Editing Jan Mayen (section)

====Dutch whaling base====
[[File:Jan mayen coast hg.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Road along the west coast, about {{convert|500|m}} off the station]]
[[File:Altes Grabkreuz für einen tapferen Holländer.png|thumb|upright=1.3|"HOLLENDERHAUGEN. HER HVILER TAPRE HOLLANDSKE MENN." Old cross on the grave of seven Dutchmen, reading "The Dutch men's hill. Here rest brave Dutch men".]]

From 1615 to 1638, Jan Mayen was used as a whaling base by the Dutch ''Noordsche Compagnie'', which had been given a monopoly on whaling in the Arctic regions by the States General in 1614. Only two ships, one from the ''Noordsche Compagnie'', and the other from the Delft merchants, were off Jan Mayen in 1615. 

The following year a score of vessels were sent to the island. The ''Noordsche Compagnie'' sent eight ships escorted by three warships under Jan Jacobsz. Schrobop; while the Delft merchants sent up five ships under Adriaen Dircksz. Leversteyn, son of one of the above merchants.<ref name = "Muller">Samuel Muller. 1874. ''Geschiedenis van de Noordsche Compagnie.'' Gebr van der Post.</ref> There were also two ships from Dunkirk sent by John Clarke, as well as a ship each from London and Hull.

Heertje Jansz, master of the ''Hope'', of Enkhuizen, wrote a day-by-day account of the season. The ships took two weeks to reach Jan Mayen, arriving early in June. On 15 June they met the two English ships, which Schrobop allowed to remain, on condition they gave half their catch to the Dutch.<ref name="Dalgård">Sune Dalgård. 1962. ''Dansk-Norsk Hvalfangst 1615-1660: En Studie over Danmark-Norges Stilling i Europæisk Merkantil Expansion''. G.E.C Gads Forlag.</ref> The ships from Dunkirk were given the same conditions. By late July the first ship had left with a full cargo of [[whale oil]]; the rest left early in August, several filled with oil.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.geuzebroek.info/walvisvaart_1616.htm
|title=Journaal van schipper Heertgen Jansz d anno 1616
|language=nl
|access-date=11 July 2012
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120403022501/http://www.geuzebroek.info/walvisvaart_1616.htm
|archive-date=3 April 2012
|url-status=dead
}}</ref>

That year 200 men were seasonally living and working on the island at six temporary whaling stations (spread along the northwest coast). During the first decade of whaling, more than ten ships visited Jan Mayen each year, while in the second period (1624 and later) five to ten ships were sent. With the exception of a few ships from Dunkirk, which came to the island in 1617 and were either driven away or forced to give a third of their catch to the Dutch,<ref name = "Dalgård" /> only the Dutch and merchants from Hull<ref>Appleby, John C. "Conflict, cooperation and competition: The rise and fall of the Hull whaling trade during the seventeenth century". ''The Northern Mariner'', XVIII No. 2, (April 2008), 23-59.</ref> sent up ships to Jan Mayen from 1616 onward. In 1624 ten wooden houses were built in [[Titeltbukta|South Bay]]. About this time the Dutch appear to have abandoned the temporary stations consisting of tents of sail and crude furnaces, replacing them with two semi-permanent stations with wooden storehouses and dwellings and large brick furnaces, one in the above-mentioned South Bay and the other in the [[Engelskbukta (Jan Mayen)|North Bay]]. In 1628 two forts were built to protect the stations.<ref name="Hacq" /> Among the sailors active at Jan Mayen was the later admiral [[Michiel Adriaensz de Ruyter]]. In 1633, at the age of 26, he was for the first time listed as an officer aboard ''de Groene Leeuw'' (The Green Lion). He again went to Jan Mayen in 1635, aboard the same ship.

In 1632 the ''Noordsche Compagnie'' expelled the Danish-employed Basque whalers from Spitsbergen. In revenge, the latter sailed to Jan Mayen, where the Dutch had left for the winter, to plunder the Dutch equipment and burn down the settlements and factories. Captain Outger Jacobsz of [[Grootebroek]] was asked to stay the next winter (1633/34) on Jan Mayen with six shipmates to defend the island. While a group with the same task survived the winter on Spitsbergen, all seven on Jan Mayen died of [[scurvy]] or [[trichinosis]] (from eating raw polar bear meat) combined with the harsh conditions.

During the first phase of whaling the hauls were generally good, some exceptional. For example, Mathijs Jansz. Hoepstock caught 44 whales in [[Hoepstockbukta]] in 1619, which produced 2,300 casks of whale oil. During the second phase the hauls were much lower. While 1631 turned out to be a very good season, the following year, due to the weather and ice, only eight whales were caught. In 1633 eleven ships managed to catch just 47 whales; while a meager 42 were caught by the same number in 1635.<ref name="Hacq" /> The [[bowhead whale]] was locally hunted to near-extinction around 1640 (approximately 1000 had been killed and processed on the island),<ref name="Hacq" /> at which time Jan Mayen was abandoned and stayed uninhabited for two and a half centuries.