WHALE FISHERY OF NEW ENGLAND 51 



the whalebone was taken in, if it were a right whale. The strips or 

 "blanket pieces" were then minced, and after boiling, the oil was 

 cooled and stored away in barrels below deck. The "try-works" con- 

 sisted of iron pots set in brick furnaces, and there were pans of water 

 underneath to prevent the decks from burning. This process of boil- 

 ing the oil was most irksome and disagreeable as the men were soaked 

 in oil from head to foot, and the smell of the burning fluid was so frightful 

 that it has often been alluded to as Hell on a large scale, and was 

 usually called a "squantum," which is the Nantucket word for a 

 picnic; nevertheless, old whalers delighted in it. 



It is a superstition among some whalemen that a ship which for once 

 has a sperm whale's head on her starboard quarter, and a right whale's 

 on her port side, will never afterwards capsize. 



THE PERILS OF WHALING 



Whalemen not only had to undergo the perils of the sea, but in 

 addition ran the danger of being killed by the whale and of being 

 attacked by savages at the ports where it was often necessary to land 

 for food and water. Also in cases of accident the whaleship was usually 

 off the regular cruise followed by the merchantmen and therefore less 

 likely to be assisted by other vessels. Furthermore, the long voyages, 

 poor food, and the many dangers of whaling induced many mutinies. 



The worst massacre occurred on the "Awashonks," of Falmouth, in 

 1835, near the Marshall Islands. The natives came on board in large 

 numbers and seemed most friendly, when, on a given signal, they killed 

 the captain and many of the crew. Finally the seamen laid a charge 

 of dynamite under a hatchway where the savages were sitting, and 

 blew most of them to pieces, the crew being then enabled to recapture 

 the vessel. A few years later, when the "Sharon" of Fairhaven was 

 cruising not far from Ascension Island, the crew lowered for a 

 whale, and upon returning to the ship it was discovered that three of 

 the "Kanaka" crew, recently engaged, had taken charge of the ship 

 and had killed the captain. The first mate in the whaleboat did 

 not dare attack, but the third mate, Benjamin Clough, who was only 

 nineteen years old, swam to the ship in the darkness, climbed up the 

 rudder, shot two of the mutineers, and had a hand-to-hand encounter 

 with the third, who died soon afterwards. The first mate then re- 

 turned on board. Clough was made captain of a ship immediately 

 upon his return to Fairhaven. Still another mutiny took place on the 

 ship "Junior" which sailed from New Bedford in 1857, most of 

 the officers being killed. Plummer, the ringleader, wrote a story of the 

 mutiny in the log book, which is now in the possession of the New 

 Bedford Library, and the account was signed by the five mutineers in 

 order to clear the rest of the men on board. The five murderers on 

 sighting land lowered two whaleboats with all the plunder they could 

 find and rowed ashore. The mutineers were subsequently captured 

 and were brought in cages to Boston, where they were defended by 



