it being blown up. In 1844, a whale was struck off Zarautz, but, after being towed for six hours, the line was broken, and the whale was lost with two harpoons and three lances in its body. Another whale was seen off Getaria early in the morning on 25 July 1850, but the harpooner missed his mark, and the whale swam away to the northwest. On 14 May 1901, a 12 m (39 ft) right whale was killed by fishermen using dynamite off the town of Orio, an event reflected in a folk poem popularized by singer-songwriter Benito Lertxundi. A local festival representing this catch have been held on 5 year intervals. Only a few more sightings of right whales were made in the area, the last in 1977, when the crew of a Spanish whale catcher sighted one at about 43° N and 10° 30' W. Newfoundland and Labrador Early claims Around 1525 Basques began whaling and fishing for cod off Newfoundland, Labrador, and similar places. In his History of Brittany (1582), the French jurist and historian Bertrand d'Argentré made the claim that the Basques, Bretons, and Normans were the first to reach the New World "before any other people". The Bordeaux jurist Etienne de Cleirac (1647) made a similar claim, stating that the French Basques, in pursuing whales across the North Atlantic, discovered North America a century before Columbus. The Belgian cetologist Pierre-Joseph van Beneden (1878, 1892) repeated such assertions by saying that the Basques, in the year 1372, found the number of whales to increase on approach of the Newfoundland Banks. Beginnings and expansion The first undisputed presence of Basque whaling expeditions in the New World was in the second quarter of the 16th century. It appears to have been the French Basques, following the lead of Breton cod-fishermen that reported finding rich whaling grounds in Terranova (Newfoundland). The Basques called the area they frequented Grandbaya (Grand Bay), today known as the Strait of Belle Isle, which separates Newfoundland from southern Labrador. Their initial voyages to this area were mixed cod and whaling ventures. Instead of returning home with whale oil, they brought back whale meat in brine. The French Basque ship La Catherine d'Urtubie made the first known voyage involving whale products in 1530, when she supposedly returned with 4,500 dried and cured cod, as well as twelve barrels of whale meat "without flippers or tail"