276 The Story of the New England Whalers 



was looped around the "small" and then taken 

 in through a port in the bow of the ship and made 

 fast to a stout timber-head provided for the pur- 

 pose. By keeping the ship under easy sail the 

 body of the whale floated close alongside. A 

 staging or scaffold was rigged out from the side 

 of the ship in such a way that the body of the 

 whale floated between it and the ship, and yet 

 at some distance below it. On this staging the 

 first and the second mates usually worked with 

 spades chisels with handles from twelve to 

 twenty feet long to cut the blubber from the 

 carcass. A stout railing on the side next to the 

 ship was provided, and against this the officers 

 leaned as they worked at the whale. Two huge 

 tackles were suspended from aloft and a "blubber 

 hook" at the bottom of one of these was inserted 

 into a hole that was cut into the whale between 

 the eye and the fin. When this had been done 

 the whale's head was cut off and allowed to float, 

 at the end of a stout line, astern of the ship while 

 the blubber was stripped in a long spiral from the 

 body. In stripping the blubber the men hoisted 

 away on the tackle that had been hooked into the 



