278 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



chain, which is passed around the "small,"* rove through a port-hole in the bulwarks, and made 

 fast to the bowsprit or a small upright post iu the deck, called a "bitt." The whale being 

 thus secured, the order is to "Supper the watch!" or "Dinner the watch!" and immediately after 

 the meal the process of "cuttiug-in" begins. It is necessary that the blubber should be removed 

 as soon as possible, since it may "blast" on the whale, or in all probability rough weather 

 may set in and delay the work, or it may be desirable to lower the boats for other whales. The 

 men and officers take their proper positions. The first and second officers go into the forward 

 and after cutting stages respectively. The captain, assisted by his first mate, usually decapitates 

 the whale; the second mate "scarfs," or cuts the body blubber; the third mate has charge of the 

 waist of the vessel and of boarding the blubber, in which duties he is assisted by the fourth 

 officer, or perhaps the latter may be with the foremast hands at the windlass ; one of the har- 

 pooners stands ready to go down upon the whale, (that is, if a sperm whale), to manipulate the 

 blubber hook when necessary, and another harpooner has charge of stowing away the blubber 

 between decks. On the quarter-deck the cooper, assisted usually by one of the laziest men on the 

 ship to turn the grindstone, is kept busy sharpening the spades, which are dulled from time to time 

 by striking harpoons in the whale or the bones in cutting off the head. No one is allowed to "cut 

 on the whale" except an officer ; it would be a presumption on the part of a foremast hand, at such 

 a time, to go into a cutting stage. 



The head of the whale is first cut off, and the process of removing the blubber from the body 

 begins. The manner of decapitating and dissecting the head of a right whale differs some- 

 what from the method of decapitating a sperm whale. Removing the body blubber, however, 

 has practically no distinguishing features that need to be explained here. In cutting-in a right 

 whale the first officer, with a long-handled spade, makes a "scarf" around the eye and fin (from H 

 to E and I, as shown in the accompanying illustration, Fig. 1). A chain is adjusted about the 

 tin (B) anc? one of the cutting-tackles is attached to the ring (C); the men heave at the windlass 

 and literally tear off both the fin and blubber, the former being skillfully unjointed by the officer 

 before the huge cetacean rolls in the water. As the whale revolves upon its axis, a motion 

 imparted by the cutting- falls which are manipulated by the men at the windlass, the officer con- 

 tinues to cut the blubber as indicated by the spiral lines t in the diagram, and the helical strip of 

 blubber is peeled in a continuous piece the entire length of the whale, from the fins to the flukes. 

 As it is hoisted on board it is subdivided into smaller sections, about 14 feet long and (i feet wide, 

 called "blanket-pieces." The subdivisions are made by the officer who stands in the waist of the 

 vessel, with a long ensiform implement called the boarding-knife, the process being called "board- 

 ing the blubber." He severs the immense strip of fat whenever one of the cutting-tackles "comes 

 two blocks"; the other tackle is made fast to the blubber before the officer severs it, and when 

 the first taekle lowers the blanket-piece the second tackle "comes two blocks." and another piece 

 is cut off. This alternating process continues until the blubber has been disposed of. 



The blanket pieces are lowered through the main hatch into the blubber-room, where they are 

 subsequently reduced to smaller sections or "horse- pieces." The pieces of flesh and muscles or 

 "lean" the whaleman's name for the flesh of the whale which adhere to the inside of the blub- 



18 inches wide. The boards or " arms" sonic call them " legs'" that brace the stage from the vessel, are from 7 to 10 

 feet long; some of them ;ire. 1ml ted rigidly to the stage, while others sire adjustable. 'I'll is kind of stage is suspended over 

 the vessel by two or three, tackles from the mast-head or from davits. For eonvenieiiee and safety of the cutters, when 

 at work, a long pole or rope, usually the latter, is lashed to iron stanchions from 3 to :U feet high, forming 

 a secure railing and support for the officers, the whale, of course, being between the sta.^e and the ship. When not in 

 use the "arms" are folded, and the stage is tnrueil up alongside! the ship and lashed securely. 



" The slender portion of the body of the whale, at its junction with the flukes. 



t The officer does not make a smool h cut as showii in the lines in t he diagram. The actual incisions in (he blub- 

 ber of the whale form zigxag lines, gashes made by the perpendicular thrusts of the keen-edged spades. 



