Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-05-15

| in the bow of his boat and swing hi!
arms and shout to scare q whale, JUS
because the Second Mates boat wa.
leading. You see, went out in 9
'plum-puddener.' Perhaps you dom,
know what 'plum-puddener' is?''
II confess it. -
"a 'plum-puddener is small vessel
that goes whaling in the South Atlantic
not big enough to go around the Horn;
has capacity for one thousand or one
thousand two hundred barrels of oil.
To navigate them they only require
seven or eight men, but they carry from
twenty-four to twenty-six men, for to
man three boats and leave enough on
board the vessel to take care of it re-
quires that number. The Captain and
two mates 60 in command of the boats,
and each boat carries six men. The Of
ficers steers, and the other five men pull
the oars until they get alongside the
whale, the harpooniersman, as he is
called, although that word isn't in the
dictionary, pulling the bow oar until the
boat is close to the whale. Then the
Captain of the boat orders him to stand
up! and when the bow of the boat is
within three or four feet of the whales
shoulders he hurls the harpoon into him
with all his power.
''Then the fun commences. You can
never tell what whale will do. He
may rush right at the boat, he may try
to smash it with his flukes, he may start
off at the rate of twenty miles an hour,
dragging the boat after him, or he may
take soundings. If he rushes for or at
tempts to smash the boat it makes lively
work to keep out of his way. If he goes
down, look out that he doesn't come up
under the boat and send it flying into
the air.
'1n the bow of the boat there is a
shallow tub in which is coiled the har-
poon line, and you may be sure that the
line is coiled with the greatest care. So
rapidly does it run out that the least
hitch, or kink, even, will capsize the
boat. The line is made fast to the boat,
and if the whale starts off ON the sur
face of the water he pulls the boat after
him. If he goes down and runs out the
line, it is cut at the last moment, and
not infrequentlyi is lost. The moment the
whale is struck the Captain of the boat
changes places with the harpooniersnlan
and attends to the line. If the harpoon
be skillfully thrown, the whales strength
is soon exhausted, and as soon as may be
the boat is pulled alongside and the
Captain kills him with lance If a.
whale dies upon the surface he will float,
but if he dies under water he will sink
The first whale I ever saw struck went
down with rush, and never came to
the surface, so we lost whale. harpoon
and line.
when whale is killed he is towed
alongside of the ship and all hands go
to work stripping off the blubber and
throwing it into the hold. When q large
has been obtained, the trying
out commences. The try-kettles are
placed between the foremost and the
main hatch, and are fired with refusaI
blubber or scraps from the kettles. The
ship is put before the wind with only
enough sail set to give her steerageway,
The helm is lashed and all hands fall-to |
at the kettles. The strips of blubber are |
first cut up into chunks called horse
pieces, then cut into thin strips called
Bible leaves, then minced in trough. |
A few buckets of oil from wha1e's |
head are first poured into the try-pots,
and when that is hot the minced blubber
IS put in. Woe to the boy who has this
20 do! The men who do the stirring
always stand aft of the pots, and every
lime he pours in bucket of minced
olubber the sitting smoke from the fur
1ace and oil vapor from the pots dash
ull in his face. He can avoid suffoca-
ion by not breathing, but his eyes he
must use, and the smoke causes them
intense pain. In short time they be-
,ome terribly inflamed and the agony
eems unendurable. 1 was a thankful
Joy when placed my feet On the dock
It New Bedford
''What wages did you get?''
''They don't pay wages on board a
vhaler, but everybody gets share OF
he CATCH the Captain one-twentieth,
he First Mate one-fortieth, the Second
late one-fiftieth, and SO on, the COM
non sailors, or green hands, as they are
alled, getting but one barrel in one
hundred and thirty |.
''How many barrels did you get for s
our share?"
"We brought about three hundred ,
'arrels, SO my share was little over
wo barrels"
"Worth how muchP" is
'.No matter how mnch! Not as much
S l owed the slop chest, SO didn't wait
Or the 'divvy. '"-Detroit Free Press.