28 CETACEANS. 
Products and The sperm-oil yielded by the thick layer of blubber investing the 
Hunting. body, and the spermaceti contained in the cavity of the head, are the 
two products for which the sperm-whale is hunted; and since the former fetches a 
far higher price than ordinary whale-oil, this animal is one of the most valuable 
of all the Cetaceans. The spermaceti exists in the form of oil in the living animal, 
and is ladled out in buckets from the skull when the carcase is cut up. The 
spermaceti of commerce is produced by a process of refining. The use of this 
enormous mass of oil in the skull does not appear to be ascertained. 
In addition to sperm-oil and spermaceti, the substance known as ambergris is 
also a product of the sperm-whale. It is not, however, usually taken from the 
animal, but is found floating in the sea, and has been ascertained to be formed in 
the intestines. This substance always contains a number of the beaks of the squids 
and cuttles upon which the whale has fed. Although formerly employed in 
medicine, it is now used exclusively in perfumery. 
In the old days of sperm-whale-hunting (of which alone we shall speak) the 
vessels engaged in the trade were from three hundred to four hundred tons burden, 
and were equipped for a three years’ voyage; their usual destination being the 
South Seas. They each had a crew of from twenty-eight to thirty-three officers 
and men, and carried six whale-boats. These boats were about twenty-seven feet 
in length, with a beam of four feet, and were built sharp at both ends. Four boats 
took part in the chase, each being furnished with a pair of two hundred fathom 
harpoon-lines, and carrying a crew of six men. The crew comprised a boat-steerer 
in the bow, four hands, and the headsman in the stern. It was the business of the 
boat-steerer to harpoon the whale, and when this was accomplished he changed 
places with the headsman, whose duty it was to kill the animal with the lances. 
When a whale was harpooned, immediately after its first struggles, and when it 
was lying exhausted from its endeavours to escape, the boat was pulled close 
alongside, and the headsman began the work of destruction by thrusting his lance 
into the vital parts behind the flipper. As soon as the whale was lanced, the boat 
was backed with all possible speed. When first struck the whale frequently 
“sounded,” or descended to immense depths, sometimes taking out nearly the 
whole of the eight hundred fathoms of line carried by the four boats. Subse- 
quently, however, when weakened by loss of blood, it kept on or near the surface, 
towing after it one or more of the boats. By hauling in the line, the boat or 
boats were once more pulled up alongside, and the monster finally destroyed either 
by darting or thrusting the lances. 
Whaling, as thus carried out, was full of danger, and there are hundreds of 
accounts of hairbreadth escapes from death, and of feats of daring. In the 
southern seas Maories were not unfrequently shipped by British whalers as 
harpooners, and the following narrative of the daring of one of these men is 
related by Dr. A. 8. Thomson in his History of New Zealand. “One morning,” 
writes the narrator, “a lone whale was seen on the placid Pacific; the boat was 
pulled up to it, and the New Zealander, balancing himself on the gunwale, darted 
the harpoon at the creature and missed. After several hours’ chase, under a 
tropical sun, the whale was approached a second time, and the New Zealander 
darted two harpoons at him, but again missed. Then the bitterest disappointment 
