1 14 WHALE FISHERY. 



after its capture, is the process called *' flensing j* that is, the clearing 

 the carcase of its bone and blubber. This is effected by bringing the 

 dead animal alongside the ship, and after it has been secured, then 

 sending down the men upon it, having their feet secured with spurs to 

 prevent them from slipping, who, by means of knives and other proper 

 instruments, cut off the blubber in slips. 



After one side has been cleared there is a contrivance for turning the 

 fish over upon the other. The blubber is received from the flencers by 

 the boat-steerers and line-managers, who, after dividing it into smaller 

 pieces, hand it over to two men, called Kings, by whom it is finally 

 deposited in the ship's hold. While the process is going on, various 

 birds of prey attend in great numbers, and bears and sharks are at no 

 great distance, ready to fall upon the remainder of the carcase before it 

 sinks into the deep. The operation of fiencing is commonly performed 

 by British fishers in about four hours. Even this part of the business 

 is far from being free from its perils ; " Flensing in a swell," says Captain 

 Scoresby, "is a most difficult and dangerous undertaking, and when the 

 swell is at all considerable it is commonly impracticable. No ropes nor 

 blocks are capable of bearing the jerk of the sea. The harpooners are 

 annoyed by the surf, and repeatedly drenched with water, and are like- 

 wise subject to be wounded by the breaking of ropes or hooks of tackles, 

 and even by strokes from each other's knives. Hence, accidents in this 

 kind of flensing in particular are not uncommon. The harpooners not 

 unfrequently fall into the fish's mouth, when it is exposed by the removal 

 of a surface of blubber; where they might easily be drowned, but for the 

 prompt assistance which is always at hand. Some years ago I was 

 witness of a circumstance in which a harpooner was exposed to the 

 most imminent risk of his life at the conclusion of a flensing process, by 

 a very curious accident. This harpooner stood on one of the jaw bones 

 of the fish with a boat by his side. In this situation, while he was 

 in the act of cutting the kreng (the skeleton) adrift, a boy inadvertently 

 struck the point of the boat hook, with which he usually held the boat, 

 through the ring of the harpooner's spur, and, in the same act, seized 

 the jaw bone of the fish with the hook of the same instrument. Before 

 this was discovered the kreng was set at liberty, and began instantly to 

 sink. The harpooner then threw himself towards the boat; but, being 

 firmly entangled by the foot, he fell into the water. Providentially he 

 caught the gunwale of the boat with his hands, but, overpowered by the 

 force of the sinking kreng, he was on the point of relinquishing his 

 grasp, when some of his companions got hold of his hands, while others 



