1683

Amsterdam on April 26, 1683 (1). Every day the  whalers of to Greenland sail, when the wind is right, together with strong parties to sea.

For their own safety, the whalers therefore sail with others in convoys.

 

Amsterdam the 25 June (2). Today a small ship, called the Maria, has arrived from Greenland, with 10 fish, and it brings news about 4 ships that got stuck in the ice (2 Dutch and 2 German). 16 Ships had a good catch (together they caught 35 fishes, two per ship is apparently a reasonable harvest this early in the year).

 

Amsterdam the 16 July (3). In the harbour of Enkhuizen a galliot has arrived from Greenland () with 6 fishes on board, bringing along some shipmembers and goods from one of the ships that remained at sea. There  is news on various ships who had a bad catch.

 

Amsterdam the 23 July (4). At Hamburg a Greenlandfahrer has arrived, named St. Anthony, commander Casper Lobbe, with 2 fishes, being very helpless: he had to give 4 fishes to a galiot, which salvaged him from the Ys.

 

Hamburg the 23 July (5). Here again 2 of our (German) whalers at Greenland have arrived (). 8 Dutch ships have crashed in the ice.

 

Amsterdam the 28 July (6). In the Vlie it is understood that ships from Greenland have come in (one from Hoorn and another from Zaandijk), these ships bring a good catch

 

Amsterdam July 30 (7). From Greenland came a ship, the Wijnberg, its home is in Hoorn, with 14 and a half fish, it brings news from 17 ships, which together have caught 19 fish.

 

Amsterdam the 9th of August (8). Another Greenlandship has come to Hamburg, with a reasonable catch. () Two ships from Greenland arrived here too, one is commander Gerrit Tortel, with 22 fishes, but the other one is empty.

 

Amsterdam the 17 August (9). The ship De Witte Molen, coming with a reasonable catch from fishing at Greenland, has arrived here. There is also the message that the ship de Fortuyn will not return.

 

Amsterdam, August 23, 1683 (10). In Hamburg, a whaler from Greenland has come with 12 fishes, and also 2 others, but they did not catch half as much as the previous ship. Such ships also arrive here (in Amsterdam) on a daily basis.

 

1684

Amsterdam the 26 July (11). Here is a list of various whalers in Greenlands with ships that have caught only fairly well: two ships will forever remaine in the ice, called the Vrachtschuytje and the Dorp Jisp. The ship het Wapen van Leyden was in great need, as it got hole in the prow due to the ice. Several other ships were believed to have hardly caught any fish, maybe one or two.

 

Amsterdam the 4th of August (12). We did not hear if other ships came over from Greenland, except Hengelaer with Het Geloof.

 

Amsterdam the 7th of August (13). From whaling in Greenland have entered the harbour: the Wijnstock of commander Kees Hottentot with 550 barrels; the Sara with 650 barrels, and the ship de Brandende Kaers, which also caught some fish. Other ships  probably will not return home, like the Dorp Jisp, the Wijnbergh, the Vracht-Schuyt, a Galliot with three masts, the Swarte Rave and Sloterdijck. A list of about 40 ships have captured reasonable.

 

Amsterdam the 11th of August (14). In the Mass, a whaler arrived from Greenland, it is commander Jan Dircksz van de Velde, with 12 fishes, from that 600 ton of blubber (from the whales) can be filled. Since the Wapon of Leyden came into the Vlie or at Tessel, we didn't hear of any other whaler arriving from Greenland.

 

Amsterdam the 23 August (15). Several Greenlandfahrers have arrived, but their names are still unknown.

 

Amsterdam the 30th of August (16). From Archangel the 3 remaining "vroegschepen" have arrived; with these, as many as 30 whalers from Greenland came home, but mostly with bad catch, daily they come in with big fleets. In addition to 12 Dutch ships who will not return, they write about two  ships from Hamburg pulled beneath the ice (with people and all), as well as 4 to 5 French ships that also perished.

 

Amsterdam the 2 October (17). Of the whalers who went to Greenland but had sailed too far East, some got stuck in the ice, but 2 ships from Medenblick, called the blauwe Ryger and the Hoop, luckily got out, so is heard.

1685

Amsterdam the 9 May. The last sailors for Greenland have all gone to sea.

 

Amsterdam the 11th of July. The Ship de Liefde, with Skipper Pieter Sare, arrived safely from Greenland, and  also Skipper Cornelis Hottentot arrived safely. The last one said there were several Greenland sailors still coming, such as 8 from Holland, 2 from Hamburg and one from Bremen.

 

Amsterdam the 13th of July. Another vessel from Greenland arrived here, named 't Huys te Kroonenburg, from Sardam, Commander Hendrick Willemsz. He reports that two ships have remained in Greenland, such as the Bleeckster, commanded by Aldert Dircksz, and the Koornkoper with Commander Jaep Los.

 

Amsterdam the 25th of July. The Commander Cornelis de Zeeuw has arrived here from fisshing at Greenland with 13 Fish, amounting to 500 Barrels of Bacon, and he reports some ships only had a reasonable catch; he also reports that the ship Christophel had been salvaged by pirates from Zeeland, which was stuck in the ice there last year and is wintering with several other ships; this ship was still whole and good, still having one fish left from the last year of 90 barrels; yet another of these ships, called de Backer van Staveren, was in great need of being rescued, there being little ice in the way, and a third was within sight.

 

Amsterdam the 3rd of August. The ships of Christoffel and Mattheus, which were stuck in the ice last year and wintered in Greenland, both arrived at Middelburg, in Zeeland, and were manned by the folks of the Zeeland Greenlandsailors; which suffered a lot of inconvenience, one was killed by a bear, and others badly beaten, as is said here. The ship the Vergulde Klock from Hoorn stayed in Greenland. Several other ships and vessels from Greenland have also arrived from the east.

 

Amsterdam the 19th of August. ... nothing (has been confirmed) of the rumor, whether 8 or 10 ships in Greenland got stuck in the ice.

 

Amsterdam the 24th of August. Our Greenland sailers are now coming in every day, many with good catches.

 

Amsterdam the 21st of September. A ship arrived from Greenland at St. Jan de Luz, bringing with him 650 hogshead cod liver oil. In the Baltic Sea the weather was bad, but no damage has been reported yet.

1686

Amsterdam 2 August. Skipper Plas, brought to Algiers, writes that 5 plundering ships were being prepared to sail against our Greenland ships (of which not a single one has yet come up here with a full catch or without shells), as they say there.

Amsterdam 5 August. A Greenland ship has arrived in Hamburg with 6 and a half fish and 375 barrels of speck, and has brought the following list with him: 

Cornelis Almes 7 fish: 

Mathijs and Soon 6: 

Kloeck 2: 

Decker 5: 

De Kaeskoper 5: 

Dircksz van de Velde 3: 
van de Velde 1: 
de Bas 5; 

Kuy 4: 

Karseboom 2: 

de 3 Helden Davids 2: 

Bol 2: 

Zeylemaecker 1: 

Claes Lang 1: 

Jaep Schoute 2: 

Tiede 1: 

Meermin 3: 

Pieter Dircksz 3, 

en de Grauwe Appel 1: 

en Kromhuysen is gone

()

A Groenland sailor arrived at Hamburg very damaged, without a catch, and 10 of that nation had nothing, and 38 others only one and a half fish. From the ship of Gerrit Tortel it was written that the ship Kromhuysen had remained, that many other wrecks had been seen, and the ice had been driven very wildly and wildly; that of 150 ships most had only 7 fish, and many had nothing.