While the line-managers, together with the “skee-man,” (the officer who has the direction of operations in the hold,) the cooper, and perhaps a few others, are employed in breaking out the hold, the rest of the crew on the deck arrange all the variety of apparatus used for the preparation of the blubber before it is put into the casks. Of this apparatus, the most considerable part is the “speck-trough,” with its appendages. It consists of a kind of oblong box or chest, about twelve feet in length, one and three quarters feet in breadth, and one and a half feet in depth. The speck-trough is fixed upon the deck, as nearly as possible over the place where the casks are to be filled in the hold. A square hole made in its bottom is placed either over the nearest hatchway to the scene of operations, or upon a corresponding hole cut in the deck. The speck-trough is then secured, and its lid turned backwards into an horizontal position. The surface of the lid, forming a level table, is then covered with blocks of whale’s-tail from end to end. This substance makes an excellent chopping-block, and preserves the chopping-knives from injury when used for dividing the blubber upon it. Into the square hole in the bottom of the speck-trough is fitted an iron frame, to which is suspended a canvas tube, or “hose,” denominated a “lull.” The lull is open at both ends. Its diameter is about a foot, and its length sufficient to reach from the deck to the bottom of the hold. To the middle, or towards the upper part of the lull, is attached a “pair of nippers,” consisting of two sticks fastened together by a kind of hinge at one end, and capable of being pressed together at the other. The nippers being passed across the body of the lull, and their detached extremities brought together, they embrace it so closely that nothing can pass downward while they remain in this position; but when, on the other hand, the nippers are extended, the lull forms a free channel of communication between the speck-trough and the hold.
Everything being in readiness, the blubber, as it is now thrown out of the flens-gut by the kings, undergoes the following several operations. It is received upon deck by the “krengers,” whose office is to remove all the muscular parts, together with such spongy or fibrous fat as is known by experience to produce very little oil. When these substances, which go under the general denomination of kreng, are included among the blubber in the casks, they pass through a kind of fermentation, and generate such a quantity of gas as sometimes to burst the containing vessels, and occasion the loss of their contents. From the krengers the blubber passes to the harpooners. Each of these officers, provided with a blubber-knife, or a strand-knife, places himself by the side of the “closh,” fixed in the deck. An attendant, by means of a pair of “hand-hooks,” or a “pick-haak,” then mounts a piece of blubber upon the spikes of the closh, and the harpooner slices off the skin. From the skinners, the blubber passes into an open space, called the bank, prepared as a depository in front of the speck-trough, and it is then laid upon the chopping-blocks as wanted. It now falls under the hands of the boat-steerers, who, armed with chopping-knives, are arranged in a line by the side of the chopping-blocks with the speck-trough before them. Thus prepared, they divide the blubber, as it is placed on their blocks, into oblong pieces, not exceeding four inches in diameter, and push it into the speck-trough intended for its reception. And finally, the blubber falls under the direction of the line-managers, stationed in the hold, who receive it into tubs through the lull, and pass it with their hands into the casks, through their bung-holes. When a cask is nearly filled, the packing is completed by the use of a “pricker,” one piece after another being thrust in by this instrument until it can contain no more. It is then securely bunged up.
When the ground-tier casks, as far as they have been exposed are filled, the second-tier of casks is stowed upon it, and likewise filled with blubber, together with the third-tier casks when necessary. When fish can be had in sufficiency, the hold is filled and likewise the space between decks. When a ship is deficient in casks, vacancies adapted for the reception of the cargo are filled with blubber in bulk. The operation of making off was in the early ages of the fishery performed on shore, and even so late as the middle of the last century, it was customary for ships to proceed into a harbour, and remain while this process was going on.
In the Greenland whale-fishery, the importance of a code of laws was at a very early period apparent. A fish struck by the people of two different ships became an object of dispute, the first striker claiming the whole, and the second demanding a share for his assistance. Stores saved from wrecked vessels, and especially the cargoes of wrecks, being objects of much moment, were also liable to occasion disputes in a still higher degree. Hence, about the year 1677, the Dutch issued a code of regulations, founded on equitable principles, for the prevention of quarrels and litigation among the fishers. As these were found to be insufficient, the States-General of Holland and West Friesland, in the year 1696, approved and confirmed the general regulations with respect to the saving of the crews and stores of vessels wrecked in the ice, the right to whales under peculiar circumstances, and other matters connected with the fishery. They consisted of twelve articles, and every captain, specksioneer, and officer concerned in the fishery, was obliged to subscribe them. After being duly announced, these articles were enforced by commissioners, chosen from among the principal Greenland owners of Holland, for conducting and carrying into effect this and other matters connected with the prosperity and regulation of the fishery.
Among the British whale-fishers, it does not appear that any particular laws were ever expressly laid down for the adjusting of differences; yet custom has established certain principles as constituting the rule of right, the legality of which is sufficiently acknowledged by their being universally respected. The fundamental articles are two. First, that a fast fish, or a fish in any way in possession, whether alive or dead, is the sole and unquestionable property of the persons so maintaining the connection or possession; and secondly, that a loose fish, alive or dead, is fair game. The first of these regulations can need no modification, but the second can only be recommended for its simplicity and tendency to prevent litigation, since circumstances may, and do, sometimes occur, in which its application is liable to some objection. In this, as in other departments of human conduct, it is impossible by any strict regulations to prevent all kinds of injustice. The highest code of human morals enjoins on men what they shall be, as well as what they shall do, and provides for them the one golden precept, “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” Conduct, which it is impossible to punish by appeal to any human tribunal, is often most fearfully in violation of this law, and must await the decisions of that day, when God shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
The following circumstance, which occurred a good many years ago, has a tendency to illustrate the existing Greenland laws, and to set them in a prominent light. During a storm of wind and snow, several ships were beating to windward, under easy sail, along the edge of a pack. When the storm abated and the weather cleared, the ships steered towards the ice. Two of the fleet approached it about a mile asunder, abreast of each other, when the crews of each ship accidentally got sight of a dead fish at a little distance, within some loose ice. Each ship now made sail to endeavour to reach the fish before the other, which fish, being loose, would be the prize of the first that should get possession of it. Neither ship could outsail the other, but each continued to press forward toward the prize. The little advantage one of them had in distance, the other compensated with velocity. On each bow of the two ships was stationed a principal officer, armed with a harpoon, in readiness to discharge. But it so happened that the ships came in contact with each other, when within a few yards of the fish, and in consequence of the shock with which their bows met, they rebounded to a considerable distance. The officers at the same moment discharged their harpoons, but all of them fell short of the fish. A hardy fellow, who was second-mate of the leeward ship, immediately leaped overboard, and with great dexterity swam to the whale, seized it by the fin, and proclaimed it his prize. It was, however, so swollen, that he was unable to climb upon it, but was obliged to remain shivering in the water until assistance should be sent. His captain, elated with his good luck, forgot, or at least neglected, his brave second-mate, and before he thought of sending a boat to release him from his disagreeable situation, prepared to moor his ship to an adjoining piece of ice. Meanwhile, the other ship tacked, and the master himself stepped into a boat, pushed off, and rowed deliberately towards the dead fish. Observing the trembling seaman still in the water, holding by the fin, he addressed him with, “Well, my lad, you’ve got a fine fish here,” to which, after a natural reply in the affirmative, he added, “But don’t you find it very cold?” “Yes,” replied the shivering sailor, “I’m almost starved; I wish you would allow me to come into your boat until ours arrive.” This favour needed no second solicitation; the boat approached the man, and he was assisted into it. The fish being again loose and out of possession, the captain instantly struck his harpoon into it, hoisted his flag, and claimed his prize. Mortified and displeased as the other master felt at this trick, for so it certainly was, he had nevertheless no redress, but was obliged to permit the fish to be taken on board of his competitor’s ship, and to content himself with abusing the mate for his want of discretion, and with condemning himself for not having more compassion on the poor fellow’s feelings, which would have prevented the disagreeable misadventure.
Success in the whale-fishery has been very generally supposed to depend, not upon the exercise of talent and industry on the part of the masters and crews of the fishing-ships, but solely upon the freaks of fortune. That the fishery, however, is altogether a chain of casualties, is as false as it is derogatory to the credit of the persons employed in the enterprise. The most skilful, from adventitious and unavoidable circumstances, may occasionally fail, and the unskilful may be successful; but if we mark the average of a number of years, that is, where the means are equal, a tolerable estimate may be formed of the adventurer’s ability, and his fitness for the undertaking in which he is engaged.
The great variety of success, which is observed to result from the exertions of the different Greenland commanders, when the average of several voyages is taken, confirmed the above position, and the circumstance of some masters, in whatever ship they may sail, almost always succeeding, whilst others, however favourably circumstanced, seldom or ever procure a whole cargo, warrants this conclusion, that, most generally, successful fishery depends on the experience, determined perseverance, and personal talent of the master of the vessel, supported by a necessary degree of skill among the people composing his crew. There are occasions, however, especially in those seasons when the Greenland Seas are open, or in some measure free from ice, in which personal talent becomes of comparative little avail. This was strikingly the case in the year 1817, and in some degree in 1818. In the former season, the ice lay at a distance so remote from Spitzbergen, that a space of about two thousand square miles of the surface of the sea, which is usually covered with ice, was wholly void of it. Whatever decisions the judicious fisher was led by experience to form and act upon proved fallacious, and tended only to embarrass him in all his proceedings. The only indication which could be of the least service to the fisher to assist him in the choice of a situation, was the colour of the sea. In places where the water was transparent, and blue, or greenish blue, it was in vain to look for whales, but in a certain stream of cloudy water, of a deep olive-green colour, all the whales which were seen throughout the season, or at least nine-tenths of them, occurred, and the chief part of those which were caught were found in the same stream of water. This kind of sea-water is the favourite resort of whales during the fishing season, evidently because it abounds with various descriptions of actiniæ, sepiæ, medusæ, and cancri, which constitute the chief, if not the sole nourishment of the whale.
Success in the fishery is more certain in close than in open seasons, and has some dependence on the suitable equipment of the ships employed in the trade, on a sufficient apparatus, and frequently in no inconsiderable degree on that valuable property of the ship called fast-sailing. When any opening occurs in the ice of a tempting appearance, it frequently happens that a number of ships enter it together. The fastest sailers lead the way, and often procure a whale or two or more before the heavy sailing ships can perform a navigation, and by the time the latter accomplish it, the run of fish is frequently over. Not a little depends in the fishery on the confidence the sailors have in the skill of their captain, and the efficiency of the personal talents and exertions of their officers. If the officers are generally unsuccessful, they are apt to lose confidence in them, and proceed, even when good opportunities occur, without spirit to the attack. The greater their spirits and confidence are, the greater is the probability of their success. Hence, the crew of a ship which has met with success can generally fish better, and more advantageously under the same circumstances, than the people of a clean ship. For the regulation of the ship’s movements, for the choice of a situation, for direction in difficulties, for a stimulus when discouraged, for encouragement when weary, and for a variety of other important matters, the master alone must be looked to, on whom, indeed, almost every considerable effort of judgment or forethought devolves.
I now subjoin a few instances of the dangers which accompany the whale-fishery, most of which presented themselves within the sphere of my own observation. Those employed in the occupation of killing whales are, when actually engaged, exposed to danger from three sources, namely, from the ice, from the climate, and from the whales themselves. Of these, the casualties on the ice are the most uncommon, and the least fatal; those from the climate the most fatal, but not the most frequent; and the whale itself is the source of a great proportion of the accidents which occur.