DISCOVERY 



51 



whalers in Scottish waters, and in normal seasons it 

 forms from 50 to 80 per cent, of the total catch in 

 Faroese waters. These Finners are readily distinguished 

 from the True whales by the presence of a dorsal fin 

 and the plicated skin on the throat. 



Normally there are whaling stations at work in the 

 Shetlands, Hebrides, Ireland, Iceland, and the Faroes, 

 but last year, owing to the slump in the value of whale 

 oil, only one station was at work, at Thorsvig in the 

 Faroe Islands. Nearly all modern whaling is in 

 Norwegian hands, and it was a Norwegian fima which 

 had four whaling steamers at work at Thorsvig this 

 year. 



The whaling steamer is a small but strongly built 

 vessel from 80 to go feet in length. Its characteristic 

 features are the crow's-nest up on the solitary mast 

 and the harpoon-gim in the bows. The harpoon, to 

 which a rope is attached, is shot out from a small cannon 

 fixed right up in the bows of the steamer. The harpoon 

 is tipped with a hollow point called the bomb. This 

 bomb bursts after the harpoon strikes the whale, and 

 often kills the whale instantaneously. Coiled on a 

 pan in the bows is about forty fathoms of a specially 

 strong rope, the Foreganger. From this pan or 

 platform, the rope passes aft to a winch situated in 

 front of the bridge. This winch serves to haul in the 

 whale when it is dead. 



Most of the whales are captured at the Faroes 

 within the loo-fathom line, less than a day's steaming 



the greater proportion of the catch at the Faroes. Up 

 to the middle of July, of a hundred whales taken at 

 Thorsvig, ninety-seven were Finners and three Blue 



mm 



Fig. I.— the nARPOON IX WH.-tLER'S BOW, WITH PI,.\TFORM 

 FOR coil, OF ROPE. 

 The gun is unloaded, and the muzzle points aft. 



from the islands. This year, owing to the abundance 

 of the Common Finner, the whalers made no attempt 

 to kill the Sei whale, which in normal years forms 



FIG. ;.— FLENSING A FIXXER WHAI,E IBAL.EXOPT ERA 

 MUSCULUS}. 



THORS\lG, FAROE ISI,.4XDS. 



whales. Occasionally one of the rarer whales is killed, 

 a Nordcaper [Balcena biscayensis) being brought in 

 this year on July 22. The modern whaler will shoot 

 at any whale over 40 feet in length. 



After the whale is shot it is speedily hauled alongside 

 the steamer, and the tail flukes cut off to facilitate 

 towing to the station. A steel tube is next stuck into 

 the abdomen and air pumped in to keep the whale 

 afloat, the orifice being stuffed with oakum when the 

 tube is withdrawn. The harpoon is left in the carcass 

 until the whale arrives at the platform, where it is 

 flensed, i.e. stripped of its blubber. The dead whales 

 are invariably towed ashore to a whaling station for 

 the extraction of the oil and treatment of the carcass. 



After arrival at the station the whale is hauled up 

 a slip on to a flensing platform by means of a powerful 

 steam-winch. A Blue whale may weigh up to seventy 

 tons, and is rightly considered a great catch. First, 

 the \'aluable blubber is flensed off by a steam-winch, 

 the flenser having made two or three longitudinal 

 incisions down the whale's side to facilitate the removal 

 of the blubber from the underlying flesh. The blubber 

 is then cut up by a machine like a circular saw into 

 small pieces, which are hoisted up into a gigantic 

 boiler. From the blubber the best oil is obtained. 

 The whale " bone " is now removed from the upper jaw 

 and set aside for subsequent treatment. Now comes 

 the turn of the Faroe islanders. The whaling company 

 is compelled by the terms of its lease to sell to the 

 islanders as much whale meat as they require at a 

 fixed price of ten kroner (los.) per small barrel, and 

 the Faroe men crowd round eagerly to get such a 



