284 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



being the average, under auspicious circumstances, for cutting one of the first-named species, 

 whose yield would be about 100 barrels. Capt. G-. B. Borden tells me he once picked up a bow- 

 head whale, whose death was caused by "killers," which he took alongside, cut-in, and boiled 

 out in twenty-one hours, making 140 barrels of oil. 



SWEEPING AND FLUKING A WHALE. When a whale has been towed alongside the vessel 

 the fltike-chaiu is made fast to the "small." The preliminary steps for adjusting this chain are 

 termed "sweeping ihe whale," and the act of adjusting it is known as "fluking the whale." The 

 following is an account of the processes as well as a description of the implements employed: 



The bnoy-line, or as it is also called the "bob and line," or the "lead and buoy," consists of 

 a piece of tow-line usually about 7 or 8 fathoms in length a buoy and lead. The buoy, bent on to 

 one end of the line, is made of pine wood, which is often painted white in order that it may be 

 more readily distinguished, as it is frequently necessary to use it at night. A small hand-lead, or 

 " shot," about 6 pounds in weight, is also bent on to the line, about 1 or 2 fathoms from 

 the buoy. When the whale has been hauled alongside, the ship is so laid as to forge ahead a little 

 and at the same to bring the cetacean along with it, flukes forward. The lead is .now dropped 

 overboard between the ship and the whale on the side of the " small " near the flukes. The lead, of 

 course, takes the buoy under water. The line is then pulled up, which raises the lead, and the 

 buoy, released, floats on the surface. If the buoy should come up on the opposite side of the 

 " small" it is hooked up with the line-hook, or with a hook that may be improvised from a broken 

 harpoon shank attached to a pole, and taken on board. If, on the other hand, the buoy should 

 appear on the surface of the water on the same side of the " small" ou which it descended, the 

 lead will have to be dropped again and again, and the operation repeated, as is often the case, 

 until the maneuver is successfully accomplished. Having passed a small line around the " small,'' 

 the fluke-chain may be bent on and hauled around in a similar manner. One end of the fluke- 

 chain is hauled up to the plank-sheer in the gangway and rove through a ring or shackle at the 

 other end. The bowline is singled and the ring slacked to the "small."* The chain is stoppered 

 in the waist, one end being led forward through a hawse-hole t or chain-pipe. Ou the bluff of the 

 bulwarks, on the starboard side, a rope is made fast to the chain on which all hands haul, bringing 

 the end of the chain forward. When the whale is far enough forward to be conveniently cut, the 

 chain having been hauled up short, about 1 fathoms, it is made fast to the bow-sprit or a bit made 

 for the purpose, and the whale is said to be " fluked." If a fluke-rope is used it may have an 

 eye-splice in one end; or, if not, a clinch may be made and slipped down to its place. The whale 

 thus secured lies with its flukes to the bow of the ship and on top of the water, and the fluke-chain 

 may be veered out as occasion may require during the operation of cutting-in. The after part 

 of the whale's head, as it now lies, is nearly abreast the after part of the main rigging, provided 

 the ship is about 110 feet long, and is made fast by a good stout rope to a bit or a ring in the deck. 

 The whale is now made fast and everything is ready for cutting it in. 



Recently some enterprising whaleman has improvised an instrument, termed a " fluker," from 

 an old hand-lance, simply by cut ting off the head and con vert ing Ihe shank into a large round-bend 

 hook. A small laniard with a buoy at one end is " stopped " to the point, and the instrument is thrust 

 under water between th<- whale and vessel. When low enough in the water the point is turned 

 outboard, the instrument is hauled up under the " small," and the buoy with a line to which the 

 fluke-chain is attached appears on the other side. The buoy is detached, removed with the line- 



* See diagram ot'cutting-iu :i l>u hi-ail m polar whale, A. 



t Many vessels have two liawsr-|iipes, M-vcral feet apart, to be used when two whales have been killed, and some- 

 times two chains are taken through one hawse-pipe. 



