WHALE HUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA 



the only white men in the ship's company are the Cap- 

 tain and perhaps one or two of the Mates. 



The excitement of the hunt is still there, however, 

 and it takes the same nerve and the same cool head 

 to fasten to and lance a sperm, as it did fifty years 

 ago. I have had no personal experience in this kind 

 of whaling, and therefore it does not fall within the 

 scope of this book, but by way of contrast I have 

 quoted a few extracts from the "Diary of a Whaling 

 Cruise" by Victor Slocum, Harpooner. 1 



When a whale is cut in at sea the carcass is made 

 fast to the lee side of the ship, and a skeleton platform 

 of heavy planks is rigged to project beyond the whale, 

 just above the surface. The mates take their places 

 there and, with long "whale spades," make incisions 

 through the blubber, which is stripped off in long 

 blanket pieces by means of a block and tackle sus- 

 pended from the mast. When the blubber is all in, 

 the head is cut away and hauled on board, where the 

 case is bailed, then the chains are slacked and the 

 great carcass sinks into the green depths below to fur- 

 nish food for thousands of hungry sharks. 



Mr. Slocum tells of a sperm whale hunt in the fol- 

 lowing words : 



At 4 A. M. all hands started to cut in, and just .as we got 

 through heaving, it was whales again just after dinner. 

 I was glad of that, and so was everybody else, for the 

 work and exposure was beginning- to pull on us, and a full 

 stomach is none too good to go down in a boat with. The 

 whales were close by, and a large school of them, too. There 



1 Forest and Stream, Vol. 67, 1907, pp. 928, 930, 968. 



240 



