THE AMERICAN WHALE-FISHERY. 
235 
enough to fasten the tackle under the fin, the order is given to "board," which is 
done in the following manner : The second tackle, which took in the head, now 
being free and again ready for use, a boat-steerer or officer cuts a hole in the 
blanket -piece well down to the plank -sheer, and through this hole the strap of the 
tackle is thrust, and a heavy wooden glut, called a toggle, is passed through the 
thimble of the block -strap (as seen in the accompanying figure), which secures it 
firmly to the blanket-piece and completes the "board." Then the order is given to 
"take to and heave away," when the fall of the tackle is 
taken around the windlass and hauled taut, the men at 
the windlass -brakes heave upon the tackle until the sec- 
ond blanket -piece is raised two feet or more above the 
plank -sheer, and the first is cut off and lowered down 
the main -hatch into the blubber- room. The second 
blanket -piece is then hove up, until the whale again lies 
on its side, when the other lip is taken in by the same 
process. The carcass is now turned back down, by heav- 
ing up on the piece, and in doing this, the throat- blub- 
ber is cut clear from that of the trunk ; and with a 
spade, a hole is made through both the throat and 
tongue, when the throat- chain toggle is inserted 
at C, as seen in the diagram. The tackle being 
hooked to the ring of the chain, the throat is cut 
from the flesh that adheres to it as it is drawn up, 
and when hoisted high enough, it is lowered on 
deck, or into the blubber -room. Then the body- 
blubber is cut in spiral folds — as represented in 
the diagram by diagonal lines — and rolled off 
down to the dotted lines behind the vent, where 
the whole flesh of the carcass is cut through; and 
the backbone being unjointed, the main portion 
of the mutilated remains of the animal floats clear of the ship, or it sinks to the 
depths beneath. The residue of the fatty covering of that portion of the creature 
known as the small, is soon stripped. The flukes are cut off close to the fluke, 
chain, and the chain hauled in, which completes the modus operandi of cutting- in a 
whalebone whale. The animal having been cut in, the head, being on deck, is 
next cleared away. This is done by stripping the blubber from the skull-bone; 
then, with spades and axes, the baleen or bone is cut, with the gum, from the 
Cutting - tackle toggled to the 
Blanket -piece. 
