The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1848-06-03
Miscellaneous,
From the Parlor Magazine.
Letters From a Whale Ship
There levinihnn

Hugest of living creatures, on the deep
Stretch dixie promontory, sleeps or swims,
And seems moving land; and at his gills
Draws IN ana Ut MS trunk spouts out, n sea.
MILTON.
For the first time on the passage from the
Sandwich Islands, ten weeks to-day, we heard
day before yesterday, from the mast head
"Ihere she blows" The usual question and
orders from the deck quickly followed: allow
far OFF," "Keep your, eye on her"-"Sing
out when we head right" Three whales
were deserted from aloft in different parts,
aud in short time the Captain gave orders
to "stand by and lower" for one little more
than half a mile to windward. Three boats
crews pulled nerrily nway,glad ofsomething
to stir their blood,and with eager hope to OBJ
tam the oily material wherewth 10 fill their
ship. The whale was esurely TO wiudward,
blowing every now and then two or three
times, then "turning tail" sup 6ukes," and
sinking. The boats "headed" after him,
sleeping distance of nearly one quarter Of
mile from each other, to scatter las it is
caled) their chances.
Fortunately, as the oarsmen were shove
up" that7is, head their oars peak about the
place where they expected the whale would
next appear,the huge creature rose Just Ivy the
Captains boat, and all the boat steerer, in the
bow, had TO do, was to plunge his two cold
irons, which are always secured to one tow
II
ms to hit the "fish's life" and make him spout
blood 1t was the first notice the poor fellow
had oftlie proximity of his powerful captors
and the sudden entrance of the barbed har-
poems made him caper and run most furious
ly The boat spun after him with almost
the swiftness ofa top, diving through the
seas. and tossing the spray, and then lying
still Willie the whale sounded, for the space
ofan hour; in which time another boat "got
O. q ~ 81, -,
had several times pierced his vitas. He was
Killed, as whalemen call it, that is mortny
wounded,an hour before he went into"his fur
ry,' and was really dead or "turned up" on
his back.
The loose boat then came to ship for a
hawser to fnsten round his flukes, which be-
ing done, the Captain left his irons in the
carcass and pulled for the ship in order to
get to windward, and getting alongside 10
"cut him in." This done and the carcass Sc
cured by chain,they proceeded to reve the
huge blocks that are always nude fast for the
purpose to the fore and manmnSt head, and
fasteu the tackle. The Captain and two
mates then went over the sides on steps well
secured, and having each breast rope to
steady and lem upon. The cooner passed
them the long handled spades which he was
all the time grinding and whetling, and they
fell Justly TO work cutting off the blubber.
First came one of the huge lips, which, af-
ter they had nearly severed close to the crea-
lures eye, was hooked into by what they call
n blubber hook, stripped of and raised on
hoard by the windlass 1t was covered with
barnncles, exceedingly compact and dense.
Next came one of the fore fins; after that the
other lip. and then the upper jaw, with all
that peculiar substance called twhaleboue,
through which the animal strains his food.
1t is all fringed with coarse hair that detains
the little shrimps and small fry on which the
creature feeds. The bones radiate in leaves
that lay edgewise to the mouth, from each
side of what may be called the ridge pole of
the mouths roof, forming house almost
big enough for a man to stand up in.
Next came the lower jaw and throat with
the tongue, which latter alone must have
weighed fifteen hundred or two thousand
pounds, an enormous mass offat not how
ever so firm and tough as the blubber. Wha-
lcrs often have to lose it. especially from the
north west whale, it being impossible 10 get
it up on deck lalone, because it would not
hold, and is too large and heavy 10 raise with
the throat.
After this was hoisted in, the rest of the
way was plain sailing, the blubber being cut
and peeled off in huge unbroken strips,as the
carcass rolled over & over, hooked into by the
great blubber hooks, 81 hosted in by the men
jhcaving at the windlass. AS often as piece,
NEARLY reachi ng to the top of the nainnast,
ywas got over the deck, they would attack it
with great boarding knives, and cutting
thole in it nearly even with the deck, thrust
lin the stry and toggel of the "cutting blocks"
sthat they might still have the purchase on
the carcass below; then sever the huge piece
from the rest and loweri it down into stthe
iblubber room" between decks, where two
men had as much as they could do to cut il
into six or eight pound pieces and stow it a
way 1T was from nine to eleven inches thick,
and looked like very large fat pork slightly
colered with saltpetre r... ...... r.
The magnificent: swan like albatrosses
were round by hundreds, eagerly seizing and
fighting for every piece that got chopped Off
vitlity, and detracting considerably from ones
admiration of that most superb of birds, just
as YOUR veneration for one whom the color
ing of a youthful imagination has made n
little more than human, is not little abated
by finding him subject to the necessarles and
,s,assions of poor human nature. Comics,
stinkards, horse birds, haglets, gnlls and PEI
,trels, had many a good morsel ofblubber. A
shark, too, appeared to claim his share; but
it was not until after man had been twice
to all hole in the head, or should have trenl-
bled for his legs. ......-
' Before the biibber was all off,the huge en-
trail ofthe whale burst out at the wounds
made by the spades and lances. hoped the
peeled carcass would float for the benefit of
the comics and other birds. But no sooner
was the last fold of blubber offand the flukes
;hosted in, than it sank. About the same
time two ships came down to speak us, the
Henry, ofSag Harbor, and Lowell, of New
Landau TFheir "a ntnIna came hoard 10