The northern whale-fishery

by William Scoresby

6. Warehouses for containing the oil after it is drawn off into casks are also used, not only for preserving it in safe custody, but for defending the casks from the rays of the sun, otherwise they are apt to pine and become leaky, and,

7. Sometimes “steeping-backs” and apparatus for preparing whalebone are comprised within the same inclosure.

The blubber, which was originally in the state of fat, is found, on arrival in a warm climate, to be in a great measure resolved into oil. The casks, containing the blubber, are conveyed, by the mechanical apparatus above mentioned, to the top of the starting-back, into which their contents are emptied or started through the bungholes. When the copper is properly cleansed, the contents of the starting-back, on lifting a clough at the extremity, or turning a stop-cock, fall directly into the copper, one edge of which is usually placed beneath. The copper is filled within two or three inches of the top, a little space being requisite to admit of the expansion of the oil when heated; and then a brisk fire is applied to the furnace, and continued until the oil begins to boil. This effect usually takes place in less than two hours. Many of the fritters or fenks float on the surface of the oil before it is heated, but after it is “boiled off,” the whole, or nearly so, subside to the bottom. From the time the copper begins to warm until it is boiled off, or ceases to boil, its contents must be incessantly stirred by means of a pole, armed with a kind of broad, blunt chisel, to prevent the fenks from adhering to the bottom or sides of the vessel. When once the contents of the copper boil, the fire in the furnace is immediately reduced, and shortly afterwards altogether withdrawn. Some persons allow the copper to boil an hour, others during two or three hours. The former practice is supposed to produce finer and paler oil, the latter a greater quantity. The same copper is usually boiled twice in every twenty-four hours, Sundays excepted. After the oil has stood to cool and subside, the “bailing” process commences. One of the backs or coolers having been prepared for the reception of the oil, by putting into it a quantity of water, for the double purpose of preventing the heat of the oil from warping or rending the back, and for receiving any impurities which it may happen to hold in suspension, a wooden spout, with a large square box-like head, which head is filled with brushwood or broom, that it may act as a filter, is then placed along from “the copper-head” to the cooler, so as to form a communication between the two. The oil in the copper being now separated from the fenks, water, and other impurities, all of which have subsided to the bottom, is in a great measure run off through the pipe communicating with the cooler, and the remainder is carefully lifted in copper or tin ladles, and poured upon the broom in the spout, from whence it runs into the same cooler, or any other cooler, at the pleasure of the “boilers.”

Besides oil and fenks, the blubber of the whale likewise affords a considerable quantity of watery liquor, produced probably from the putrescence of the blood, on the surface of which some of the fenks, and all the greasy animal matter, called foot-je, or footing, float, and upon the top of these the oil. Great care therefore is requisite, on approaching these impure substances, to take the oil off by means of shallow tinned iron or copper ladles, called “skimmers,” without disturbing the refuse and mixing it with the oil. There must always, however, be a small quantity towards the conclusion, which is a mixture of oil and footing; such is put into a cask or other suitable vessel by itself, and when the greasy part has thoroughly subsided, the most pure part is skimmed off and becomes fine oil, and the impure is allowed to accumulate by itself, in another vessel, where in the end it affords “brown-oil.” From a ton, or 252 gallons by measure of blubber, there generally arises from fifty to sixty gallons of refuse, whereof the greater part is a watery fluid. The constant presence of this fluid, which boils at a much lower temperature than the oil, prevents the oil itself from boiling, which is probably an advantage, since, in the event of the oil being boiled, some of the finest and most inflammable parts would fly off in the form of vapour, whereas the principal part of the steam, which now escapes, is produced from the water. Some persons make a practice of adding a quantity of water, amounting perhaps to half a tun, to the contents of each copper, with the view of weakening or attenuating the viscid impurities contained in the blubber, and thus obtaining a finer oil; others consider the quantity of watery fluid already in the blubber, as sufficient for producing every needful effect.

Each day, immediately after the copper is emptied, and while it is yet hot, the men employed in the manufacture of the oil, having their feet defended by strong leathern or wooden shoes, descend into it, and scour it out with sand and water, until they restore the natural surface of the copper wherever it is discoloured. This serves to preserve the oil from becoming high-coloured, which will always be the case when proper cleanliness is not observed.

When prepared and cooled, the oil is in a marketable state, and requires only to be transferred from the coolers into casks, for the convenience of conveyance to any part of the country. Each of the coolers, it has been observed, is furnished with a stop-cock, beneath which there is a platform adapted for receiving the casks. At the conclusion of the process of boiling each vessel’s cargo manufactured on the premises, the backs are completely emptied of their contents. To effect this water is poured in, until the lower part of the stratum of oil rises within a few lines of the level of the stop-cock, and permits the greatest part of the oil to escape. The quantity left amounts, perhaps, to half an inch or an inch in depth; to recover this oil without water requires a little address. A deal board, in length a little exceeding the breadth of the cooler, is introduced at one end, diagonally, and placed, edge-ways, in its contents. The ends of the board being covered with flannel, when pressed forcibly against the two opposite sides of the cooler, prevent the oil from circulating past. The board is then advanced slowly forward towards the part of the back where the stop-cock is placed, and, in its progress, all the oil is collected by the board, while the water has a free circulation beneath it. When the oil accumulates to the depth of the board, its further motion is suspended until the oil thus collected is drawn off. Another similar board is afterwards introduced, at the furthest extremity of the cooler, and passed forward in the same manner, whereby the little oil which escapes the first is collected. The remnant is taken up by skimmers. The smell of oil during its extraction is undoubtedly disagreeable; but, perhaps, not more so than the vapour arising from any other animal substance, submitted to the action of heat when in a putrid state. It is an erroneous opinion that a whale-ship must always give out the same unpleasant smell. The fact is, that the fat of the whale, in its fresh state, has no offensive flavour whatever, and never becomes disagreeable until it is brought into a warm climate, and becomes putrid.

Whale-oil, prepared by the method just described, is of a pale honey-yellow colour; but sometimes, when the blubber from which it is procured happens to be of the red kind, the oil appears of a reddish-brown colour. When first extracted, it is commonly thick, but after standing some time a mucilaginous substance subsides, and it becomes tolerably limpid and transparent. Its smell is somewhat offensive, especially when it is long kept. It consists of oil, properly so called, a small portion of spermaceti, and a little gelatine. At the temperature of 40° the latter substances become partially concrete, and make the oil obscure; and at the temperature of 32° render it thick with flaky crystals. It is sold by the tun, of 252 gallons, wine measure. Its specific gravity is 0·9214. The tun weighs 17 cwt. 1 qr. 1 lb. 12 oz. 14 dr. The value of whale-oil, like that of every other similar article, is subject to continual variations. In the year 1744, oil sold in England for £10. 1s. per tun; in 1754, for £29; in 1801, for £50; in 1807, for £21; and in 1813, when the price was the highest ever obtained, for £55 or £60 per tun.

The application of gas, produced by the distillation of coal, for lighting the public streets and buildings, manufactories, shops, etc., which formerly were lighted with oil, it was apprehended would be ruinous to the whale-fishery trade, and certainly had a very threatening appearance; but hitherto, owing to the amount of whale-oil lately imported having been less than the ordinary quantity, this expected effect of the employment of gas-lights has not been felt.

When blubber is boiled in Greenland, the oil produced from it is much brighter, paler, more limpid, and more inflammable than that extracted in Britain. It is also totally free from any unpleasant flavour, and burns without smell. Hence it is evident, that whatever is disagreeable in the effluvia of whale-oil arises from an admixture of putrescent substances. These consist of blood and animal fibre. This latter is the reticulated and cellular fibres of the blubber, wherein the oil is confined, which produces the fenks when boiled. When putrefaction commences, a small portion of the blood contained in the blubber is probably combined with the oil, and the animal fibre, in considerable quantity, is dissolved in it. These substances not only occasion the unpleasant smell common to whale-oil, but, by being deposited on the wick of lamps, in burning, produce upon it a kind of cinder, which, if not occasionally removed, causes a great diminution in the quantity of light. A sample of oil, which I extracted in Greenland, about ten years ago, is still fine, and totally free from rancidity. It has certainly acquired a smell, but is not more unpleasant than that of old Florence oil. Hence, were whale-oil extracted in Greenland before the putrefying process commences, or were any method devised of freeing it from the impurities which combine with it in consequence of this process, it would become not only more valuable for common purposes, but would be applicable to almost every use to which spermaceti oil is adapted. In fact, it would become a similar kind of article.

In performing some experiments on oil in Greenland, during the fishing season of 1818, I adopted a process for refining oil extracted from blubber before the putrefying process commenced, by which I procured a remarkably fine oil. It was nearly colourless, beautifully transparent, and very limpid. This oil retains its transparency, even at a very low temperature. It is more inflammable than spermaceti oil, and so pure, that it will burn longer, without forming a crust on the wick of the lamp, than any other oil with which it has been compared.