Of the toothed whales, the most important is the Cachalot or Sperm whale. It is chiefly captured in Southern seas, and is killed in large numbers for the sake of the spermaceti and sperm oil that occur in large quantities in its head cavity. Sperm and other toothed whales feed upon fish and cuttlefish.
The breeding habits and migrations of the different species of whales are at present little understood. During the summer, when the water in the Polar circles swarms with certain varieties of pelagic crustacea, the whales congregate in these regions and are then most profitably hunted. At the end of the summer they appear to migrate towards warmer water nearer the Equator. They bring forth their young in warm, shallow water, and return to the whaling grounds in the spring. A young whale calf may be as much as 20 ft. long at birth.
Whales were captured by the Norwegians over 1,000 years ago. In the Middle Ages—from the ninth to the seventeenth centuries—the Basques hunted the Black whale in the Bay of Biscay, and supplied Europe with oil and whalebone. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, as the Biscay whales became rare and more difficult to find, the whalers ventured further afield, and in 1612 discovered the Greenland whale. The Black or Biscay whale is now almost extinct, and there is every likelihood that the Greenland Right whale will also soon be exterminated. The capture of Sperm and Rorqual whales, although equally important, is a comparatively modern development.
Modern whale fishing has become a very efficient art, owing largely to the invention of the shot-harpoon by a Norwegian, Sven Foyn, in 1870. This harpoon is discharged from a gun from the deck of a fast steamship. It penetrates the body of the whale in the vital region just behind the flipper. The invention of this weapon has made the killing of whales a matter of comparative ease and certainty. The inevitable consequence of this is that the whales are being killed in such large numbers that they are in danger of general extermination. Even before the introduction of the shot-harpoon, whales were being destroyed at an astonishing rate. Thus, during 40 years in the middle of the last century, over 300,000 whales were captured by the United States whale fisheries alone. The value of these whales was £65,000,000, so that each whale realized on an average £216. Of recent years—before 1914—a single large Greenland whale has realized as much as £900 for whalebone and £300 for oil. At the present time, over 20,000 whales are killed each year.
The old eighteenth century whaler of about 400 tons burden carried about 30 officers and men, and was equipped for a three years’ voyage. Each whaler carried six whale boats. These whaleboats were about 27 ft. long and built sharp at each end. Each boat was furnished with mast and sails, and was provided with two 200-fathom whale lines. When a whale was sighted four of these boats, each manned by six men, started in pursuit. The boats ranged themselves alongside the whale and a harpoon was driven into it from each boat. The whale immediately dived to the bottom of the sea and remained there sometimes for as long as forty minutes. When he returned to the surface to breathe, more harpoons were thrown and he dived again. Ultimately, owing to loss of blood, the whale kept near the surface and was then dispatched by a lance thrust behind the flipper into the vital parts.
The modern Greenland whaler is an iron vessel of about 500 tons. She is fitted with auxiliary engines of 75 horse-power. She carries from fifty to sixty hands and eight whaleboats. She is fitted with tanks for 250 tons of oil. Before the war she would cost about £17,500 to build and £500 a month to maintain. Each whaleboat carries a harpoon gun in order to make sure of the first harpoon getting a good hold.
In Rorqual fishing, off Newfoundland, the harpoon is tipped with a bomb and time fuse. This explosive harpoon is discharged into the whale from the deck of the whaler—a fast steamer—and explodes with fatal effect.
The chief whale fisheries are carried on off Greenland for the Greenland whale, off the coast of Newfoundland for Rorquals. There is the Norwegian bottlenosed-whale fishery around Iceland, and the American Bowhead-whale fishery in the Behring Sea. In Southern Seas the Humpback, Fin whale, and Blue whale (Sibbald’s Rorqual) constitute an overwhelming majority of the whales captured. The Right whale and the Sperm whale, although captured in relatively small numbers, are individually more valuable. Other smaller species, e.g. the Sei whale (Rudolph’s Rorqual), the lesser Rorqual and the Killer or Grampus, are also found in large numbers in the Antarctic.
When the whale has been killed it is either made fast alongside the whaler and cut up, or it is towed ashore to a “factory” to be cut up and stripped. The blubber is stripped off, cut up into small pieces, and boiled down with water to separate the oil. The yield of oil varies for different species, as shown in [Table II]. The whalebone is removed and, if a Sperm whale, the oil is removed from the skull cavity with buckets. An average large Sperm whale will yield from 21⁄2 to 3 tons of Sperm oil.
| TABLE II | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Yield of Oil in Barrels | |||
| Species of Whale. | (6 Barrels = 1 Ton). | ||
| Right | 60 to 70 | ||
| Blue | 70 „ 80 | ||
| Fin | 35 „ 50 | ||
| Sei | 10 „ 15 | ||
| Humpback | 25 „ 35 | ||
| Sperm | 60 „ 65 | ||