[E] Up to the end of the eighteenth century my Father’s successes, with but rare exceptions, were at the head of the list of the whole of the northern whalers, both of Davis’ Strait and Greenland. But about this period Captain Marshall, in the Davis’-Strait branch, began to take the lead of all competitors there. [F] Some of our readers may require to be informed, that an ordinary merchant ship, not having “letters of marque” for acting as a privateer, can have no claim on any property which the bravery of her captain and crew might take from an enemy. So that, in the event of capturing an assailant, as might have been possible in the case referred to, the hard blows and damage must be borne by the merchantman, whilst the prize would fall due to the first ship of war incidently met with, or otherwise to the sovereign or public officers at home. [G] _Blubber-straps_ are usually made out of whale-line, but some of thicker cordage, and consist of a length of about two fathoms for each strap, the ends of which being spliced together, constitute a flexible ring of rope. A hole being cut through the commencing end of the slip of blubber to be raised, the strap, being of course double, is inserted therein, and the two ends, brought together from the opposite sides of the blubber, are looped over the hook of the tackle, and so the attachment for heaving up made complete. It may here be added, that the tackles for flensing are fixed aloft to a strong rope, along which the blocks are distributed, extending (but not very tightly stretched) from the mainmast-head to that of the foremast, called the _guy_. The considerable height of this attachment of the tackles (or, technically, “speck-tackles”) permits a long slip of blubber to be hove up in continuity, whilst the distribution of the blocks thereon admits of the two tackles being worked either jointly or separately without interference. CHAPTER IV. THE SHIP “RESOLUTION,” OF WHITBY. SECTION I.—_Continued Prosperity:—the Results, comparatively and generally, of this fresh Enterprise._ The change of command which, in the progress of our Memorials, comes now under consideration, was brought about by two circumstances;—the great inconvenience of a family residence at Whitby, whilst my Father was sailing from, and returning to, London; and the incidental formation of a co-partnery at Whitby, which my Father was invited to join, for the building and equipment of a new Greenland ship from that port.