> 00:15:00,040 And one other feature of them swimming under the ice is that 249 00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:03,480 the right whale, using it's historical men, has no dorsal 250 00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:06,080 thin so it can swim easily underneath the ice. 251 00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:10,280 And because so much of their body mass is made-up for these 252 00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:15,280 large heads and slubbers, they are extremely slow moving. 253 00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:20,400 They're also slow because it's the efficient way to take in the 254 00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:24,880 maximum amount of food for the minimum expenditure of effort. 255 00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:27,760 And what they do is they move around slowly, grazing 256 00:15:27,760 --> 00:15:29,920 throughout the sea, scooping up the tanks. 257 00:15:29,920 --> 00:15:32,680 And, and the way it works is that they take and release huge 258 00:15:32,680 --> 00:15:35,400 mouthfuls of sea water and expel them through the baleen. 259 00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:39,040 And the baleen is covered in hairs, and the crew in 260 00:15:39,040 --> 00:15:42,840 particular remain in the mouth and then make their way down to 261 00:15:42,840 --> 00:15:47,000 the stomachs. One other amazing thing about 262 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:50,000 these animals is that they can live for well over 100 years. 263 00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:53,000 Some people think that they can live up to 200 years. 264 00:15:54,760 --> 00:15:58,680 Amazing animals. Whales split into two broad 265 00:15:58,680 --> 00:16:02,400 groups, those with baleen and those with teeth, and with the 266 00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:06,520 right whale you're getting 2 valuable commodities. 267 00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:11,320 Have these uses changed? Yes, but in the Middle Ages 268 00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:15,400 they're mainly using them for lighting, but also for a 269 00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:18,440 lubricant in the processing of textiles. 270 00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:23,000 So all of that continues. But the key thing in the early 271 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:26,280 17th century, from your English point of view, is the use of 272 00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:29,200 whale oil in the manufacture of soap. 273 00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:32,040 Later on, there's a House of Commons reporting to the 274 00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:35,760 industry because they're getting into tub or and the must leak 275 00:16:35,920 --> 00:16:40,800 company reports that 95% of its oil had been used for the 276 00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:45,640 manufacture of soap. And the oil is very good because 277 00:16:45,640 --> 00:16:49,480 it's it's not quite odorless, but it's very close to that. 278 00:16:49,480 --> 00:16:51,800 And so it's a very good ingredient to you and. 279 00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:57,120 Of course, Berlin was used in, well, most importantly in 280 00:16:57,120 --> 00:17:00,040 corsets, giving it that strong, flexible light. 281 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:03,480 I remember learning about corsets being made with 282 00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:07,359 whalebone, but it's actually a misnomer, isn't it? 283 00:17:08,280 --> 00:17:09,280 Yeah. Whalebone. 284 00:17:09,359 --> 00:17:12,319 When people say whalebone, I normally mean Berlin. 285 00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:16,560 These are the sheets that grow out of the upper door of the 286 00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:20,319 whale and they in turn incredible that they can grow to 287 00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:23,359 13 feet in length, about 15 inches across. 288 00:17:23,359 --> 00:17:26,160 They are amazing. And as you were saying, the 289 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:28,280 corsets are the most important part of demand. 290 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:31,960 And I was going to say how I thought this worked, but I 291 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:34,440 correctly correctly because I think far more about this than I 292 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:38,520 do So I think the corsets become fashionable in the end of 293 00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:41,160 Elizabeth's reign, of course. And when you look at those 294 00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:44,440 paintings from the end of Elizabeth's reign to into the 295 00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:48,440 other part of James's reign of women, they very often have 296 00:17:48,440 --> 00:17:53,560 impossibly slender waist. And the corsets remained in 297 00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:55,560 fashion for most of the 18th century. 298 00:17:56,480 --> 00:17:58,280 But the market is growing incredibly. 299 00:17:58,280 --> 00:18:00,800 It's not as osteocratic women were to wear in them. 300 00:18:01,240 --> 00:18:03,960 But then I think in the 18th century, although the market's 301 00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:05,440 still vast, it's no longer growing. 302 00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:07,080 So to some extent it's saturated. 303 00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:10,520 And then at the very end of the 18th century, going into the 304 00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:12,280 early 19th century, you then get this. 305 00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:15,280 What do France will be? The empire law inspired by 306 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:19,120 fashions for naturalism, for which Rousseau is a big impetus. 307 00:18:19,440 --> 00:18:23,120 And they abandoned the corset. And that is bad news for people 308 00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:26,680 hunting for Berlin. But then it comes back again 309 00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:29,080 with Dean Vic. Yeah, so my understanding with 310 00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:33,520 the terminology, corsets that can be stays would have been the 311 00:18:33,560 --> 00:18:36,440 earlier use really. So you're about right. 312 00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:41,800 So swap the word corset for stays and yeah, you see some 313 00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:45,280 really extreme silhouettes even in the late Elizabethan 314 00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:48,200 portraits. Of course, we've got that effigy 315 00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:52,240 bodice with the stays for Elizabeth the 1st that are in 316 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:53,960 Westminster Abbey. You can see these really and 317 00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:57,680 possibly narrow waists that could only be achieved with 318 00:18:57,680 --> 00:19:00,800 stiff support. And then through the 17th 319 00:19:00,800 --> 00:19:05,200 century stays considering them to be a precursor for corsets 320 00:19:05,360 --> 00:19:08,320 became a standard, absolute standard of women's dress, 321 00:19:08,320 --> 00:19:10,680 regardless of what level of society. 322 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:14,680 And that gave you the long rigid torso and that in portraits of 323 00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:18,840 the Stuart court as well. But by the 18th century, 324 00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:22,000 corsetry was really embedded in fashion. 325 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:25,720 No respectable woman would not be wearing a corset. 326 00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:30,520 And it was a social expectation. And though as you say, the early 327 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:33,440 decades of the century were probably then heighted demand, 328 00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:37,600 but by the early 19th century and moved to a more natural 329 00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:41,240 classical style and those high waisted muslin gowns, we think 330 00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:45,680 the Regency period inspired by ancient Rome and Greece, corsets 331 00:19:45,720 --> 00:19:49,520 fell somewhat out of favor. And you had short stays and also 332 00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:54,760 long stays, but they moved the waist to a different place. 333 00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:58,800 But then of course, corsetry returned with force in the 334 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:01,320 Victorian years. And then that's where you get 335 00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:04,240 the tight lacing, which became a part of a very. 336 00:20:04,360 --> 00:20:08,280 Different ideal of femininity. And so you can have an overview 337 00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:11,400 there from what is the main source of demand to Berlin. 338 00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:14,720 But it has lots of uses. I don't particularly like 339 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:17,280 Return, but it's often referred to as the kind of 19th century 340 00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:19,040 plastic. The key thing is that it's 341 00:20:19,520 --> 00:20:22,520 light, it's flexible, and it's got very tight tensile strength. 342 00:20:23,080 --> 00:20:26,440 It can be used for all kinds of ornamental uses like hair 343 00:20:26,440 --> 00:20:29,000 brushes and the rest of it. It's slightly out of our period, 344 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:31,400 but in the 19th century they learned to bend it a lot in 345 00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:36,160 which includes Dean. Hair on the balline itself can 346 00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:38,840 also be used for the bristles for hair brushes. 347 00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:42,480 It's used in the manufacture of umbrellas until replaced by 348 00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:46,120 steel in the mid 19th century. It comes in different grades so 349 00:20:46,120 --> 00:20:51,040 it comes with different physical qualities and one of the mains 350 00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:53,920 is for the stronger, heavier type of balline for the 351 00:20:54,200 --> 00:21:00,640 suspension in carriages. I don't really want to know, but 352 00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:04,960 I need to, and this is by no way supporting whaling whatsoever, 353 00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:08,120 but how did they hunt the whales? 354 00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:10,240 Yes, it's it's pretty grim and prayed. 355 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:12,800 So as mentioned earlier, we're talking about a period when 356 00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:15,480 they're hunting them in rowing. The initial method is often 357 00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:19,240 called Bay whaling. It's pioneered in the Bay of 358 00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:23,000 this day and this is the method which is then transported up to 359 00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:27,080 Spitzbergen. The whaling ships themselves are 360 00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:30,400 not really involved in the capture of the animals. 361 00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:33,040 The wave and ships are basically just transports, taking 362 00:21:33,040 --> 00:21:36,760 equipment out in the spring and returning before winter. 363 00:21:37,360 --> 00:21:41,480 And eventually the English and the Dutch will realise that 364 00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:43,640 actually it's more efficient just to leave your equipment on 365 00:21:43,640 --> 00:21:48,120 Spitzberg and so they build huts and leave all of the heavy stuff 366 00:21:48,120 --> 00:21:52,200 there. The Dutch actually tried the men 367 00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:55,200 on Spitsbergen as well over the winter, but that had rather 368 00:21:55,200 --> 00:21:57,800 unfortunate results. They tried it twice and they all 369 00:21:57,800 --> 00:22:01,320 died. So you have men primarily on the 370 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:04,400 coast, but they could sometimes be on a ship, a male on the 371 00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:07,560 lookout for whales. When the whale is sighted, they 372 00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:09,960 launch these rowing boats. These are very heavy rowing 373 00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:12,800 boats known as stellots, which is a corruption of the Basque 374 00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:15,640 word chamupa. And these are heavy rowing boats 375 00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:19,160 with perhaps 6, maybe 4 oarsmen on them. 376 00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:24,320 This is incredibly physically arduous work because they've got 377 00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:29,000 to pursue the whale, and they can be out there for hours and 378 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:33,520 hours. And the very specified jobs 379 00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:36,520 within the bone that are finally specialized and very, very 380 00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:38,440 skilled. And one of them is that of the 381 00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:41,760 houndsman, who has to try to predict where the whale is next 382 00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:43,480 to them to come up through green. 383 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:47,160 In addition to him, you also have the harpooner who has to 384 00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:52,560 launch by hand the harpoon into the back of the whale, again 385 00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:54,960 requiring immense strength and skill. 386 00:22:55,400 --> 00:22:57,800 And then you also have the blind man who's managing the rope. 387 00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:01,280 The harpoon is attached to a rope, and the rope might be as 388 00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:04,920 much as a mile long and put made into a coil in the back of the 389 00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:07,080 boat. It's then fed over to the front 390 00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:09,960 of the boat. And once the harpoon is put into 391 00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:13,840 the back of the whale, the whale will dive to try and get away, 392 00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:16,520 and the rope goes flying after it. 393 00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:19,200 And one of the jobs of the lineman is to make sure that the 394 00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:23,240 rope and also the boat don't catch fire as the rope goes over 395 00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:25,480 the boat and it causes great friction. 396 00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:29,480 The harpoon isn't going to kill the whale, it's just embedded in 397 00:23:29,480 --> 00:23:32,960 the whale, but it's hooked and it means that the whale is in 398 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:37,360 effect dragging the boat along. Once a harpooner has got the 399 00:23:37,360 --> 00:23:41,800 harpoon in the whale, that boat will then alert the other 400 00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:43,360 shallots who will come up to hell. 401 00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:46,960 Shallots will then put their attach their ropes to the rope 402 00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:50,000 around the whale and between them they will try and get more 403 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:53,120 harpoons in the whale. And what happens is that the 404 00:23:53,120 --> 00:23:55,280 whale dives down, then off the wild. 405 00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:58,480 The whale has to come up to breed and as it comes up they 406 00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:00,000 will bring the rope in gradually. 407 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:03,080 So it's a bit like angling, not that I've ever been angling, but 408 00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:05,040 our sense this is the way it probably works. 409 00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:12,120 And then the hunt goes on and the hunt can last for ages. 410 00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:15,640 So the quickest death that the whare is going to have is 2 411 00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,080 hours. But the process from putting the 412 00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:21,440 harpoon in the back to the death of the whale could take as many 413 00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:24,320 as 40 hours. And I'm thinking reciting this 414 00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:27,280 as modern people were just horrified by the suffering of 415 00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:29,560 the whales. But one has to imagine also, as 416 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:32,760 I say, how arduous this is for the men involved. 417 00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:36,120 You're talking Arctic waters. They're rowing like Hells for 418 00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:39,840 hours on end. It's extremely dangerous because 419 00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:43,640 the the right whale can easily slip a boat over with it's tail. 420 00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:46,320 Actually I should mention one of the sad things about this that 421 00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:48,800 another reason why the right whale is the right whale is that 422 00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:52,640 they are very Pacific animals. Their only natural predator I 423 00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:57,120 think is the killer whale. And the killer whale until very 424 00:24:57,120 --> 00:24:59,680 recently has been much to the South of them. 425 00:24:59,880 --> 00:25:04,080 They have no reason to fear man, and so they're quite Placid 426 00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:08,160 animals as well, but they can easily overturn and smash up one 427 00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:11,040 of the goodies. Rowing, though, eventually the 428 00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:15,720 whale is exhausted. It comes to the surface and then 429 00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:19,480 the men throw Lancers or Spears into it and they're trying to 430 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:22,720 get a vital organ and to kill the whale lot. 431 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,680 And this works OK later on, the sperm whales, but with the right 432 00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:28,360 row, they're ruined. Thick rubber. 433 00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:32,720 It doesn't normally happen and the whale will eventually expire 434 00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:36,000 through normally spoon blood loss and exhaustion. 435 00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:39,320 The key thing is it floats. They row it onto the beach. 436 00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:43,160 The blubber is removed with these huge and extremely sharp 437 00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:46,920 knives in big sections. It's then cutting to smaller 438 00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:49,800 sections and they often use the whales flukes, the fins on its 439 00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:53,680 tail to do this and then it's put in the Tri works which are 440 00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:58,200 huge cauldrons and it is all boiled in water and then the oil 441 00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:01,160 is scooped off the top and whilst this is happening other 442 00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:04,080 men removed the baleen from the whale's head. 443 00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:09,560 In 1637, the House of Commons had appointed a committee to 444 00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:14,080 enquire into the Trace decay. Why was English whaling industry 445 00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:19,200 at that point struggling? In part the struggles are those 446 00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:23,080 of the Greenland company itself because it finds it very hard to 447 00:26:23,360 --> 00:26:27,480 enforce it's monopoly and in particular as well as from other 448 00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:30,720 ports are going out, in particular Hull and Yarmouth. 449 00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:34,640 In the case of Hull they have a reasonable case because they go 450 00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:35,680 to law. After this. 451 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:38,640 The whalers from Hull argued that actually they had sent 452 00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:42,360 boats to this area before. The starter of the Muscovy 453 00:26:42,360 --> 00:26:46,240 Company has been concerned. One of the big problems that 454 00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:49,520 English have is that they are unable to sell the oil and the 455 00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:51,560 Bolin abroad. They are restricted to the 456 00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:54,840 English market and this is because the Dutch can prevent 457 00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:56,480 them. Basically, the Dutch are just so 458 00:26:56,480 --> 00:26:58,000 much more efficient than the English. 459 00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:03,800 They can undersell them in time and this is partly because the 460 00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:06,960 Dutch are just better technically at Wyman. 461 00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:10,720 It's probably also the case that the monopoly of the green 462 00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:15,600 company, the Muscovy Company, is in itself not a great way to 463 00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:17,440 organise. One of the things that they do 464 00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:21,520 is to start for competition. This may well have prevented the 465 00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:23,880 English from becoming a bit technically better than they 466 00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:27,160 were. Spitzbergen declined. 467 00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:30,320 So, as mentioned earlier, this is a perennial problem. 468 00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:33,440 They find new fisheries, as they call them. 469 00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:37,680 They then exploit them, destroy the stocks and the whales become 470 00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:41,360 progressively harder to find. The Dutch, from their northern 471 00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:45,920 vantage point on Spitzbergen, they realise that if they sail 472 00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:51,640 directly north they can then drift SE and they come to new 473 00:27:52,120 --> 00:27:55,160 fisheries just off the coast of Greenland. 474 00:27:55,920 --> 00:28:00,480 This is something that the English don't really get into. 475 00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:03,240 Once you go onto the coast of Greenlands, it's well that is 476 00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:08,000 Icebound and the instead of doing Bay whaling, they're now 477 00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:12,160 whaling inside areas where there's lots of they call it ice 478 00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:15,480 fishing. You need to make sure your ships 479 00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:18,200 are strengthened in case they get crushed by the ice. 480 00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:22,000 You need superb seamanship to navigate in between all these 481 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:26,640 difficulties when the Harper whale swims underneath the ice 482 00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:31,520 and how to deal with that. In addition, there is a huge 483 00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:34,840 problem because the Tri works they've been using on 484 00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:40,280 Spitzbergen to process the blubber are far too big to have 485 00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:43,400 on a ship. Later the Americans will 486 00:28:43,560 --> 00:28:46,960 innovate and have Tri work to put on ships and they are 487 00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:49,280 dealing with the sperm whale, not the right whale. 488 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:52,040 And the sperm whale is much, much smaller animal diseases, 489 00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:55,680 much, much less oil. And this innovation will work. 490 00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:58,040 You just can't do it with the right whale. 491 00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:02,080 And the Dutch, they take the blubber off. 492 00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:05,680 They, they cut, they, they normally will haul the whale 493 00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:08,480 onto the ice, but sometimes they, they tie it alongside the 494 00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:11,520 ship. They crack the blubber off and 495 00:29:11,520 --> 00:29:15,280 then they put the blubber into butts, which are then eventually 496 00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:19,920 taken to shore. But the problem is that the 497 00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:24,920 blubber contains bits of flesh and blood and this rots and as a 498 00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:29,880 result of the whale oral gets a really nasty smell to it and 499 00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:34,680 it's stopped being used in the manufacture of soap. 500 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:38,880 And as mentioned earlier, when the muscly company testifies, 501 00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:42,240 they say that 95% of their demand came from soap 502 00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:44,360 manufacturer. So there's been a big, big 503 00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:46,240 problem. The English they'd lost their 504 00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:50,880 source of whales and also the the oil which they've been so 505 00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:53,640 interested in is no longer great from the manufacturers. 506 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:57,960 While Spitzbergen is declining, to them the English thing just 507 00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:01,200 stop whaling and give up. No, they don't. 508 00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:05,080 They're always there, but the activity is minimal. 509 00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:09,000 However, within this period, late 17th and early 18th 510 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:12,280 century, there are two concerted attempts by the English to get 511 00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:16,520 back into whaling. And the first of these, who is 512 00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:21,600 led by a man named Sir William Scaven, who is granted a charter 513 00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:26,640 in 1692 for the Company of Merchants of London trading into 514 00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,720 Greenland. And he raises initially 40,000 515 00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:34,160 lbs to equip the largest fleet to sail from England to the 516 00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:37,120 Arctic in 50 years. And that capital is then later 517 00:30:37,120 --> 00:30:40,320 increased to 82,000. So it's a huge, huge venture. 518 00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:43,720 And the reason she thinks that there's an opportunity for it is 519 00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:45,800 that the Dutch are in all kinds of problems. 520 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:49,360 They dominate the train. But in the 1680s and 1690s, 521 00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:52,280 they're having lots of trouble because of the war with France. 522 00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:58,640 And unfortunately the Dutch for Scaben are actually able to 523 00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:03,360 revise his venture is not particularly well managed and 524 00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:07,640 all of the capital is even out well before the 14 year charter 525 00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:10,840 expires. The second attempt to really 526 00:31:10,840 --> 00:31:15,080 seriously revine the English way in trade comes about because of 527 00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:17,960 the South Sea companies. So we did a podcast on the South 528 00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:21,280 Sea company and one of the key things about the South Sea 529 00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:24,960 companies, you have the bubble 1720, the share price collapses 530 00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:29,920 and what's left of the company is looking for and a quick way 531 00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:33,080 to turn things round. And there's a very persuasive 532 00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:38,120 man by in the name of Henry Elkin who applies to persuade 533 00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:41,040 the board and eventually is successful in saying, look, the 534 00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:43,360 problem with Scaven and the problem with the previous 535 00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:46,080 attempts at English whaling is that they've just not been taken 536 00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:47,880 on serotin. They've not been managed well 537 00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:52,640 enough and he persuades them to invest a huge amount of money to 538 00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:56,480 a venture. And one aspect of this is the 539 00:31:56,480 --> 00:32:00,800 development of Greenland Dock. If you walk around that area 540 00:32:00,800 --> 00:32:04,080 today, you can still see the basin of Greenland Dock. 541 00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:07,360 It becomes Greenland Dock because the Saudi company take 542 00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:11,120 out a large lease on it, long lease on it, and they use that 543 00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:13,400 dock to fit out this expensive new fleet. 544 00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:16,320 They also build new boiling houses for the blubber. 545 00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:19,120 They build warehouses, they build accommodation for staff. 546 00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:23,160 It's all hugely expensive and in the first year of activity 547 00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:26,800 they're able to catch 25 whales, which is pretty good. 548 00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:33,120 But in the second year that goes down to 16 whales and then 549 00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:36,280 losses. And in 1731 they've ceased the 550 00:32:36,280 --> 00:32:41,040 activity and in 1733 all of the ships and stores are sold off 551 00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:44,680 and indeed Greenland Dock is then minced out to somebody 552 00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:48,760 else. In the early 18th century, 553 00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:51,320 leadership in whaling then passed from the Dutch to the 554 00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:54,560 Americans, and there was also a shift in both the location of 555 00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:56,720 whaling and the species targeted. 556 00:32:57,320 --> 00:33:01,200 What drove change and how did it reshape the industry? 557 00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:04,920 Well, in a way it's pure good fortune from the whalers point 558 00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:07,360 of view. So the American colonists pretty 559 00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:09,560 much from the beginning are interested in whaling and 560 00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:12,680 they're catching the American virtue of the right whales. 561 00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:17,160 Nantucket, which is a small island off the coast of 562 00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:21,200 Massachusetts, is the main centre for this, the 1712 A Oat 563 00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:23,880 room. Nantucket is blown off course by 564 00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:28,480 a storm and the captain approaches a then unknown 565 00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:31,560 species of whale, kills it. This is the first time that 566 00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:36,200 they've caught and captured and indeed processed a sperm whale. 567 00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:39,200 As we mentioned earlier, one of the two things about sperm whale 568 00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:43,000 is it's a toothed whale, which means that there's no baleen 569 00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:47,400 process, but the oil from its blubber is worth several times 570 00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:50,760 as much as the oil from a right whale. 571 00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:53,000 It's paler, it's got much better quality. 572 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:55,880 There's less of it we should say, because the spermware is 573 00:33:55,880 --> 00:33:59,520 smaller. And then in addition you get the 574 00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:03,800 so-called spermaceti, which is liquid wax or contained in the 575 00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:08,920 case, which is a gravity from the skull of the whales and 576 00:34:10,159 --> 00:34:13,400 called spermaceti because of initially people discovering 577 00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:15,000 thought it was the whale's sperm. 578 00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:18,159 Biologists don't understand it, aren't quite sure what it is 579 00:34:18,159 --> 00:34:20,719 actually there for, but the assumption is that it's probably 580 00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:24,280 help the whale with echolocation. 581 00:34:24,679 --> 00:34:29,199 But this liquid wax is of enormously high quality and they 582 00:34:29,199 --> 00:34:33,880 start using it for candles and spermaceted candles just take 583 00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:36,199 off London from. Certainly. 584 00:34:36,199 --> 00:34:39,679 From the 1750s, probably a bit earlier than that, are are 585 00:34:39,679 --> 00:34:42,719 illuminated by spermicetti candles which give out a very 586 00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:45,719 bright flame and is completely odorless. 587 00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:48,800 There's so much less of it on the sperm whale. 588 00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:51,520 You can process it on Tri works on the ships. 589 00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:56,120 This is an extremely efficient way of processing Guerrero and 590 00:34:56,199 --> 00:34:59,200 the English, because of the success of the Americans are 591 00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:01,240 doing this. They're operating close to home. 592 00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:03,920 The English ships aren't going after the sperm whale. 593 00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:06,600 What the English ships are doing is they're crossing the Atlantic 594 00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:11,640 and then buying the oil from the American whalers and then taking 595 00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:14,760 it back. And England over this period is 596 00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:18,160 importing 4 times as much whale oil from it's New England 597 00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:21,480 columnies as it is from its own Greenlands fleet. 598 00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:26,200 After 1750, the English and particularly the London whaling 599 00:35:26,200 --> 00:35:30,400 trade saw a revival. What factors lay behind this 600 00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:33,840 resurgence? First of all, the northern 601 00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:36,600 fishery, which is the traditional Arctic one, there's 602 00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:39,080 a deliberate government attempt to encourage it. 603 00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:44,080 They increase the bounty on oil. This goes up to 40 shillings a 604 00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:48,480 ton ton spelt Tun for ships over 1000 tonnes and this means that 605 00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:53,560 away you ship is averaging about £600 in terms of Earth, a 606 00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:57,840 government bounty. Secondly, there is a gradual 607 00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:01,000 decline in the Dutch presence that's opening the door to 608 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:08,200 English and then French hostility and unofficial war 609 00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:13,680 breaks out between Britain and France in 1754 over essentially 610 00:36:13,720 --> 00:36:18,320 over Canada means that the American fisheries are directly 611 00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:22,480 threatened. And in addition, the English 612 00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:26,880 whaling activity is now in the hands of independent merchants 613 00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:28,560 and ship owners. So we say, we're saying in the 614 00:36:28,720 --> 00:36:32,800 earlier period it's the Muscovy company and then you have these 615 00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:35,560 monopolistic companies like the South Sea Company who tried to 616 00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:38,320 barge in. Now the the trade is organised 617 00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:40,640 by independent merchants and ship owners who have got much 618 00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:44,520 more sightings the creature, but they've got much more skin in 619 00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:46,600 the game. They're much more agile, they're 620 00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:50,480 much more entrepreneurial. And then perhaps key is that 621 00:36:50,480 --> 00:36:55,680 there's huge rising domestic demand for the products of the 622 00:36:55,680 --> 00:37:00,720 whales due to industrialisation and the concomitant development 623 00:37:00,720 --> 00:37:05,360 of expanding towns and cities. And whale oil, one of the key 624 00:37:05,360 --> 00:37:10,080 uses for it is the cleansing of the wool and through. 625 00:37:10,080 --> 00:37:14,720 And when we're talking cheap wool and cloth, one huge market 626 00:37:14,720 --> 00:37:17,520 for this is all the military uniforms. 627 00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:22,240 Mills and mines use lubricants for their machining, so they're 628 00:37:22,240 --> 00:37:27,840 using whale oil. Whale oil is used for the 629 00:37:27,840 --> 00:37:30,000 manufacture of paint, varnishing patties. 630 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:33,200 So all of that building work, that's going on huge demand. 631 00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:36,560 And then also you see the emergence of the big markets for 632 00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:40,640 illuminations. SO5000 St. lamps are installed 633 00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:43,960 in London in the 1740s. They are burning whale oil. 634 00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:47,480 And then finally, we should perhaps mention that the cotton 635 00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:51,200 mills are using lamps for working after dark. 636 00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:54,400 Another major development is the American Revolution. 637 00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:56,520 This is probably the biggest development, actually. 638 00:37:56,680 --> 00:38:00,720 First of all, this damages the American competition hugely. 639 00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:03,720 Much of the American Wailing Fleet is wiped out. 640 00:38:03,720 --> 00:38:08,240 But then crucially after the war, the American colonies are 641 00:38:08,240 --> 00:38:13,800 no longer American colonies and as such they are no longer part 642 00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:18,960 of imperial preference and they have to pay 18 lbs per tonne on 643 00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:21,200 oil that they export into Britain. 644 00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:27,240 Were they able to do And in addition the British become 645 00:38:27,240 --> 00:38:29,600 wider ranging in their whaling activity. 646 00:38:29,600 --> 00:38:32,920 So we were saying earlier on that in the 1630s or 647 00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:36,960 thereabouts, the Dutch March by moving into new fishery off the 648 00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:39,640 coast of Greenland. The British do a similar thing. 649 00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:42,760 They move on to the other side of Greenland, the western coast. 650 00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:47,120 This time they move through the Davis Straits and into Baffin 651 00:38:47,120 --> 00:38:50,440 Bay. And here the Wales are to begin 652 00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:54,720 with extremely common. And also in the open water on 653 00:38:54,720 --> 00:38:57,280 that side of Greenland, the weather is actually better than 654 00:38:57,320 --> 00:38:59,080 on the other side most of the time. 655 00:38:59,840 --> 00:39:03,640 And as a result of this success, by the mid 1780's the British 656 00:39:03,640 --> 00:39:09,640 whaling fleet is twice the size of the entire whaling fleets of 657 00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:12,920 Europe. It declines a bit in the 1790s 658 00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:16,640 but then revives, and the most prosperous period for British 659 00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:20,440 whaling and for London whaling begins around 1795. 660 00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:26,400 And this is the age of expansion then going southwards. 661 00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:29,440 Yes. So up to this stage the British 662 00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:32,480 have been restricted to the so-called northern fishery. 663 00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:38,680 This has a legal definition. It's north of 59° latitude and 664 00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:41,320 there's legal definition because this is where the bounty is 665 00:39:41,320 --> 00:39:43,720 payable. The British will then subsidized 666 00:39:43,720 --> 00:39:45,640 to some extent the southern fishery, but it's done through a 667 00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:50,680 system of premiums, and those premiums are much, much fewer, 668 00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:53,640 much harder to come by than the bounty payable in the northern 669 00:39:53,640 --> 00:39:57,360 fishery and the. Trade. 670 00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:03,440 Rose because of various entrepreneurial figures who have 671 00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:07,480 often been deeply involved in the American trade before this. 672 00:40:07,720 --> 00:40:10,720 And the key figure here really is Samuel Enderby. 673 00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:13,080 He's also joined by other, other men, St. 674 00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:16,520 Barb and Champion. These men developed the southern 675 00:40:16,520 --> 00:40:20,640 fisheries, but they're also very important in lobbying the 676 00:40:20,640 --> 00:40:23,680 government. Enderby in particular is the 677 00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:28,080 first person to send a whaling voyage round the Cape of Good 678 00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:29,800 Hope. Now there's a problem here, 679 00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:33,320 because once you get beyond the Cape of Good Hope, you've got 680 00:40:33,320 --> 00:40:37,400 the East India Company, which in theory has monopoly over sailing 681 00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:40,840 there, and you also have the Spanish Empire, which is hostile 682 00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:44,800 to British incursions into Enderby lobbies heavily, and 683 00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:49,120 he's able to finally get permission to go into the 684 00:40:49,280 --> 00:40:51,280 Pacific Ocean. One of the. 685 00:40:51,440 --> 00:40:54,320 Key developments here is the gradual development of the 686 00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:59,600 colony in Australia. 1 of the things that the whalers are able 687 00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:04,080 to do to some extent is to pay for the outward, outward voyage 688 00:41:04,080 --> 00:41:07,160 to Australia for carrying convicts out there, and then 689 00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:10,560 proceed on whaling. And one of the key developments 690 00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:13,400 here is that Enderby is the first man to send a ship round. 691 00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:17,080 The first ship that does this is the Amelia which he owns in 692 00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:20,160 1789. The Amelia returns with a full 693 00:41:20,160 --> 00:41:22,680 cargo, encouraging other ships to do it. 694 00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:25,800 The Enderby's are a whaling dynasty. 695 00:41:25,800 --> 00:41:29,400 The Samuel I'm talking about is Samuel enderby #2 There was #1 696 00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:32,160 his father #3 was one of his sons. 697 00:41:32,200 --> 00:41:35,120 Melville makes some jokey comments about the number of 698 00:41:35,120 --> 00:41:38,440 Samuel Enderby's when Samuel Enderby dies. 699 00:41:38,440 --> 00:41:41,280 The business is then taken on by his three sons, of whom Samuel 700 00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:45,960 is one, but the main name is Charles and Charles is a 701 00:41:46,400 --> 00:41:49,160 founding member of the Royal Geographical Society. 702 00:41:49,480 --> 00:41:54,920 And it is under his aegis that Antarctica is circumnavigated 703 00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:59,760 for the first time in 1830 by one of his captain, John Bisco 704 00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:03,640 in the Brig Tula. And if you look at a map of an 705 00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:07,400 Atlas of Antarctica, there is a huge area of it called Enderby 706 00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:10,520 Land. And the Endebys are based 707 00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:16,360 initially at Saint Paul's Wharf under the the third generation 708 00:42:16,360 --> 00:42:18,440 of Endebys. They also develop important 709 00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:21,200 works at Greenwich. So in Great East Greenwich there 710 00:42:21,200 --> 00:42:25,080 is today an area called Endebys Wharf, which has been 711 00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:29,000 redeveloped as modern flats. And within that modern 712 00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:31,640 development there's a restaurant where they have kept something 713 00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:34,920 called the Octagon Room. And the Octagon Room was part of 714 00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:38,160 Enderby House, which was the Enderby residence there. 715 00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:41,480 And Enderby House was built at about the same time as the 716 00:42:41,480 --> 00:42:47,960 Enderbys constructed a factories for making sales and rope and 717 00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:49,600 all of that there in East Greenwich. 718 00:42:49,600 --> 00:42:53,400 But unfortunately most of this was destroyed by fire in 1845. 719 00:42:53,720 --> 00:42:56,120 But as mentioned, Octagon Room does survive. 720 00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:02,080 If we're talking about the whale trade, there was a rapid decline 721 00:43:02,080 --> 00:43:04,640 in the 1820s. Why was that? 722 00:43:05,640 --> 00:43:08,440 One of the reasons for the decline is the gradual spread of 723 00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:10,840 ideas of free trade, and there are two elements to this. 724 00:43:10,840 --> 00:43:14,120 One is economic liberalism. The idea that free trade is is 725 00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:17,240 the rational way to go. Another one is evangelical 726 00:43:17,240 --> 00:43:21,760 religion which thinks that you should breathe the economy of 727 00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:24,560 the man made obstruction so that you can see divine Providence 728 00:43:24,560 --> 00:43:27,600 working through. Both of these feed into the 729 00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:29,640 gradual elimination. Of. 730 00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:32,320 Duties on a whole range of goods, of which the most famous 731 00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:36,280 one obviously is the Corn Laws, but one early symptom of this is 732 00:43:36,280 --> 00:43:40,600 the reduction and the bounty on a tonne of whale oil from the 733 00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:42,280 northern fishery to 20 shillings. 734 00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:47,800 There is also a dramatic fall in oil prices and partly because 735 00:43:47,800 --> 00:43:52,920 the good times were dependent on demand for whale oil for the 736 00:43:52,920 --> 00:43:55,080 manufacture of military uniforms, and with the ending of 737 00:43:55,080 --> 00:43:57,080 the Napoleonic Wars that is gone. 738 00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:00,240 Another big problem is that whale oil is increasingly being 739 00:44:00,240 --> 00:44:05,400 substituted by rape oil and the duty on rape oil imports is also 740 00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:08,880 being reduced. And then the final the key thing 741 00:44:08,880 --> 00:44:13,400 is that with free trade, the duty on American whale imported 742 00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:18,760 whale oil is reduced and it is the competition of the Americans 743 00:44:18,760 --> 00:44:23,440 and the Australians that already put paid to London as a whaling 744 00:44:23,440 --> 00:44:27,480 centre. Also there is substitution of 745 00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:31,040 whale oil from gas. So this is the beginnings of the 746 00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:37,120 period of gas lighting and then surprise surprise we got that. 747 00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:40,600 The age-old problem of the Davis Straits getting harder and 748 00:44:40,600 --> 00:44:44,840 harder to fish in their terms as the whales are gradually 749 00:44:44,840 --> 00:44:48,320 eliminated. 1 aspect of this is that they have to get further 750 00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:50,440 and further north to capture the whales. 751 00:44:50,480 --> 00:44:55,600 This then becomes increasingly dangerous and it leads to public 752 00:44:55,680 --> 00:44:58,840 outcry at the fate of the whalers. 753 00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:04,240 The big crisis here is an 1835 which leads to a big change in 754 00:45:04,240 --> 00:45:09,640 public attitudes towards Arctic whaling. 6 ships were sunk and 755 00:45:09,640 --> 00:45:16,680 some 600 men were caught in the ice and a lot of them suffer 756 00:45:16,680 --> 00:45:21,760 from frostbite and scurvy. The Royal Navy sends a mission 757 00:45:21,760 --> 00:45:25,080 to rescue these men in 1835 and and and they get them out, but 758 00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:28,480 the following year another six ships are blocked in by huge ice 759 00:45:28,480 --> 00:45:31,440 fields. As is a result, by the 1840's 760 00:45:31,440 --> 00:45:35,360 the number of British ships active in the Arctic is tiny. 761 00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:37,960 But these problems mentioned above also affect the southern 762 00:45:37,960 --> 00:45:40,240 fishery. And perhaps the key symptom of 763 00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:43,600 Britain's and London's decline is when Charles Enderby, the son 764 00:45:43,600 --> 00:45:47,160 of the Enderby family, decides to pack his bags and leaves 765 00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:51,800 Britain for New Zealand. And in the 1820's the number of 766 00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:55,240 ships, British ships going to the Pacific fell by 50%. 767 00:45:55,480 --> 00:46:00,280 And by 1843 there are only 9 whalers in the southern fishery 768 00:46:01,120 --> 00:46:04,880 carrying the British flag. And then as mentioned earlier, I 769 00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:07,920 think in after 1850 there's a big change in technology. 770 00:46:07,920 --> 00:46:11,240 They get steam whalers, they get these mechanised harpoons. 771 00:46:12,040 --> 00:46:15,120 And this is a period which is dominated by the Norwegians. 772 00:46:18,200 --> 00:46:21,920 Wow, fascinating. Thank you so much for joining us 773 00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:25,240 on today's episode. We've traced London's remarkable 774 00:46:25,240 --> 00:46:29,120 and at times dramatic journey through the world of whaling, 775 00:46:29,360 --> 00:46:32,360 beginning with the medieval Basque hunters and the Bay of 776 00:46:32,360 --> 00:46:35,960 Biscay, and following the city's rise is a global whaling 777 00:46:35,960 --> 00:46:39,400 powerhouse. With the expertise of Ian 778 00:46:39,400 --> 00:46:43,880 Mcdermid, we've explored the fearless expeditions into Arctic 779 00:46:43,880 --> 00:46:47,480 waters, the commercial manoeuvres of monopolistic 780 00:46:47,480 --> 00:46:51,200 companies and the industry's transformation as it expanded to 781 00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:55,640 the distant Southern Oceans. We've seen how whale oil and 782 00:46:55,640 --> 00:47:00,000 Berlin powered the growth of industry and shaped the fashions 783 00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:05,600 of entire eras, from Elizabethan courtly corsets to the Victorian 784 00:47:05,600 --> 00:47:08,920 craze. Along the way, intense 785 00:47:08,920 --> 00:47:12,840 competition with the Dutch and ingenuity of London's merchants, 786 00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:16,160 and market shifts brought from boom to bust. 787 00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:21,000 Ultimately, technological changes, new alternatives and 788 00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:25,080 the risk in hardship faced by crews lead to London's slow 789 00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:29,360 retreat from whaling, marking the end of a defining chapter in 790 00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:33,320 the city's maritime story. If you'd like to know more about 791 00:47:33,320 --> 00:47:35,800 the Southsea bubble that we discussed, then you can listen 792 00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:40,640 to Episode 27 to learn more about end of is in Greenwich. 793 00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:43,920 Then Ian offers an alternative Greenwich walking tour. 794 00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:47,960 Thank you Ian for guiding us through these details. 795 00:47:48,640 --> 00:47:52,120 My pleasure, Hazel. I'm Hazel Baker. 796 00:47:52,560 --> 00:47:55,200 This has been the London History Podcast from 797 00:47:55,200 --> 00:47:59,360 londonguidedwalks.co.uk. Until next time.