252 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



in New York, being by no means without humour 

 when drunk. 



NordhofFs book was published at Cincinnati in 

 1856, and is a description of whaling life by a man 

 who had previously been a sailor. 



In 1918 owing to the prevailing shortage of the 

 world's food supply, the American whaling 

 companies were encouraged to save and market 

 whale meat, and the United States Bureau of 

 Fisheries issued a pamphlet on the use of whales 

 and porpoises as food. 1 The west coast whaling 

 companies provided a cold storage and distributing 

 plant, with a capacity of about three thousand tons, 

 a five hundred ton freezing plant, a refrigeration 

 steamer, and a cannery with a capacity of fifty 

 thousand cases. In 1918 a beginning was made 

 with thirty thousand cases of canned meat, and for 

 1919 an output of fifty thousand cases of canned 

 meat, and one thousand tons of frozen meat is 

 expected. 



The equipment and method of canning are 

 similar to those used in Pacific coast salmon 

 canneries, with certain differences in the preliminary 

 handling. The whales for canning are hauled out 

 on a special concrete slip, constantly flooded with 

 fresh running water, and here the meat is removed 

 in the same way as for freezing. After cooling it 

 is placed in mild brine for about thirty-six hours, 

 which removes all blood, at the same time elimin- 



1 Whales and Porpoises as food. U.S. De-pi, of Commerce, 

 Bureau of Fisheries Economic Circular, No. 38. Issued 

 6th November, 1918. 



