The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-04-30

nandle an oar, and themselves IN boat,
so that by the time they reached the
whaling grounds, they were able to do
good service, and knew what was ex-
pected of them. These blackfish Weld
poor quality of oil, but it is used for
lighting purposes on board of ship.
They also learned to box the compass
and steer. Each boat carried mast
and sail, but these were only set when,
after whale had been killed, they were
engaged in towing their prize TO the ship
LAS soon as whaling ground was
reached the ship was put under short
ened sail-topsails, topgallant-sails,
staysail, jib and spanker-a a look
out was stationed at the fore topgallant-
masthead (crosstrees), and a boat
steerer at the main opgallantmast-head
to watch for whales, each man taking
his trick at this and at the wheel, each
trick being of two hours. The lookouts
were sent aloft at daybreak, and were
not called down until the sun disap-
peared. Then the ship was placed
under even shorter sail for the night,
carrying just enough canvas fore and
aft to keep her steady. The yards were
braced sharp up into the winds eye,
the helm lashed, and the watch set for
the night, watch being one of the
boats crew, relieved in turn by another,
SO that each crew has equal time below
cat morning dawn sail is made again.
At eight o'clock the boats crew then
on watch was relieved by either the lar
board or starboard watch, each being
on duty four hours at time. From
four to eight p. m. was divided into two
watches called dog watches, so that
the hours of duty of each man was
changed daily.
"a vessel would remain upon one
whaling ground for days and weeks at
a time, always under short sail, moving
back and forth about four or five knots
per hour, and always beating to wind
ward, tacking every few hours thus
securing, as it were, the ground all
over. Unless successful in finding and
taking whales, all sail would be SET and
away we went for some other cruising
ground.
As soon as whale is struck sharks
appear in great numbers, and they
never leave the whale for an instant
until it is towed along side, stripped of
its blubber and cast adrift; then they go
with the carcass. These sharks are big
fellows and very ravenous. When the
whale is secured to the ship some one
must go over upon him, cut open the
blubber and hitch a tackle-block thereto.
This is such dangerous business that
the boatsteerers take turns at it. They
would be snapped up by the sharks in
minute but for two men who protect
them with long-handled spades that
were ground as sharp as razor and
were used to cut blubber. If a shark
got too close to the boatsteerer, one of
these men would jab spade into him
with all his might and he would make
off in hurry.
During the trying-out process all
hands were on duty during the day
until six p. M, at which time half of
the crew went below, but relieved the
other watch at midnight, and all went
on duty again at six a. m. In other
words, six hours out of the twenty-four
was all the rest any man of us could
get. Vessels that went around Cape
Horn, or Cape Horners as they were
called, making voyages of four or five
years, necessarily carried more men to
man their boats; and had so many men
on board that even while trying out
oil one-half of the crew could do all the
work, so as soon as whale was Sc
cured to the ship they used to set regu-
lar watches, four hours on and four
hours off, day and night.
1.-The time usually required to secure
a whale, strip off the blubber, try it out,
store the oil and clean the slip was
about week. The first fire under the
try-kettles was started with wood, but
it was thereafter fed with what are
called 'scraps'-the refuse Of the blub-
ber after it has passed through the try
ing-out process. Of this trying-out pro-
cess l can give you no more ac-
curate idea than by quoting from
j. Ross Brownies History of
the Whale Fisheries He saws:
"I know of nothing to which this
part of the whaling business can be more
appropriately compared than Dante's
picture of the Internal regions. 1t re-
quires but little stretch of the imagina-
ton to suppose the smoke, the Kissing
boilers, the savage-looking crew, and
the waves of flame that burst now and
then from the fues of the furnace, a
part of the paraphernalia of scene in
the lower regions. Our down-easter,
who always had something characters
tic to say of everything, very sagely re-
marked on one occasion when nearly
suffocated with smoke: If this ISM
hell on small scale don't know what
to call it,
"'Of a full-grown sperm whale of the
largest size, or about eighty-four feet in
length, the dimensions may be given as
follows: Depth of the head, eight or
nine feet; breadth of the head, five to
six feet. The depth of the body seldom
exceeds twelve or fourteen feet, so that
the circumference of the largest sperm
whale will seldom exceed thirty-six feet
The sperm whale has forty-two teeth in
the lower jaw, but there are none in the
upper, which instead presents depres-
sions corresponding to and for the re-
eeption of the points of those in the
lower jaw
''Of the AMOUNT of oil a sperm whale
will yield. l can only say that helped
capture and cut-in one of them that
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