CHAPTER V.

Increased Length of Whaling Voyages.--Capital.--Value of Oils and Bone.--Value of several Classes of Whaling Vessels.--"Lay." --Boat's Crew.--Whaleboats.--Approaching a Whale.-- Harpooning.--Whale Warp.--Danger when the Line runs out.-- Locomotive Power of the Whale.--Lancing.--Flurry.--Cutting in.--Boiling out.--The "Case and Junk."--The Rapidity with which Oil may be taken.

The voyages of all classes of whalemen are much longer and more tedious now than formerly. Whales are more scarce, more easily frightened; they change their grounds or haunts oftener; and besides, the number of vessels engaged in their capture, in all seas, is largely increased, compared with the number twenty years since, or even later.

More capital is now employed in this enterprise than ever before; and, were it not for the greatly advanced prices of oils and bone beyond what they were a few years ago,--taking into account the scarcity of whales, the long time occupied on a voyage, the augmented expense of fitting out ships, in the high prices of provisions and other incidentals,--the enterprise could hardly be sustained a single year; and certainly but a few years. Immense losses would pervade all departments of this wide-spread system of commercial operation.

A few years since, the price of _sperm_ oil by the quantity was only _fifty_ to _seventy-five_ cents per gallon; but now it brings _one dollar_ and _forty cents_ per gallon by the cargo.

Right whale oil was formerly sold as low as _twenty-five_ cents per gallon by the cargo; but now it brings in the market _seventy_ and _eighty_ cents per gallon by the quantity.

Whalebone, which formerly was sold as low as _six cents_ per pound,--and almost a drug at that,--in consequence of the increased demand for it, and the various and _extraordinary_ uses to which it is applied, now readily commands _eighty_ cents per pound.

Thus a cargo of three thousand barrels of sperm oil, at the present market value of the article, will amount to more than one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. A cargo of three thousand barrels of right whale oil, including the bone, will command in the market, as their value now is, more than ninety thousand dollars; a _ship_ of four hundred tons burden, fitted for a whaling voyage, may be estimated to be worth from thirty to sixty thousand dollars; a _bark_ of three hundred tons, valued from twenty-five to forty-five thousand dollars; a _brig_ of two hundred tons, valued from fifteen to twenty-five thousand dollars; a _schooner_, valued from eight to twelve thousand dollars.

A vessel owned by a number of persons, or a company, is usually divided into halves, quarters, eighths, sixteenths, thirty-seconds, sixty-fourths, &c.

The "lay" for which an individual agrees to go on a whaling voyage, is the proportion of oil, or its equivalent in money, according to the current value of oil, which comes to his share at the termination of the voyage. A short voyage and a full ship will be a profitable enterprise. Since each and all on board know their individual lays, all, therefore, have urgent, personal considerations to secure both for themselves and employers the greatest quantity of oil.

The captain's lay is from one tenth to one eighteenth of all the oil which is obtained; the first officer's, or mate's lay, from one seventeenth to one twenty-fifth; the second officer, from one thirtieth to one fortieth; the third mate, from one fortieth to one fiftieth; the fourth mate, from one fiftieth to one sixtieth; four boat steerers, each about one eightieth; "green hands," or those "before the mast," not far from one hundred and seventy-fifth lay.

Each whale boat, when properly _pointed_, has six men. Some ships man five boats, others four; barks four, brigs three, and schooners two and three.

Each vessel carries nearly double the number of whale boats which it needs. The whale boats, which combine lightness and strength, are always kept hanging over the sides and upon the quarters of the ship, ready furnished for pursuit, so that, on the appearance of a whale being announced from aloft, one or more boats can be despatched in less than a minute.

When a boat approaches the whale sufficiently near to strike, which is sometimes close alongside, and at other times on the top of his back, the boat steerer, who has the forward oar, immediately "peaks" it, and taking his position at the head of the boat, with harpoon in hand, he hurls it with all his energy, and generally with such force and precision, that he buries the fatal iron in the body of the whale, and sometimes he is killed almost instantly.

"The harpoon with which the whale is first struck is a most important weapon, made of the toughest iron, somewhat in the form of an anchor, but brought to an edge and point. Instead of steel being employed, as is commonly supposed, the very softest iron is chosen for this important implement, so that it may be scraped to an edge with a knife. A long staff is affixed to the harpoon by which it is wielded. Connected with the harpoon there is a strong line regularly coiled in the tub; when the whale is struck, and is disposed to dart away or dive down to the depths of the ocean, he carries the iron sticking fast by the barbs, while the coiled line runs out with amazing velocity. From a tub near the stern of the boat, it passes around a loggerhead, and over the seats of the oarsmen, to the bow of the boat, and then a sheeve or pulley is provided, over which it passes to the whale. The friction sometimes is so great in consequence of the rapidity with which the line is carried out by the whale, if by accident it gets out of its place, the bow of the boat is speedily enveloped in smoke, and would burst into a flame provided water was not instantly applied to prevent or allay all friction.

"It is at such a time as this, when by some slight accident the line gets 'foul,' or, by the overturning of the boat, the warp becomes 'tangled' up with the men, many a poor sailor has been carried out of the boat, and carried down into the depths below, and never seen after. Such sad occurrences as these are not wholly unfamiliar with whalemen.

"As soon as the whale is struck, orders are given to 'stern all,' in order to get out of the way of his flukes, or if he is disposed to be frantic and run, to give him the line. Sometimes the lines of several boats are bent on, and more than eight hundred fathoms are run out, and yet the whale would sink the boats were not the line cut. The force that can drag more than three thousand feet of whale warp through the water, including a whale boat, and sometimes more than one, at the rate of _ten_, _twelve_, and _fourteen_ miles per hour, must be tremendous. Such is the locomotive energy of the whale. It is supposed that with equal ease he could swim off with a ship.

"When, however, the whale becomes so exhausted, having been perhaps harpooned by some other boats, that the warp can be hauled in, and the boat or boats approach the whale again, the lancer, who is generally one of the mates of the ship, exchanges places with the boat steerer, and takes his position at the bow of the boat, with a lance ten or twelve feet long; as soon as he comes near enough to reach him, he thrusts the slender and fatal steel into the very vitals of the animal; blood mixed with water is discharged from the blow holes, and presently streams of blood alone are ejected, which frequently drench the boats and men, and cover the sea far around. Sometimes the last agony of the victim is marked by convulsive motions with the tail, and violent contortions of his whole body; and, as we have seen, in its dying moments it turns its rage towards the authors of its sufferings. The whale is now in his 'flurry;' he dashes hither and thither, snaps convulsively with his huge jaws, rolls over and over, coiling the line around his body, or leaps completely out of the water. The boats are often upset, broken into fragments, and the men wounded or drowned. The poor animal whirls rapidly around in unconsciousness, in a portion of a circle, rolls over on its side, and is still in death. At other times, after it is lanced, the whale yields up its life quietly, and dies with scarcely a struggle."

Besides harpoons, which are the most important instruments upon which whalemen depend for capturing the whale, the harpoon gun and bomb lance are now used for the same purpose. They are not, however, considered as substitutes for the harpoon, except in cases of emergency, when the whale cannot be approached by a boat, or when he manifests ugliness or ferocity. The harpoon gun, designed to throw a harpoon, is but little used by American ships, though quite generally among English whalers. Nearly all of our whale ships, however, are supplied with the fatal and destructive bomb lance. The gun, into which the lance exactly fits, is heavier, shorter, and its barrel larger than common guns. It is loaded with powder, in the same manner as other guns. The lance is then put into the barrel of the gun, until one end of it comes in contact with the charge of powder; the opposite extremity has three edges, sharp, and tapering to a point. The entire length of the lance is about eighteen inches. The lance is prepared with a hollow tube, extending half or two thirds of the distance through it; and this tube is filled with a combustible material that readily ignites when the gun is fired. When the lance has buried itself in the huge body of the whale, the fire communicates with the explosive part of the filling in the tube, situated about in the centre of the lance, and in a few moments, thirty seconds perhaps, it bursts like a bomb, and destroys the life of the whale. The bomb lance may be fired with effect at a whale, at a distance of about fifty yards or more.

"The huge body is now towed to the ship; a hole is cut into the blubber near the head, into which a strong hook is inserted--a difficult and dangerous operation. A strong tension is then applied to this hook, and by it the blubber is hoisted up, as it is generally cut by the spades in a spiral strip, going round and round the body, the whale being secured alongside of the ship, and somewhat stretched by tackles both at the head and tail. As this strip or band of blubber is pulled off, weighing from one half to two tons, the body of course revolves, until the stripping reaches the 'small,' when it will turn no more.

"The head, which at the commencement of the process was cut off and secured astern, is now hoisted into a perpendicular position, the front of the muzzle opened, and the oil dipped out of the case by a bucket at the end of a pole." A ship has no purchase sufficiently strong to hoist in on deck the head of a large sperm whale. It is so heavy that it would take the masts out of her if attempted, or bring her keel out of water. Besides, it is so bulky that it would more than fill up the entire waist of the ship. The head sometimes contains more than fifty barrels of oil.

After the oil has been dipped out of the "case," the "junk" is then cut into oblong pieces and taken in on deck; the remainder of the head and carcass are then cut adrift. The oil is afterwards extracted from the blubber and junk, being cut into small pieces by the "mincing knife," and exposed to the action of fire in large pots, the skinny portions which remain serving for fuel. It should be observed that it is usual to secure the "junk" before dipping the oil from the "case." The "junk," which is the forward part of the head, contains the purest spermaceti, and therefore more valuable on that account. It is deposited in the front part of the head in a solid mass, about the consistence of lard, and divided occasionally by a narrow layer of "white horse," a substance resembling the cords of animals, only harder. After passing through a "cooler," the oil is conveyed through leathern hose to large stationary casks which constitute the bottom tier in the hold of the ship. When whales are plenty, which is the harvest time with whalemen, they usually stow away one hundred barrels of oil in twenty-four hours. At such times as these, the fires in the "try works" never go out. If whales were abundant, whalemen would fill a ship carrying three thousand barrels in less than two months.