WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 87 



fine," the casting line is sixty fathoms, the rope four and a 

 half inches in circumference, the finest Italian hemp pro- 

 curable, with a backing of two thousand one hundred and 

 sixty-six feet, five and half inches rope to port, and the 

 same to starboard, a total of eight thousand six hundred and 

 twenty feet. The line passes five times round the two barrels 

 of a sixty-five-horse-power winch. It is "fine tackle " com- 

 pared to the seventy or eighty ton fighting finner that we 

 are playing. . . . 4.25 not much line out, only about one 

 thousand five hundred feet now we go more slowly in 

 tow. It was a well-placed shot ... a few Mother Carey 

 chickens come and some fulmar petrels, later a solan goose ! 

 there is a little blood now in its feeble blast, it thrashes 

 with its tail more line going out we go astern to drown it. 

 The nose appears, exactly the colour of a salmon at a distance 

 it turns over. 4.33 White ribbed underside up now 

 it is dead and it sinks. The line is rove over large iron 

 snatch block 1 up the mast and the steam winch begins to 

 turn slowly, raising the whale from the depths ; a slow, 

 steady, funereal clank ; a great chain is manreuvred round 

 the tail and it is hauled up to the side of the bow by the 

 winch ; getting the tail chained up to the bow is a compli- 

 cated, heavy bit of seaman's work. A magnificent and 

 beautiful thing is the tail in colour and form ; so wide and 

 big and yet so delicate in design and finish and plum-like 

 colour and so immensely strong. The body swings along- 

 side, the head reaches our stern quarters, the line is cut clear 

 of the harpoons in its body. 4.55 Two hours after we first 

 sighted the whale, a quick hunt, play, and kill. 5.3 Blowing 

 it up and off for second whale. 



Blowing up, as already described, is putting a hollow lance 

 into whale and blowing through it air and steam, which 

 makes the body slightly more buoyant and more easy to 

 tow. 



5.30 Sight another whale. Meantime Jensen has been 



1 This snatch block hangs on a wire rope that passes over a sheaf and 

 leads down to the hold, where it is attached to an enormously strong steel 

 spiral spring. This makes a give-and-take action when hauling up the dead 

 whale from the depths to counteract the jar on line and donkey-engine that 

 comes from the rise and fall of the steamer on the sea. 



