THE WHALE FIS11EKY. 287 



whalemen that when a whale is taken among the ice and cannot be towed to the vessel, small 

 tackles are carried in the boats to the whale, and where they are enabled to get sufficient pur- 

 chase to roll the animal they take off the blubber, cut it into horse-pieces and drag it to 

 the ship on sleds. In sperm whaling, however, no delay can be suffered in extracting the oil, 

 which is attended to as soon as possible, or the blubber will blast, and when put into the pots 

 will, as it is termed, run together, forming a consistency of, and almost as sticky, as glue, and in 

 this condition the oil becomes black and unsalable. In the English sperm fishery, in 1820, the oil 

 was reduced from the blubber shortly after it was taken on board, in the try-works, with which 

 the ships engaged in this fishery were always provided._ There were two coppers (kettles) in the 

 try works, placed side by side, near the fore-hatch. These, with their furnaces, did not differ from 

 those now in use on American ships. They were made of brick-work, occupied a space of 5 or 6 

 feet in length by 8 or 9 in breadth (fore and aft, and athwart ship), and 4 or 5 feet in height. 

 There was also a cistern for the water.* 



SCRUBBING. When cruising in low latitudes during warm weather many of the sperm 

 whalemen deposit their blubber on deck, instead of stowing it away in the blubber-room. In this 

 case the decks are infrequently washed when running the works; they are, however, "lippered up' 

 regularly while boiling, for the sake of cleanliness and economy as well, it being desirable to save' 

 the oil which exudes copiously from the blubber. Except when whaling or boiling out, or when 

 something of an extraordinary nature occurs to prevent it, the deck of the sperm whaler is 

 scrubbed daily, Sundays excepted. Many of the southern right whalemen, instead of washing 

 their decks, clean them by means of the ordinary scraper, a small triangular instrument 

 with sharp edges and wooden handle, familiar to all seafaring men. There is always more or less 

 fog on right-whale grounds, accompanied by a fine mist, called by some whalemen a fog-storm, 

 since the water drips freely from the mast-heads, yards, ropes, and rigging, and rather gives the 

 impression that the ship is in a state of profuse perspiration. During these light rains, the water 

 being obtained from the cisterns of the clouds without manual labor, the decks are usually swept 

 with brooms several times a day. After leaving the whaling grounds for the home port all right 

 whalemen have a general scrubbing; many of them commence at the lower mast-heads and wash 

 down, using lye and sand in abundance. On all whaling vessels the decks are well scrubbed after 

 each fare has been boiled out and stowed away. A liberal supply of salt water is thrown on, and 

 the scrubbing in the southern fishery is usually done with cocoauut brooms; the bulwarks are 

 washed with lye made from the ashes of scraps, or perhaps with salt \vater and sand. Scrubbing 

 the decks of a well-soaked blubber hunter in the lower latitudes is an ungrateful task, except in 

 so far as the superficial filth is carried away, for the powerful rays of a tropical sun draws the oil 

 from the planks and renders the condition of the deck almost as bad as before. In lippering up 

 decks a man takes an oil scoop in one hand and the lipperf in the other, with which he brushes 

 the refuse fluid into the receptacles and transfers it to the tubs. 



Holy stones, so extensively employed in the Navy, are seldom if ever used by whalemen. The 

 latter rely solely upon their scrub-brooms and the calcined ashes of scraps for removing sperm 

 oil, and upon the scraper for removing right- whale oil. Sperm oil in its natural condition when 

 fresh may be washed off with comparative ease, but after being cooked it is removed with diffi- 

 culty. Right-whale oil, on the other hand, has a tendency to glue up or gum up the decks whence 



* Godman. 



t A Upper is a piece of thiii blubber of an oblong shape, with incisions in one end for the men to grasp. The 

 Uppers best adapted to this purpose arc. cut from the posterior edge of the corner of the flukes, and sometimes pieces 

 of the head skin are used. Sometimes a piece of leather may be used. Different vessels employ different utensils of 

 this kind. A large metal ladle used for scooping up the oil from the deck is also called the Upper. 



