Captain Lyons of the Raith of Leith, while pro secuting the whale fishery on the Labrador coast, in the season of 1802, discovered a large whale at a short distance from the ship. Four boats were despatched in pursuit, and two of them succeeded in approaching it so closely together, that two harpoons were struck at the same moment. The fish descended a few fathoms in the direction of another of the boats, which was on the advance, rose accidentally beneath it, struck it with its head, and threw the boat, men and apparatus about fifteen feet into the air. It was inverted by the stroke, and fell into the water with its keel upwards. All the people were picked up alive by the fourth boat, which was just at hand, excepting one man, who having got entangled in the boat, fell beneath it, and . was unfortunately drowned. The fish was soon afterwards killed." The general practice of a whale that has been struck, is to escape from the boat by making under water, pursuing its course directly downward, and reappearing at a little distance. When the wound ed whale disappears, a flag is elevated, and the watch in the ship gives the alarm by stamping on the deck, and calling out "a fall." At this sound the sleeping crew are roused, rush upon deck with their clothes in their hands, and crowd into the boats. The auxiliary boats take their stations about the place where the whale is expected to appear from the movements of the harpooner or " fast" boat.
The whale generally stays under water about thirty minutes, and sometimes fifty-six, but in shallow water it is said to have continued' an hour and a half at the bottom after being struck. Im mediately on its re-appearance, the harpooners of the auxiliary boats plunge their harpoons into its back. It frequently descends again after the se cond harpoon has struck it, and when it returns to the surface, lances are pierced through its body, and directed to its vitals. At last, exhausted with wounds and the loss of blood, which flows in co pious streams, it discharges from its blow holes a mixture of blood along with the air and mucus which it usually breathes out, and at last jets of pure blood. The sea to a great distance around is dyed with its blood, and the ice, the boats, and the men are drenched with its gore. Its course is marked by a broad pellicle of the oil which has exuded from its wounds. The capture is some times preceded by a convulsive and energetic struggle, in which its tail, reared, whisked, and violently jerked in the air, resounds to the distance of miles. When dying, it turns on its back or side, and its death is announced with three loud huzzas.
Small whales sometimes exhaust themselves so completely in their descent downwards, that they are suffocated under water and are said to be drowned. In this case it is drawn up by the line.
The captured whale is then towed to the ship by all the boats in a line, which is done in the case of a large whale, and with six boats, at the rate of nearly a mile per hour. It is then taken to the larboard side of the ship, arranged and secured for the flensing. This is done by partly extending its body, and raising it by means of a pulley about a fourth or a fifth part out of the water. When the fish is thus lying with its belly upwards, the opera tion of flensing is performed. The harpooners, with their feet armed with spurs, to prevent them from slipping, descend upon the fish, and as di rected by the specksioneer, they divide the fat into oblong pieces or slips by means of blubber spades.
A speck or tackle is then fixed to each ship, and it is progressively flayed off as it is drawn upwards. The blubber, in pieces of from half a ton to a ton each, is received upon deck by the boat-steerers and line-managers. The former with strand knives divide it into portable cubical pieces containing nearly a solid foot of fat, while the latter, furnish ed with pick haaks, thrust it down a hole in the main hatches. It is then received by two men styled kings, who push it into a place called the flens-gut. The fat being removed from the belly, and also the right fin, the fish is turned on its side. The upper surface of fat is again removed together with the left fin, and a similar set of operations are carried on till the whole of the blubber, whale-bone and jaw-bone have been taken on board.
When the tackle is removed, the carcass or kreng as it is called, commonly sinks, but sometimes it is so swollen by the air produced by putrefaction, that it swims and rises three or four feet above the water. It thus becomes food for bears, sharks and various kinds of birds. The operation of flensing is accomplished in three or four hours when the fish affords 20 to 30 tons of blubber.
When the ilens-gut is filled with blubber, or when the crew have leisure, the process of making off is carried on. This process consists in removing all the muscular part of the blubber, with such spongy or fibrous fat as is known to produce little oil. The blubber then cleared is stored in casks, and securely bunged up.
When the blubber is brought home, the oil is extracted from it by boiling in large copper boil ers. The boiling is continued from one to three hours. In a ton or 252 gallons of blubber, there is from 50 to 65 gallons of refuse, the greater part of which is a watery fluid.
The following table shows the price of whale oil from 1800 to 1818, which, at an average, Was about .C34 153. per ton.
Whalebone is found in the mouth of the whale. It forms an apparatus like a filter for collecting the minute animals on which the whale feeds, the sea water running through. 1Vhen taken from the whale, it consists of laminae or plates connected by what is called the gum, and ranged along each side of the mouth. The laminae are about 300 in num ber. The average length of the blade is 12 or 13 feet, though it is sometimes found 15 feet long. Its greatest breadth is 10 or 12 inches, and its great est thickness about half an inch. The general ap pearance of the lamina taken altogether, resem bles the form and position of the roof of a house. At first the price of whalebone was £700 per ton, but it now fluctuates between Q50 and X150.
For the information contained in the preceding article, we are indebted to Mr. Scoresby's admirable .Recount of the 'infix Regions, the second volume of which is devoted to a history and description of the northern whale fisheries. See also Noel's .11.1cmoire sur l'.dntiquite de la Peche de la Balcine par les Nations Europcnnes, Paris 1795, 12mo. A brief account of the South Sea Whale Fishery will be found in our article ENGLAND, VOL VIII, p. 605. See also POLAR REGIONS, Vol. XVI, p. 26.