Part 2
In coiling, the line was laid out on deck, the end passed through a snatch block on the mainstay over head, and thence down to the tub. The end, with its eye splice, was left hanging over the edge of the tub where it could be bent onto the second tub should necessity arise.
The line was coiled clockwise to the centre, thence to the side, and the process repeated until the tub was full.
This was known as a “flake” or “Flemish coil.”
Each boatsteerer attended to the coiling of his own tubs, a helper meanwhile twisted the line to the left as he pulled it down through the block.
[Illustration]
_TEN DOLLARS REWARD_
In some ships, when whales were scarce, and weeks--even months--elapsed without a kill it was the custom for the captain to have a five or ten dollar gold piece nailed to the mainmast to be claimed by the first man who sighted a “blow.”
[Illustration]
_GRUB_
“What’s this--the cook’s pocketbook?”
Jack always ate his meals on deck except in inclement weather. Salt beef or pork, cooked in a sadly unvarying fashion, was served in small wooden tubs called “kids,” and the sailor’s treasured privilege, no matter what the quality of the fare might be, was to make uncomplimentary remarks about the cook and all his ancestors.
[Illustration]
“_FRESH FISH FOR THE COOK TO SPOIL_”
In the warmer latitudes there were always fish playing about the ship’s bows: bonita, barracouta, dolphins and porpoises----
To vary the weary round of salt “horse” it was no trick at all for one of the boatsteerers to take himself into the martingale stays and bring up a fish that would arouse the envy of any landlubber angler.
[Illustration]
_WHALES_
1--SPERM WHALE. This whale was long avoided by the early whalemen before means were perfected to meet his wary and pugnacious character.
A large sperm whale would measure sixty-five feet and give eighty barrels of oil. Many larger ones have been taken but the average gave forty-five barrels.
Its natural food is the giant squid, which it finds at profound depths--a half mile or more.
Sperm whales are usually found in herds or “pods,” except in the case of occasional “lone bulls.”
2--RIGHT WHALE. This is the whale of the early history of the industry--docile and easy to take--whose only means of defence lay in its great tail or “flukes.” This and the Bowhead were known as “Baleen” or whalebone whales.
They feed on the surface--their food being small crustacea or “brit,” which they scoop up with open mouth and strain through the rows of baleen which hang from the upper jaw.
3--BOWHEAD WHALE. The Arctic or Greenland whale. Living in the cold waters of the high latitudes the blubber of this species is much thicker than that of Sperm or Right, one Bowhead rendering as much as three hundred barrels.
The quality of its oil, however, is much inferior to sperm oil, and for years it was hunted for its whalebone alone.
[Illustration]
_WHALES_
4--FINBACK WHALE. This and the Sulphurbottom are much longer than the Sperm, Right, and Bowhead--but were ignored because of the fact that they sank when killed, and because of their rapidity of movement, claimed by some to be as much as fifty miles an hour.
Modern whalers have met these difficulties by employing fast motor boats and by inflating the dead whale with compressed air.
5--SULPHURBOTTOM--or BLUE WHALE. The longest of the whale family. Some specimens have been taken exceeding one hundred feet in length.
6--HUMPBACK WHALE. This whale is one of the “bone” species, but its baleen was too short to be of commercial value.
It sank when killed, but as it was almost always found in shoal water gases due to decomposition brought it to the surface in a short time.
[Illustration]
_THE MASTHEAD_
From the day of sailing until the home port was reached at the end of a long voyage, lookouts were always kept at the fore and mainmastheads.
Even with his ship “full to the eyebrows” the whaling skipper could not resist the taking of one more whale, until every possible container, large and small, was full to running over.
The call of the lookout was a sort of wail, running through a scale of five or six notes, each man putting in his own curlicues according to the quality of his voice.
He would sustain the call as long as the blow lasted:
“A blow!--A blo-o-o-o-ow! A blow. A blow!!”
“Where away?” from the skipper.
“Two miles--weather beam--Blo-o-o-ow! Blo-o-o-o-! There she breaches--A blo-o-o-ow! A blow!--A blow!”
[Illustration]
_LOWERING_
The boats were kept ready for instant lowering. The tubs were first put aboard and a man took his station at each of the “falls” or davit tackles, one man remaining in the boat to fend her off the side of the ship.
“Lower away!”
Down went the boats, the crew following the best way they could, sliding down the falls or scrambling down the side. The hooks were cast off, mast stepped, sail hoisted, and the race for the whale began.
[Illustration]
_A RACE UNDER SAIL_
When the wind was favourable the approach was made under sail.
Various rigs were used: lug, spritsail, and sometimes a jib was set, all designed, however, for quick manipulation.
When sailing, the boat was steered by a rudder; at all other times by the long steering oar.
Meantime the harpooneer was busy with the whale line, running it from the tub, round the loggerhead and forward to the chocks, coiling the “box warp” and attaching his two irons.
[Illustration]
_WAIFING_
When a heavy swell was running it was often impossible for the men in the boats to see the whale, so the lookout at the masthead signalled the direction by means of a flag or “waif.”
[Illustration]
“_GOING ON_”
The angle of vision of the whale was very limited, so the approach was made, if possible, from the right rear, except in the case of a left handed boatsteerer.
On nearing the quarry oars were sometimes replaced by paddles. At the right moment the officer made a sign to the boatsteerer to stand by.
The latter unshipped his oar and looked to his harpoons to see that all was clear.
A second iron was attached by a “short warp” on a running bowline to the whale line, and lay handy, alongside number one.
The boatsteerer did not lift his harpoon and stand poised in readiness. In the excitement attending the crucial moment, he might succumb to buck-fever and be unable to let go.
Instead--he flexed his fingers or rubbed his hands up and down his legs, his eye on the whale, waiting for the command.
[Illustration]
“_GIVE IT TO HIM!_”
Like a flash he grasped his iron, and with every ounce of his strength darted it “up to the hitches.”
Then the second iron if possible.
If the second could not be used, it was at once thrown overboard, out of the way, to be retrieved later.
[Illustration]
_SOUNDING_
The instant command was “Stern all!!”--and the boat was backed out of range of the great flaying tail.
Many things might happen in the next few moments.
The whale might “run”--he might turn and attack the boat with open jaws, or “sound.”
The boatsteerer and the officer exchanged places.
The line ran out at such speed that water had to be thrown into the tub to prevent the line setting fire to the loggerhead.
[Illustration]
_A BREACH_
Should the whale sound, he would stay down an hour or longer, taking out at times all the line of one or more boats.
If he took all from one and no neighbouring boat was handy to supply more, a wooden contrivance for retarding his speed called a “drug” was made fast to the end of the line and cast loose.
The men peaked their oars, waiting for the whale to reappear.
His reappearance was not a modest drifting to the surface. He was thoroughly enraged, and he came up in a manner dramatic and picturesque.
Suddenly, with the speed of an express train, he rose from the bottom, often making a clean leap out of the water and coming down with a mighty splash.
Lucky the boat’s crew that was not caught underneath.
[Illustration]
_A “CHAWED” BOAT_
A fighting bull sperm would often turn and attack the boat, and only the skill of the boatsteerer kept it out of range of the snapping jaws and thrashing flukes.
Boats have been destroyed at one mouthful, and those of the crew as were unable to leap clear. Such was the rage of some whales that they returned again and again to the broken fragments until they were reduced to matchwood.
[Illustration]
“_A NANTUCKET SLEIGH RIDE_”
Should the whale run the crew unshipped their oars and faced forward, a turn of the line was made round the loggerhead, and “playing the fish” began. The boat’s tub and loggerhead were the equivalent of the reel on the trout fisherman’s rod, and the same tactics were employed as in trout fishing, except that the boat followed the whale at a speed of fifteen or more knots an hour.
The boatsteerer snubbed the line by the loggerhead and the crew at each indication of slackening of speed hauled in. Shorter and shorter the line grew as the whale tired, and closer to his flank drew the boat’s bow, where the mate stood ready to exercise his time honoured privilege of delivering the final thrust.
A Nantucket sleigh ride, as it was called, often took the boat miles beyond the horizon, and the crew were often obliged to wait many hours, even days, to be picked up by the ship,--indeed in cases of storm or fog there are tragic instances of boats never having been found.
[Illustration]
_LANCING_
To kill the whale at a single thrust required the greatest skill, and the boat to be laid on at the right spot.
The mate, awaiting the moment when he could reach the “life,” made repeated thrusts with his lance in order to weaken the victim.
The success of the final stroke was proclaimed by “spouting red”--and the dying whale went into a “flurry,” which consisted of swimming round in a gradually diminishing circle until with a final thrashing of his giant flukes he rolled over on his side “fin out.”
[Illustration]
_TOWING TO THE SHIP_
If more whales were in the vicinity, the dead one was “waifed” with a small red flag and the pursuit resumed.
A whale usually ran to windward--leaving the ship far to leeward, shorthanded, and faced with a long beat to pick up her boats.
A line was made fast by a hole cut in the flukes, the boats were connected, and all hands put their backs into the arduous task of towing back to the ship.
[Illustration]
_CUTTING-IN DIAGRAM_
A--Jaw of the Sperm whale
B--Case
C--Junk
D--White Horse
E--Blanket or blubber, which was stripped from the carcass in a spiral fashion. The blubber hook was inserted in a hole, _f_, for the first cut.
G--H--Head and lips of the Bowhead. The latter were very rich in oil.
The same method of stripping was employed in all species of whales.
[Illustration]
_REMOVING THE LOWER JAW OF A SPERM WHALE_
Cutting in was always done on the starboard side of the ship, and if possible, to windward, so that wind pressure on the sails tended to lift the side of the vessel and sustain the great weight of blubber coming aboard.
The sketch shows the cutting stage rigged out, the huge tackle made fast to the jaw, and the mates on the stage disjointing it with their spades.
The jaw had no commercial value whatever. When a particularly large one was taken, stripped, and dried, it made a picturesque gateway for the captain’s garden at home, and the great teeth were used by the crew for their “scrimshaw” work.
[Illustration]
_THE JUNK_
The jaw having been removed, the junk was then taken off and brought on deck to be cut up and tried out.
The junk was very rich in spermaceti--used by the manufacturers of cosmetics and spermaceti candles.
While the whale lay alongside, the neighbouring waters were infested with a multitude of voracious sharks, which, if the cutting in were not done without delay tore the blubber to shreds.
During cutting in the men on the stage made periodical onslaughts on these robbers with their spades, taking a characteristically seamanlike satisfaction in seeing the wounded sharks instantly set upon and devoured by their fellows.
[Illustration]
_CUTTING IN_
The captain with the first and second mate, usually was on the stage, taking an active part in cutting in.
The windlass crew were forward, heaving on the tackle which was suspended from the cap of the lower mainmast.
As they hove the blanket rose higher and higher, the cutters plied their spades, and the whale rolled over and over.
[Illustration]
_THE BLANKET PIECE COMING ABOARD_
When the tackle was “block and block,” the third mate or one of the boatsteerers, with his “boarding knife,” made a hole for the second tackle.
A heavy blubber hook, or the eye in the long strop of the block in the foreground was pushed through and secured on the outside by a heavy wooden pin or toggle.
The second tackle was hove taut to take up the weight and the upper piece sliced off.
[Illustration]
_LOWERING INTO THE HOLD_
As each piece was cut off, it was lowered down the main hatch into the blubber room and there cut into “horse pieces,” three or four feet long and six or eight inches wide.
[Illustration]
_MINCING_
The horse pieces were tossed back on deck, where they were placed on a long plank set on tubs and “minced” into “books” or “bible pieces” with large two-handled knives.
The term “books” arose from the fact that the blubber was not cut quite through, and a minced piece bore a rough resemblance to the leaves of a book.
[Illustration]
_TRYING OUT_
Day and night the try works were kept going, until all the blubber had been rendered.
Dense black smoke by day, and illuminated sails and rigging at night disclosed to passing ships the proximity of a whaler. Merchant sailors claimed they could smell a “spouter” over the horizon.
The furnace contained two large iron kettles similar to that in the foreground of the sketch. Beneath each of these was a separate fire grate, and under all--a shallow pan of water as safeguard.
The minced blubber was tried out in these kettles, and when the book pieces had given up their oil they were used as fuel. Enough of this “crackling” was kept to start the fires for the next whale.
As the oil filled the kettles, it was bailed off into a copper cooling tank--then to casks on deck where it cooled thoroughly for a day or two before being stowed away in the hold.
[Illustration]
_BAILING THE CASE_
If the whale was small, the case was hoisted on deck where it was laid open and the liquid spermaceti saved with scoops and dippers,--but if it was too heavy for this it was secured to the side of the ship, nose end down. A hole was cut into the reservoir and a “case bucket” rigged from the mainyard and manipulated by four men,--one to handle the bucket, two on the guy lines to force it down by means of the pole, and the fourth to hoist and lower.
This oil often amounted to as much as thirty barrels of liquid spermaceti, which had only to be headed up without further treatment.
To this day there has been found no equal to this oil for the lubricating of watches and fine machinery.
[Illustration]
_CLEANING SHIP_
By the time the oil was tried out and the stripped carcass cast adrift to make a royal feast for sharks and seabirds, the ship was a slithery mass of oil, gurry, and blood,--to which was added the effects of clouds of smut and black smoke from the try works.
All hands turned to clean ship. Ashes from the fires were sprinkled on the deck and bulwarks, and brooms and scrubbers were plied until she gleamed again,--except aloft, where the sails hung black and an affront to the eyes of clippermen. When the kettles had been scrubbed inside until they shone like silver punchbowls, the men turned their attention to themselves and their clothes.
To be clean again! How good it felt:--ship, gear, and man.
But how often was it no sooner achieved than a yell from the masthead announced
“She blows! She blows!”
and all the weary business had to be gone through with again.
[Illustration]
_MAIN HATCH SURGERY_
Some English and Scottish whalers carried surgeons, but it was not the custom in Yankee ships. Whatever casualties befell his men, the captain attended to as best he could.
Heroic tales are related of bone settings and amputations without anesthetics aboard whaleships that pay high tribute to the fortitude of that vanished race of hardy seamen.
[Illustration]
_BOAT SURGERY_
While the captain repaired his men--“Chips” repaired his boats.
Ships’ carpenters received their training as boat builders, and were prepared, not only to mend them, but had “knocked down” parts stowed below for the construction of new ones.
Whaleboats were very lightly built and subjected to extremely rough handling. Seldom did a whaleship start a voyage with anything but new craft on her davits.
[Illustration]
_ASHORE FOR WATER_
As the casks were filled with oil, the fresh water supply diminished, so shore parties were sent off with empty casks to be filled and towed back to the ship.
[Illustration]
_HAVING IT OUT_
Fighting aboard ship was not tolerated by the captain, and grudges were carefully nursed until some shore duty afforded the belligerents an opportunity to settle their affair on the beach.
[Illustration]
_RECRUITING ON THE BEACH_
Disillusioned by hard work, indifferent food, and miserable conditions of living in general, men were constantly deserting the whaleships, especially in the South Seas--where the islands presented a seemingly idyllic existence to the hard driven sailor man.
Whaling captains did their best to repair these losses by recruiting among the beachcombers and deserters from other ships, but the inducements held out were no different to those with which they were only too well acquainted, and met with little success, except in cases where idleness and monotony gave way to a desire to get home again.
Many of these runaways, however, were so steeped in the soft living in the islands that they deserted again at the first opportunity.
[Illustration]
_A “GAM”_
The tedium of a protracted whale hunt and association with the same companions for months on end was relieved when two ships met at sea. If they hailed from the same port so much the better.
The sails were laid aback, and the captains, mates, and crews exchanged visits. Old friends met, and letters passed--along with newspapers and home gossip. Work ceased--the cook threw a few more raisins in the plum duff--and a general holiday was declared.
A gam might last a day or a week, and if whales appeared there was friendly competition between the boats of one ship and the other, the oil taken during this period of “mating” being shared equally.
[Illustration]
_SONG AND DANCE_
With a Negro or two in the crew, the foc’s’le could always be assured of entertainment in the dog watches or during a gam.
[Illustration]
_BUMBOATS_
When ships touched at ports in the Cape Verde Islands, the Azores, or other such rendezvous they were surrounded by peddlers of fresh fruit and vegetables, a very welcome variant after months of salt junk and hardtack.
[Illustration]
_ARCTIC WHALING_
Compared to the dramatic action of Sperm whaling, the taking of Right whales was a tame business, but the chase of Bowhead or Arctic whales took men among icebergs and floes where their work was complicated by discomfort and the danger of ships being crushed or wrecked.
Many individual whalers have been thus lost, and in 1871 a fleet of thirty-four was crushed and abandoned in the Arctic ice.
[Illustration]
_WHALEBONE_
Whalebone, which once brought a higher price than the oil of the bone whales, has little or no commercial value now.
The sketch shows the upper part of the head of a Bowhead whale, with the whalebone attached.
In larger specimens the slabs of “bone” reached twelve feet or more in length.
[Illustration]
_CLEANING WHALEBONE_
The “slabs” were cut from the jaw, and after being scraped and washed were tied in bundles.
[Illustration]
_DEAD MAN’S CHEST_
When a man died or deserted, unless the captain chose to take his effects back to his family, they were auctioned off to the highest bidder.
As often as not the chest was worth more than the contents.
[Illustration]
_HOMEWARD BOUND_
Instead of sailing for home when the ship was full, many whalers discharged their oil at the Hawaiian Islands or San Francisco and set out for more.
This oil was put aboard large cargo ships capable of carrying the catch of several whalers, and taken round the Horn to New York, Boston, or the whaleships’ home port.
But at last the “spouter” was filled up and ready for the long passage home, the captain served grog, and all hands were hailed aft to “splice the main brace.”
[Illustration]
“_SCRIMSHAW_”
With a four or five months’ passage home before him, the whaleman occupied himself by carving and fashioning all manner of articles out of bone and whales’ teeth;--scrimshaw work. He had usually some particular person in mind as he scraped and sawed, filed and drilled, often with tools made from nails or odd bits of metal.--Model ships or boats, knives, forks, combs, ladles, yarn winders, bodkins, and a thousand other nick-nacks were turned out.
The favourite article however was the “jagging wheel,”--a contrivance for decorating pie crust and pastry, and many were the variations on the handles of these jaggers.
The visitor inspecting the fine collection of these what Herman Melville calls “Skrimshandered” articles, in the Nantucket and New Bedford Whaling Museums, cannot help being struck with the exquisite workmanship of most of the specimens and the high degree of artistry attained in the decoration of them.
* * * * *
The whaleman and his trim little ships have gone on the long passage, but if in nothing else, he has left in this a delightful and worthy record behind him.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: End paper depicting whaling]
Transcriber’s Notes
Perceived typographical errors have been silently corrected.
Archaic and unusual spelling has been retained as in the original.