44 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



whole of the meat being taken off in four strips, 

 two on each side. Finally he cuts up the backbone, 

 and the whole of the meat and bones in manageable 

 pieces is raised by elevators and tipped into boilers. 



The blubber-boilers are open, but the meat and 

 bone boilers are closed, the pressure of the steam in 

 the latter helping to extract the less abundant oil. 

 The blubber is given three successive boilings, the 

 average duration of each being eight hours. 



After each boiling the contents settle, the oil 

 being run off into vats. At the third boiling the 

 boiler is closed at the top, the steam pressing the 

 contents to ensure complete extraction of the oil. 

 Ultimately all the fat disappears, a dark mud 

 remaining. All the oil, blood and scraps which 

 accumulate when the whale is being cut up, are 

 gathered together and boiled, and at one factory in 

 1911 no less than two hundred barrels of No. 4 

 oil were obtained in this way, the value being 

 about six hundred pounds. 



The oils are classified according to quality: 



1. Spermaceti (from head of Sperm Whale). 



2. Sperm blubber oil. 



3. No. i oil (from blubber of Fin- whales). 



4. No. 2. oil (from second boiling- of blubber of Fin-whales). 



5. No. 3 oil (from meat and blubber in closed boiler). 



6. No. 4 oil (from bones, scraps, and sperm meat). 



Most of the oil is used for soap-making, but 

 during the war it was sold to manufacturers of 

 explosives for extraction of glycerine. The lower 

 grades are chiefly used for the manufacture of 

 lubricating greases. 



