Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-01

- MsE@72y + " d.
Just the Man He Want.
for our boat steerer missed his whale, the
second mate fastened to fine large bull,
but loose whale became entangled in the
line and parted it, and the third mates
harpoon tore out, and he also came back
empty handed. The first mate killed our
only prize. For the next two days We were
busy cutting in our whale and trying out
I have read many descriptions Of this opera
tion in print, but never one that seemed to
have been written by a whaleman, so will
endeavor to give the reader some idea of
the way in which it is DONE
When the whale is brought alongside the
ship a strong chain is passed about the
small, which is the part of the animal be-
tween its body and the fan-like tail, or
''fukes." This chain is carried in through
the hawse pipes (where the anchor chains
run out when in port). and is fastened Sc
curely on deck. The head of the whale is
then cut off, and before it is entirely severed
chain is fastened to it, so it will not sink
when free from the carcass. When sep
arated it is allowed to sink out of the way
until the body is disposed of The body is
then stripped of its blubber in the same way
one would peel an apple, blythe use of two
tackles and huge hooks. A strip some four
feet wide is started and one of the hooks in
serted: then the crew heave steadily on the
windlass and slowly roll the body over,
while the officers stand on temporary plat
form, rugged out from the ships side, and
cut the strip clear from the whale with long.
handled spades ground keen as a razor.
When all the blubber is on board the car
cass is examined for ambergris by running a
spade through the intestines in every direc-
tion. Ambergris, as many doubtless know,
is the results of indigestion in q whale, and
is hard substance which forms internally,
ultimately causing death to his "whale-
ship" Its presence is readily detected by
the means mentioned. If nothing of the
kind is found, the body is allowed to drift
of, while myriads of sharks and birds of
various kinds speedily devour it The
head of a sperm whale is one-th1rd
the entire length of his body, and often
yields fully as much oil as the rest of the
whale. 1t is cut into two wedge-shaped
pieces along line running from just
above the mouth back to the top of the
head. The upper piece where the two spout
holes are located contains a sack or lease"
filled with pure spermaceti, which is simply
bailed out with bucket / have seen Is
barrels taken from one case. The case is
then abandoned as useless. The remaining
half of the head is called the Junk" and is
composed of alternate layers of rich, oily
fat, and a tough, worthless membrane which
is called white horse" These layers are
carefully separated, the latter thrown over
board and the former put into the try pots.
When the oil is all boiled out of the blub
Der the pieces are skinned off and used for
fuel The oil is allowed to stand on deck
day or two to cool, and then slowed below.
During this operation of "trying" each
watch has six hours on deck and the next
six to sleep, night and day, until the oil is
disposed of, and as every person on board
is paid only his share of the net proceeds of
the voyage, all hands work with a will.
For the benefit of the curious 1 will say
that the Captains clay" or share is usually
from 10 to 15-that is, he gets one barrel
out of every 10 or Is the ship brings or
sends home. From this the lay is grad
uated to the boat steerers, who get the
seventy-fifth Law. And then comes an awful
gap. The sailor gets one barrel in 175-and
the green hands the two hundredth lay! A
few figures will show how rich one of the
latter gets when, after four-year's voyage,
the chip comes home with perhaps 1000
barrels of oil. He usually starts in with
debt of at least $3.50 for board and outfit,
and when to this is added the clothes, shoes,
hats, tobacco, Sc, which he has from the
wonder he is almost invariably in debt to
the owner when he returns, and glad to get
| trusted right over again at the same exorbi-
tant prices?
If ielt any anxiety as to the bill of fare
on December 25 it was speedily dissipated.
No one would ever have known it was
Christmas Day, and we took our '1obscouse"
and "swankey" as usual
Perhaps our daily dinners may be warn
ing to some would-be sailor, SO 1 will ap-
pend list of them:
Monday-Pea soup.
Tuesday-Bean soup
Wednesdav-Peq SOUP.
Thursday-"Duff."
Friday-Pea soup.
Saturday-Boiled rice.
Sunday-"Duff."
Sailors don't call things by their right
names, but could never see why pea soup
was always dogs body" and boiled rice
s'strike me blind"
Our breakfast and supper were ALWAYS the
same. Salt beef one day and salt pork the
next, and even here the old tar perverts salt
beef into ''horse." Every sailor has seen
some old "shell back sitting on his chest
with big beef bone in his hand, repeating:
Old horse, old horse,
What brought you here
From SacaraD
To Portland Pierf
You're killed by kicks
And sore abuse,
And salted down
| For sailors use.
| After our whale was safely slowed below
a long period of inaction followed We
shaped our course for the Cape of Good
| Hope, for we were destined for New Zea-
land, where We would make our head
| quarters.
1t was while making this trip 1 had nv
first serious trouble with a shipmate, and
my propensity for fun was the direct cause.
One of the Portuguese we had shipped at
Brava was a large, powerful man, with a
name as long as a topsail yard, which the
mate very summarily curtailed to Enos. He
had been on short cruise on whaler be-
fore, and spoke only few words of English.
The new clothes with which be was fur
nished were too precious to wear, so he
patched his old rags till Joseph's coat
| would have been unnoticed on comparison.
| One pair of breeches in particular was the
delight of the whole crew. 1t was literally
covered with little patches about an inch
square. One day as he started to ascend
the forecsstle stairs / remarked to one of
the men sitting near me:
"Euos' breeches look just like checker
board"
He must have either misunderstood me,
or else his knowledge Of the language