THE PRESENT SURVIVAL OF OPEN BOAT WHALING 337 



tions in an early shore whalery for Right whales at Nantucket about the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century : 



The process called Saving the whale after they had been killed and towed ashore, was to use a crab, an instrument 

 similar to a capstan, to heave and turn the blubber off as fast as it was cut. The blubber was then put into their carts 

 and carried to their try-houses, which in that early period, were placed near their dwelling-houses, where the oil was 

 boiled out and fitted for market. 



This even seems to have been an advance upon the Azores method, for the crab at Nantucket was 

 clearly used to strip blubber much as a steam winch does in modern whaling. It would in fact be more 

 appropriate to shift the comparison to the early Northern fishery when whales were not always taken 

 to the vessel but were sometimes stranded on a Spitzbergen beach and the blubber hacked off there. 



When cutting in alongside a jetty or quay, the whale, floating on its side, is secured fore and aft by 

 head rope and fluke chain to ring-bolts in the stone facing of the jetty. Meanwhile a cutting stage has 

 been rigged above the whale by bracing two stretcher planks outwards from the jetty, and joining them 

 at their outer ends with a third plank, the outrigger, which supports the men using cutting spades. 

 The stretchers are braced from stout wooden posts set in iron hoops fixed to the jetty. The outrigger 

 is fitted with a handrail. For hoisting the blubber there must be a derrick or an elevated beam or 

 gallows to stand duty for a whaleship's main-top and suspend the large and heavy cutting tackles. 

 These are two outsize purchases worked alternately, each consisting of an upper and a lower block 

 with heavy rope falls. If a derrick system is employed, then these purchases take a rather different 

 form, but they are always noteworthy for their great size. I have seen cutting blocks in the Azores 

 which were about 18 in. long and 12 in. wide and 6 in. deep. Cutting in is begun by mortising a hole 

 in the blubber just above the flipper. This hole receives the great blubber hook attached to the lower 

 block of one tackle. I have been shown a blubber hook weighing more than 100 lb. 



The insertion of the hook in whaleship days on the high seas was a job for a man sent overboard on 

 a monkey rope, but it can be done at an Azores shore station with less difficulty from a rowing-boat. 

 When the hook is in position, the end of the falls is taken to the crab on the jetty, and the men walk 

 round and heave. This turns the whale slightly in the water so that it lies with the jaw accessible. 

 A strap is secured round the lower jaw and fastened to the second purchase. By hoisting on this, 

 whilst men on the stage sever the throat blubber and mandibular muscles, the lower jaw is dis- 

 articulated and got upon the jetty. The jaw and teeth will later provide material for scrimshaw work 

 (p. 347). When the jaw is removed the stripping of the blubber is begun. The falls of the first tackle 

 are eased to allow the whale to resume its former position where it can be ' scarfed ' with a cut round 

 the flipper and extending towards the back as two parallel lines 5 or 6 ft. apart. The men heave again 

 at the crab and the first ' blanket piece ' is started by wrenching up the flipper and its surrounding 

 blubber, which begins to peel off as a giant strip. The strip rises and the whale turns in the water as 

 the spades extend the scarf and help to tear the blubber from its underlying attachments of loose 

 connective tissue. When the tackle ' comes two blocks ', with the lower block hard against the upper 

 one, a man on the jetty takes a boarding-knife (a long-handled, double-edged sword) and cuts a hole 

 at waist level in the strip of blubber now hoisted above him. Through this hole is toggled the strap of 

 the lower block of the second tackle, or else two holes are made and the block is fastened with a chain 

 strap instead of a toggle. When strain has been transferred to the second tackle, a few slashes above 

 the toggle or strap with the boarding-knife cuts the first blanket piece clear, and it is ' boarded ' onto 

 the jetty. Then the newly-fastened tackle starts to hoist the second blanket piece. The scarfing, 

 hoisting, and boarding of the blubber continues, and in this way successive blanket pieces are brought 

 to the jetty, whilst the whale turns in the water and the blubber peels off in spiral fashion as a con- 

 tinuous strip down the body. When the tailstock is approached, the strip is severed, and the blubber 



