High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Noordsche or Groenlandse Compagnie was a cartel for whaling, founded by several cities in the Netherlands. The company existed from 1614 to 1642, but soon after its founding became entangled in conflicts with England, Denmark, France, and within the Netherlands.In 1598 a whale beached at Wijk aan Zee. The animal was sold for 126 guilders and the jaw was given to Jan van Nassau as a gift, and transported to Dillenburg.In 1612 the first mention is made of a commercial expedition to Novaya Zemlya, after it was concluded that whaling at the Cape of Good Hope, in the southern Atlantic, offered little prospects of profit. Willem Cornelisz. van Muyden was one of the first skippers to set sail to the North. In 1613 he was the admiral of two ships that were sent to Spitsbergen: the Fortuyn and the Neptunus. On board were twelve or thirteen French Basques.