Part 8

An average whaler carried in the neighbourhood of five hundred casks of all sizes, and the keeping of them in serviceable condition involved constant watchfulness and work on the cooper’s part.

GRINDING SPADES

No one was busier than the ship’s boy. Helping the steward in the pantry, turning the grindstone, peeling potatoes for the cook, or running aloft to tie stops in the buntlines, he was kept hopping from one job to another.

He doubtless found ere long that whaling was not as romantic a pursuit as he had dreamed it to be, and cried himself to sleep in homesickness many times before the end of the voyage.

COILING LINE TUBS

The coiling of the whale line in the boats’ tubs was a matter demanding extreme care, as not only did the catching of whales depend on the line, but improper coiling might produce sudden kinks and fouling, to result in the maiming or killing of one or more of the crew, or even the loss of the boat itself.

Whale line was made of “long manila fibre” and was three quarters of an inch in diameter. Even when new it was as pliable as an old shoe lace and capable of sustaining a weight of three tons.

In coiling, the line was laid out on deck, the end passed through a snatch block on the mainstay over head, and thence down to the tub. The end, with its eye splice, was left hanging over the edge of the tub where it could be bent onto the second tub should necessity arise.

The line was coiled clockwise to the centre, thence to the side, and the process repeated until the tub was full.

This was known as a “flake” or “Flemish coil.”

Each boatsteerer attended to the coiling of his own tubs, a helper meanwhile twisted the line to the left as he pulled it down through the block.

TEN DOLLARS REWARD

In some ships, when whales were scarce, and weeks--even months--elapsed without a kill it was the custom for the captain to have a five or ten dollar gold piece nailed to the mainmast to be claimed by the first man who sighted a “blow.”

GRUB

“What’s this--the cook’s pocketbook?”

Jack always ate his meals on deck except in inclement weather. Salt beef or pork, cooked in a sadly unvarying fashion, was served in small wooden tubs called “kids,” and the sailor’s treasured privilege, no matter what the quality of the fare might be, was to make uncomplimentary remarks about the cook and all his ancestors.

“FRESH FISH FOR THE COOK TO SPOIL”

In the warmer latitudes there were always fish playing about the ship’s bows: bonita, barracouta, dolphins and porpoises----

To vary the weary round of salt “horse” it was no trick at all for one of the boatsteerers to take himself into the martingale stays and bring up a fish that would arouse the envy of any landlubber angler.

WHALES

1--SPERM WHALE. This whale was long avoided by the early whalemen before means were perfected to meet his wary and pugnacious character.

A large sperm whale would measure sixty-five feet and give eighty barrels of oil. Many larger ones have been taken but the average gave forty-five barrels.

Its natural food is the giant squid, which it finds at profound depths--a half mile or more.

Sperm whales are usually found in herds or “pods,” except in the case of occasional “lone bulls.”

2--RIGHT WHALE. This is the whale of the early history of the industry--docile and easy to take--whose only means of defence lay in its great tail or “flukes.” This and the Bowhead were known as “Baleen” or whalebone whales.

They feed on the surface--their food being small crustacea or “brit,” which they scoop up with open mouth and strain through the rows of baleen which hang from the upper jaw.

3--BOWHEAD WHALE. The Arctic or Greenland whale. Living in the cold waters of the high latitudes the blubber of this species is much thicker than that of Sperm or Right, one Bowhead rendering as much as three hundred barrels.

The quality of its oil, however, is much inferior to sperm oil, and for years it was hunted for its whalebone alone.