William Goodlad

William Goodlad (c. 1576–1639) was a 17th-century English whaler. He was admiral of the Muscovy Company's London whaling fleet for nearly two decades, participating in several of the disputes involving the right to catch whales in Spitsbergen. The Arctic explorer Luke Foxe, in writing about the early voyages to Spitsbergen, said of him: "... but this I leave to Capt. Goodlade [sic], whose great experience this way, and to the E.-ward thereof, is the best able to supply or confute, if he be pleased so to shew himselfe".

Goodlad first appears as admiral of the English whaling fleet in 1620 in Thomas Edge's Dutch, Spanish, Danish Disturbance (1622), which appears in Samuel Purchas' Hakluytus posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes (1625). Edge states he was again admiral in 1621 and 1622. Purchas (1625) also reprints a letter, dated 8 July 1623 (Old Style), written by "Captaine William Goodlard [sic]" to vice-admiral William Heley. Writing from "Bell-sound" (Bellsund), the main harbor of the English in Spitsbergen, he reported a catch of "three and thirtie" whales there, as well as the lamentable loss of his brother Peter on 28 June (OS), who was drowned when pulled out of a boat by a kink in the line from a harpooned whale.

In 1626 the London fleet clashed with ships sent from Hull. Early in June the fleet reached Spitsbergen. Goodlad, aboard the warship Hercules, the 22-gunned flagship of the fleet, spent his time close to the ice in Bellsund, probably to protect nearby vessels. Near the end of the month he sailed to the harbor at "Whale Head", where he found several vessels from Hull, which "had killed some whales there and boyled them", despite the Muscovy Company's monopoly over the trade. They had also "taken away 8 shallops, burned the caske, broke the coolers, and spoyled all the other materialls fitt for the said fishing, to the overthrow of the voyage, and had demolished the houses and broken downe the fort and Plattforme built the yeare before for defense of the said harbor". Goodlad made his way to a "harbour neere adjoining" ("Bottle Cove", modern Midterhukhamna, at the entrance of Van Keulenfjorden), where he met nine ships of Hull and York, under the command of Richard Prestwood and Richard Perkins, admiral and rear admiral, respectively. After being refused satisfaction, a two-hour skirmish ensued, resulting in the defeat and expulsion of the Hull and York fleet. They were forced to leave Spitsbergen mid-way through season with only 162 tons of oil and 200 tons of blubber, about a "thirde parte of their ladeinge".

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