Nicholas Woodcock
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Nicholas Woodcock was an early 17th century English mariner who served aboard ships sailing north to Spitsbergen.
A man of the same name was sent on an expedition to the River Ob by the Muscovy Company in 1568. Seeing as how this name is not common, it is possible that Woodcock may have been a grandson of this namesake.
In 1610, he served as mate aboard the Muscovy Company ship Amity (60 tons) on a sealing and exploratory voyage to Spitsbergen.
In 1611, Purchas (1625) states that it was he who suggested to the Muscovy Company that six Basque whalers from the town of St Jean de Luz, who had experience in the Terranova whale fishery, should be shipped the following season. Using his advice, the Company sent these six whalers, as well as the Mary Margaret (150 tons), Stephen Bennet, master, and the Elizabeth (60 tons), Jonas Poole, master, to Spitsbergen in 1611- the first voyage made to the island to hunt what was called the Greenland Right Whale (Balaena mysticetus). Angry over the fact he wasn't chosen to go on this expedition, he shipped aboard an interloping vessel from Hull, the Hopewell, Thomas Marmaduke, master.
In 1612, Woodcock piloted the first whaleship from San Sebastian to Spitsbergen. Although he was sent to the gatehouse and tower for sixteen months for leading the Spanish ship thither, it was the success of this voyage that induced a fleet of ships to sail from the Basque country, northern France, and Holland the following season (1613).
In 1614 Woodcock returned to whaling. He was forced to serve under the Muscovy Company, which had been given a monopoly on the trade the previous year. He sailed as master of the Prosperous, which resorted to Sir Thomas Smith Bay (Forlandsundet) and Cross Road (Ebeltofthamna). In the latter area he established a temporary whaling station. In 1617 Woodcock is mentioned by the Danish as being a master of an English ship in Green Harbor (Grønfjorden). He is last mentioned in 1618, when he was master of the interloper Sea Horse.
Woodcock is possibly one of the most important figures in the history of whaling, as he was not only the one to suggest shipping Basques for the first whaling voyage to Spitsbergen in 1611, but he led the first Basque vessel to Spitsbergen the following year. His suggestion led to the Basques being recruited not only by the English in later years, but by the Dutch, northern French, and Danish, all who relied on Basque experts in the opening years of the Spitsbergen fishery.
[edit] References
- Conway, William Martin (1904). Early Dutch and English Voyages to Spitsbergen in the Seventeenth Century. London.
- Conway, William Martin (1906). No Man's Land: A History of Spitsbergen from Its Discovery in 1596 to the Beginning of the Scientific Exploration of the Country. Cambridge, At the University Press.
- Dalgård, Sune (1962). Dansk-Norsk Hvalfangst 1615-1660: En Studie over Danmark-Norges Stilling i Europæisk Merkantil Expansion. G.E.C Gads Forlag.
- Markham, Clements Robert (1881). The Voyages of William Baffin, 1612-1622. Hakluyt Society.
- Purchas, S. 1625. Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes: Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and others. Volumes XIII and XIV (Reprint 1906 J. Maclehose and sons).
