Chapter XIX: Section VI: Extraordinary Exploit in "cutting-in" single-handed, a

moderately-grown Young Whale._

The tardy formality with which the "flensing" of the whale was accomplished, irrespective of the particular magnitude of the animal to be despoiled of its blubber and whalebone, was frequently a source of great annoyance to my Father. The number of cuts, with the placing of straps, and attachment of tackles, had become--like the skeleton forms issued by public offices--an established system; and, cumbrous as it was, with respect to fish of smaller growth, it was made generally applicable to all. The effect of this was, that whilst the largest sized fish would be flensed in about four hours, the taking in of one of the fourth, or sixth part its size would occupy nearly half as much time. An hour and a half at least, but more frequently two hours, at that period of the fishery, would be expended upon one of the ordinary small-sized whales. The poor little carcass, indeed, was encumbered by the number of the harponeers (to whose province belongs the fixing of the tackles and the cutting away of the blubber) congregated upon, or about it, whilst flensing.

As every instance of remonstrance, whilst failing in producing any improvement, regularly induced unpleasantness of feeling, my Father was at length provoked to put forth a challenge, to which his officers were able to offer no possible objection, except the indication, by look and gesture, that they would derive some recompense for the rebukes passed on them, by certain and signal failure. His adventurous challenge was, that, with the assistance of only one-third part of the available crew, he would go on a fish, and send it in, single-handed, in _half the time_ occupied by the four or six harponeers with the help of all hands!

Opportunities for the experiment being at this time abundantly afforded, he forthwith prepared himself for this trial of skill. The available hands--that is, excluding cook, steward, surgeon, etc.--were usually about forty-five or forty-six in number. Out of these he took, not a picked set, but only two boats' crews, with their supernumeraries, according to their existing classification, comprising about sixteen men. These he appointed to their several stations about the deck; eight to the capstan, four, perhaps, to the "crab" or "winch," and the rest to manage the "tackle-falls," to cut up the blubber and heave it into the "flens-gut," or receptacle for it below. The two boys who were appointed, on the usual plan, to hold the boat in which he was to stand whilst flensing, were, perhaps, extra; but this I forget.

Previous to the commencement of the experiment, the preparing of his cutting instruments, viz. a "blubber-spade" and "blubber-knife," became matter of personal and special attention. The _spade_, (an instrument with the cutting part about eight inches broad, and used in the manner of the "hay-spade,") was not merely ground to a fine edge and then sharpened with an oil-stone, but the sides (ordinarily left black with varnish, or encrusted with rust,) were reduced by the grindstone to a bright and smooth surface. His blubber-knife (an instrument with a three feet blade and three feet straight handle) was, in like manner, carefully ground, sharpened, and polished; so that these instruments, presenting the least possible resistance, from the adhesion of the metal to the blubber, when in use, the muscular strength of the flenser might, in no respect, be uselessly expended.

All things being ready, and the men duly distributed, the time was noted, and my Father, single-handed, as I have said,--except as to a man to put in the straps[G] and attach the tackles, that he might not have occasion to wet or grease his hands,--proceeded to the trial on his apparently presumptuous challenge.

The plan he had previously determined on, and which subsequently became very common in the flensing of small fish, was the following:--

The under part of the head (always being placed upward for flensing), with the jaw-bones, "lips," and tongue, is first attached to the capstan tackle, and, being separated as it is hove up, is taken on deck altogether. Meanwhile the skull, with the whalebone and upper part of the head,--which is brought in sight, clear of the water, by the strain hove upon the other section or lower jaw,--is secured by the second tackle, and speedily made to follow its companion in the ascent to the deck.

One of the fins, having a strap previously put round it, is next hove upon, till (the fish being free to roll over, so as to adjust its position to the direction of the strain,) it is well raised upward, and, the blubber annexed to it, put upon the stretch. The fin is then easily "unsocketed," and the blubber on the seaward side being cut across beyond it, it becomes the attachment for heaving up a long slip of three or four feet in width, and extending, with its upper part, high above the level of the deck. As this ascends, (the fish meanwhile spontaneously "canting" outwardly from the ship), the other fin appears in sight, and, being embraced by another strap, is, in its turn, hove up by the "fore-tackle" correspondently, as to its further progress, with its fellow. When the attachment of the second, or fore-tackle, rises to about the level of the deck, the blubber-slip is cut across, just above the place of that attachment, and the separated portion, being lowered down upon the deck, is cut up, with singular celerity, into square lumps, adapted for being easily thrown about by the "pick-haak" men; and these, as rapidly as they are cut out, are made to disappear through a hole in one of the main-hatches into the flens-gut below.

The moment the first, or "after-tackle," is released, it is overhauled again over the ship's side, and, a fresh strap being fixed in the continuous slip, (which, to preserve its continuity, is cut spirally from the carcass,) the progress of the operation goes on, without ceasing, till the whole superficies of blubber is removed.

The progress in the case referred to must, doubtless, have been regarded with strange feelings of astonishment and mortification by the severely rebuked harponeers; for, on the completion of the operation, the watch being again appealed to, the adventurous challenge was found to have been triumphantly vindicated. Instead of the work being effected, as challenged to be done, in half the time which had been expended by thrice the force in the number of men, it was found to have occupied but little more than a third part of that interval. With all hands to help, the time frequently expended by the harponeers in flensing a small fish had been nearly two hours; my Father, with a third part of the crew, had, single-handed, done the same thing in almost forty minutes!

* * * * *

This extraordinary feat of tact and strength was first accomplished, I believe, during my Father's command of the Dundee; but the feat was repeated, under my own observation, on board the Resolution, and the tardiness of a burdensome system, still too prevalently acted upon by the officers, was similarly rebuked. To the extent, at least of a saving of _one-half_ the time spent in the operation by the harponeers, the bold experiment, single-handed and with but one-third of the crew, was successfully repeated.

My Father's plan of proceeding, in this extraordinary feat, is worthy of notice. His constitutional habit, as I may term it, of a sort of _deliberate celerity_ was here the characteristic of his progress. But no time was wasted. As fast as the men on deck could heave-up the blubber, the blubber was freed to their hands. Every change of tackle, or place of working, was so managed as to leave no interruption in the labours of his men. As he never himself ceased working, he took care by judicious preconsideration, that they should never stand idle. On the contrary, he had his own part always in advance of their province, so that, in order to keep pace with him, they were stimulated to the utmost practicable degree of activity. The capstan, whilst the tackle was slack, or the strain slight, actually spun round, whilst the hands on it, "shortening in on the bars," ran at their utmost speed. An instinctive spirit was infused into every department; for no section of the men liked to be behind, so as to be in the humiliating position of hinderers of the others.

Though the master-hand was accomplishing so much in so short a time,--more, in this species of work, I may be bold to say, than any other man ever did before or since,--there was no appearance of hurry. His sharp and finely-polished _spade_ with which he chiefly worked, seemed to meet with no resistance from the animal textures against which its edge was directed. Instead of cutting downward through the blubber a spade-breadth at a time, as most usually was done, he would run the instrument in a direction obliquely horizontal, so as to separate the slip then heaving up from the general envelopment of the blubber, for a yard or two in extent, at a single stroke or thrust of the instrument. The slight attachment of the blubber to the muscles of the carcass could then be usually torn away (with a touch underneath with the spade when incidentally needful to be cut) by the force with which the slip was being raised by the mechanical engines in motion on the deck.

Thus proceeding with calm and quiet self-possession, and with unceasing perseverance, few cuts being made but at the best advantage, and no stroke of his cutting-tools being struck in vain, the work proceeded with such despatch as to accomplish the extraordinary results we have just described.

FOOTNOTES:

[E] Up to the end of the eighteenth century my Father's successes, with but rare exceptions, were at the head of the list of the whole of the northern whalers, both of Davis' Strait and Greenland. But about this period Captain Marshall, in the Davis'-Strait branch, began to take the lead of all competitors there.

[F] Some of our readers may require to be informed, that an ordinary merchant ship, not having "letters of marque" for acting as a privateer, can have no claim on any property which the bravery of her captain and crew might take from an enemy. So that, in the event of capturing an assailant, as might have been possible in the case referred to, the hard blows and damage must be borne by the merchantman, whilst the prize would fall due to the first ship of war incidently met with, or otherwise to the sovereign or public officers at home.

[G] _Blubber-straps_ are usually made out of whale-line, but some of thicker cordage, and consist of a length of about two fathoms for each strap, the ends of which being spliced together, constitute a flexible ring of rope. A hole being cut through the commencing end of the slip of blubber to be raised, the strap, being of course double, is inserted therein, and the two ends, brought together from the opposite sides of the blubber, are looped over the hook of the tackle, and so the attachment for heaving up made complete. It may here be added, that the tackles for flensing are fixed aloft to a strong rope, along which the blocks are distributed, extending (but not very tightly stretched) from the mainmast-head to that of the foremast, called the _guy_. The considerable height of this attachment of the tackles (or, technically, "speck-tackles") permits a long slip of blubber to be hove up in continuity, whilst the distribution of the blocks thereon admits of the two tackles being worked either jointly or separately without interference.