WETTING A COMMISSION. Giving an entertainment to shipmates on receiving promotion.
WHALE. A general term for various marine animals of the order Cetacea, including the most colossal of all animated beings. From their general form and mode of life they are frequently confounded with fish, from which, however, they differ essentially in their organization, as they are warm-blooded, ascend to the surface to breathe air, produce their young alive, and suckle them, as do the land mammalia. The cetacea are divided into two sections:—1. Those having horny plates, called baleen, or "whalebone," growing from the palate instead of teeth, and including the [right whales] and [rorquals], or [finners] and [hump-backs] (see these terms). 2. Those having true teeth and no whalebone. To this group belong the sperm-whale, and the various forms of bottle-noses, black-fish, grampuses, narwhals, dolphins, porpoises, &c. To the larger species of many of these the term "whale" is often applied.
WHALE-BIRD. A beautiful little bird seen hovering in flocks over the Southern Ocean, in search of the small crustaceans which constitute their food.
WHALE-BOAT. A boat varying from 26 to 56 feet in length, and from 4 to 10 feet beam, sharp at both ends, and admirably adapted to the intended purpose, combining swiftness of motion, buoyancy, and stability.
WHALE-FISHERIES. The places at which the capture of whales, or "whale-fishery," is carried on. The principal are the coasts of Greenland and Davis Straits, for the northern right whale; Bermuda, for hump-backs; the Cape of Good Hope and the Australian seas, for the southern right whale; the North Pacific, for the Japanese right whale; and various places in the intertropical and southern seas, for the sperm-whale. But the constant persecution to which these animals are subjected causes a frequent change in their habitats. They have been nearly exterminated, or rendered so scarce as not to be worth following, in many districts where they formerly most abounded, and in order to make the trade remunerative, new grounds have to be continually sought. Maury's "whale charts" give much valuable information on this subject.
WHALER. A name for a vessel employed in the whale-fisheries.
WHALE'S FOOD. The name given in the North Sea to the Clio borealis, a well-known mollusk, on which whales feed.
WHANGERS, or Cod-whangers. Fish-curers of Newfoundland. An old term for a large sword.
WHAPPER. The largest of the turtle kind, attaining 7 or 8 cwts., off Ascension. [The name is supposed to be derived from guapa, Sp., grand or fine.] (See [Loggerhead].)