The process of paring and barrelling up the blubber, is termed making off, and is performed at leisure times when the crew are not engaged in the pursuit of live whales. The blubber being brought upon deck, the fleshy parts are pared off, and it is then placed, piece by piece, on a block, having three iron spikes in the top to keep it steady; here it is skinned by a harpooner, and is then ready for chopping. This operation is performed by the boat-steerers, who cut the blubber into pieces of about one foot long, and three inches square at the ends. When it is chopped they push it off the bench into the speck trough, placed by the side of the hatchway, having what is called a lull bag attached to a hole in the bottom for the purpose of letting down the chopped blubber to a tub in the hold. The blubber is afterwards put, piece by piece, into the bung-hole of the casks, which are all fixed for that purpose previous to the vessel’s leaving home.
The Balæna mysticetus, notwithstanding its immense size, is exposed to the multiplied assaults of various enemies inhabiting its own element. Of these, the most dangerous is said to be the Physeter microps, or Black-headed Spermaceti Whale. The voracity of this species is very great. Its ordinary food is the seal; but if it does not find a sufficient quantity of them for its prey, it attacks the common whale, and even the shark, and tears them to pieces. The Sea Unicorn, or Monodon monoceros, is another of the whale’s enemies; and it is said that they never meet without engaging in combat. Its immense tusk, or horn, generally gives it a superiority over the whale. Marten gives an account of a combat between the Saw-Fish, Squalus pristis, and the Iceland whale, to which he was an eye witness. It was extremely dangerous to approach the field of battle, and his observations were therefore made at a distance. The water was greatly agitated, and rose to an immense height, accompanied with a noise that stunned the ears of the hearers. A fog coming on prevented Marten from ascertaining the result of this direful combat; but he was informed by the sailors that the whale was generally vanquished; and that they kept aloof till such time as the saw-fish, eating the tongue, relinquished the carcass, which they made their prey.
A species of crab, vulgarly called the whale-louse, the Oniscus ceti of Fabricius, if not the most dangerous, is perhaps the most troublesome of the whale’s enemies. We scarcely took any whales but had one or two of these vermin fastened to them. The Oniscus ceti is about the size of a small crab, and is covered with remarkably hard scales. Head similar to that of the Pediculus humanus, with four horns, two of which serve as feelers; the other two are hard, curved, and serve as clinchers to fix the animal to the whale. Underneath its chest, the Oniscus has two carvers, like scythes, with which it collects its food; and behind these are four feet, that serve it for oars. It has six other clinchers behind, which rivet it so closely to the whale, that it cannot be disengaged but by cutting out the entire piece to which it is joined. The Oniscus is jointed in the back like the tail of a lobster, and the tail covers it like a shield when feeding. It fixes itself upon the tenderest part of the whale’s body, between the fins, on the sheath, or on the lips, and in this position tears pieces out of the whale like a rapacious vulture.
Dr. Colquhoun gives the following statement of the value of the whale-bone and whale-oil imported into Great Britain in the following years:
| 1805 | £663,535 |
| 6 | 608,206 |
| 7 | 521,240 |
| 8 | 544,567 |
| 9 | 500,715 |
| 10 | 566,967 |
24th, Latitude at midnight, by observation, 81° 12´ 42´´. Longitude, as near as our incorrect instruments would permit ascertaining, 12° 42´ E. Sea pretty clear of ice, with a considerable swell.
25th and 26th, Continued cruising near the ice in search of whales, and were fortunate enough to capture three, two of which were size fish.
28th, Latitude, by observation, 81° 50´. Sea almost quite clear of ice, with a great swell; weather serene. Had our object been the making of discoveries, there was not apparently any thing to have prevented us from going a good way farther to the north; at least we did not perceive any large fields of ice in that direction; though it is more than probable we should have very soon fallen in with them. We were a little farther north than Captain Phipps, who ran a great risk of being locked up entirely by the ice. He was, in fact, ice-bound from 31st July to 10th August, and during that time the packed ice rose as high as the main-yard. The want of ice in that place, where we then were, was perhaps owing to the effects of some late gale clearing it away. The great swell in the sea appeared to indicate this to have been the case.
In my second voyage to this country, in 1807, we could not penetrate higher than 78° 30´. A ridge of ice totally prevented our farther progress.