The Opelousas courier., 1890-03-01

11O1S IN DhANhIl III
But here we were with a big whale
seventy-four feet long lashed alongside of
the old ship, lying to with mainyard
aback. The whale was in fine condition,
the feeding ground Astounding with
cutie fish, mollusks and other dsinties
in which cetaceans delight. We could
therefore afford to pay little heed to the
destruction of u boat, though WI we'll
knew that it meant a certain percentage
Of loss to us, to be deducted from our
Share at the end:of the voyage. We had
a good days work before us. The carcass
of the whale had to be stripped of its
blubber, the head cleared of the sper-
macetic, and the teeth, which are of a
fair quality of ivory, extracted from the
lower jaw.
After the body was lashed to the ship
with chains, the business began. A
powerful masthead tackle was hooked on
to a transverse slip of blubber close to
the neck. This was taken to the winch
and set up taut. Then the men working
on a platform rugged outside the vessel,
cut through the blubber with sharp
spades. Then they hove on the winch
with all hands huddled together in the
stern sheets as far aft as they could
crawl, in order to keep the bow of each
boat as far out of water as possible. The
boats are constructed for just such an
emergency. An ordinary ships boat
,,rdar s,,ob iro,,,eto,oos ro,,IJ ha vo,w
apt to swamp. Well, as / was saying,
after we had scooted for several miles at
this break-neck speed Mrs. Whales eff
forts began to weaken. She came to a
standstill, and then, after a short inter-
val, during which we got a couple of
lances into her in vatal spots, she went
and the immense s'blanket pieces" as the
blubber is termed, came off in q striu
some six feet wide, being cut into con.
venient lengths. This process continued
until the whale was stripped of its cover
ing of blubber. Then the head was cut
off and its reservoir of fatty matter frol1
which spermaceti is made was emptied
OF its rich juices, five men working like
beavers filling up buckets with the prec-
ions stuff, which was ho1sted up on deck
as soon as filled.
After the last piece of blubber and the
last fragment of head fat had been hoisted
on deck the boys congregated aft and
gave the old sperm whaling cheer:
"Hurrah for fve-and forty morem
And then we piped to supper, well
satisfied with our days work.
At four o'clock next morning we
turned to: There was a busy day be-
fore us, the blubber having to be tried
out into oil and the oil put into the
casks. And here let me tell you before
/ forget it that the cooper on board q
whaler used to be a very important per-
sonage and n with a strong sense of his
own dignity.
just a fe@ feet abaft the foremost on
the Abijah Adams there were two big
iron caldrons embedded ON a base Of
brickWork. These were the try pots in
which the blubber was boiled. Abaft
this was the copper cooler in which the
oil was cooled previous to being pumped
into the casks.
The operation of melting the bluhber
is very simple. All we had to do was TO
take care that the blubber was dry be-
fore being put into the caldrons. The
blubber cut into thin slices o parts
with its oil under the influence Of q roar
ing fire, and the ssscraps, y as the refuse
matter IS termed, in turn are added to
fhn HarnaS y.aEsr~ &tn hare 60. rr