J)U'TLlNE Of A ;SPERM 'j/HALE, SHOWING THE. /v\ANNER or CtrrT!NG !N

How to Go a-Whaling

Lesley Walker

May kind Neptune protect us with pleasant Gales, and may we be successful in catching Sperm Whales.

The first entry in the log of the maiden voyage of the 'Charles W Morgan' in 1841.t

How to find a whaling ship There is no better whaling port than New Bedford, Massachusetts. Here I found myself stranded between ships, pockets empty. A tall fellow stopped me in the street. Before I knew it, I had signed a paper. Next thing, I was frogmarched to my lodgings to collect my traps, my debts paid and rowed out to a ship. When I saw the slab sides and the boxy shape of the bow I realised I had shipped on a whaler, and it was too late to try swimming ashore. That was

years ago.

Now it is no business of mine whether you be down on your luck, or maybe some woman is looking for you, or there is someone

t Journal of a Voyage to Paci.fie Ocean in Ship 'Chas W Morgan', 1841, Martha 's Vineyard Museum.

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HOW TO GO A-WHALING 39

somewhere with a knife in him. Adventure, is it? The day you see Block Island again you'll be the happiest man alive.

Your whaler will be a three-masted barque with a bluff bow and a bowsprit sloping upwards. There are plenty here, built by the mile and cut off in lengths as you want 'em. She will be your home, your whaleboat launch quay, your slaughterhouse, your oil factory and your floating warehouse. She is built for strength, not speed. You'll be glad of that when you're hove-to in your hurricane.

On that first day I was ordered to get below, stow my sea chest and look sharp. Then I was sent aloft to free the main topsails, then to the windlass to weigh anchor. I was assigned to the larboard watch under the Second Mate, Mr Christian, a fair man though no Yankee. When I could think straight I realised I'd signed three or four years of my life away, or maybe the whole of it. I know the tablets in the Bethel by heart. 1822 Gilbert Jay, nineteen, lost from a boat in pursuit of a whale. 1832 Franklin Jay, the same. 1844 Captain William Swain, forty-nine, having fastened onto a whale, carried overboard by the line and drowned. 1850 William Kirkwood, twenty-five, feil from aloft and drowned near Cape Horn. 1854 boatsteerer Nathaniel Cole, twenty-four, and two of his crew, Edward Laffray, twenty-five, and Frank Kanacka, nineteen, lost their lives by the upsetting of their whaleboat in the Okhotsk Sea. And that's just a few.

Whales? We measure them by the barrel. And where might all these barrels be? In pieces in the hold, most of them, the staves bundled together. The cooper makes them up as the whales are taken. When they talk of an eighty-barrel whale what they mean is 80 x 30.5gal1 making 244ogal of oil. You'll have signed up for a lay, a share, maybe 1/i8oth? t You might have some dollars in your pocket when it's over. Then again, you might not.

t 1/i8oth lay meant one barrel out of every one hundred and eighty taken; one barrel was 30.5gal of whale oil. A greenhorn could earn about $160 for a three- or four-year voyage, minus what debts had been paid or 'slops' or goods he had been advanced during the voyage.

11111

40 THE MARINE QUARTERLY

As a green hand your new home is the foc'sle which you share with fifteen to twenty seasick Americans: black and white, Portuguese from Cape Verde or the Western Isles/ British, German, Yankee, Native Americans and Pacific islanders. You feel your way through the scuttle and down the companionway, along the dark passage. The foc'sle is lit by a smoking teapot lamp fixed to the bulkhead. Here you will have your being, using your narrow rough-cut bunk in a tier of three, turn and turn about with another foremast hand from the starboard watch. The donkey's breakfast mattress a home for bugs of all kinds. Your private space is your sea chest, with a change of clothes (maybe), tobacco, pipe, needles, letters and a book or two if you can read them. The captain rules supreme from his stern cabin, where you never will go. The four mates, the boat steerers, the carpenter, cooper and cook share cabins in steerage separated from the foc'sle by the blubber room.

The steering gear is called the shincracker or ankle buster. The wheel is set on a square post rising from the tiller, which it moves to and fro with tackles, so when you steer, both the wheel and the tiller move. The helmsman straddles the tiller as it swings through its sh.ort arc. It will take you some practice to steer a straight course, and the old man will be below the skylight watching the

compass to see how you go. You will see a curious brick structure at the waist, right in the

centre of the weather deck. It is the tryworks, a firebox underneath two huge iron kettles that hold about 150-20ogal each. Funny thing, but when the ship finally heads for home, the tryworks is broken up and the bricks thrown overboard. This is when you know you are done whaling for that voyage.

Before you know it, the ship is in mid-Atlantic. Going a-whaling means you don't get off watch except to sleep. You might wonder at the heavy crew on a whaleship, twenty-four men before the mast out of a crew of thirty-seven. When you lower after a whale you

t TheAzores

HOW TO GO A-WHALING 41

will soon find every man has more than enough to do. Meantimes you won't be idle. There's the work of the ship, and irons to be ground and sharpened. Once you are in the sperm whale grounds you will spend several daylight hours in all weathers in the crow's nest at the masthead, standing inside a pair of padded hoops like a pair of giant spectacles a little higher than your waist, your feet on a platform about a foot wide on each side of the mast, watching for a spout, a fluke, a breach. Here, a hundred foot above the deck, you can take your ease.

How to ready whaleboats

Oct 16th Got under weigh at 10am beating out until 3Pm when Pilot left kept off steering s wind being strong from the sw ship under double reef top sails Oct 17th Begin with strong wind from sw ship steering SE by E. under double reef top sails all hands employed in fitting out the boats, coiled new lines all around ... three men at the mast heads all day.

Log of the 'Charles W Morgan', North Atlantic, 1877

The ship carries seven whaleboats. Five need rigging and setting up in the davits, two starboard, three larboard. They have a centreboard or sliding keel. They carry five long oars of between 9ft and 16ft, one great 19ft steering oar, a mast, two sails and a rudder hung by the stern. The whale line, a quarter of a mile of finest manila 1.5" round, is carefully coiled down into tubs. The boatsteerers or harpooners grind the edges of the irons to razor sharpness. The harpoon is a clever thing.t The toggle means the harpoons don't pull out. These irons ain't no use for killing, though. They are only the means by which the boat is attached to a fish.

t Invented by blacksmith Lewis Temple in 1848, this is an arrow-shaped harpoon with one huge curved barb turned on a strong pivot of steel, and kept in line with the shaft by a tiny wooden peg passing through the barb and shaft, which breaks when a line is jerked once it is fast in the whale. The shaft is about 30" long, forged from the best malleable iron.

42 THE MARINE QUARTERLY

You put three irons in each boat, one above the other in the starboard bow, opposite three lances for killing. Lances are like slim iron spears about 4ft long, steel points oval or heart-shaped, about 2" across, edges as keen as a surgeon's lancet. The socket at the other end attaches to a 4ft-long lance pole, and there is a light warp attached, used to pull the lance back after it's been darted at a whale. The boat, though. Because a crew can be out in a whale-boat for hours, you stow a keg of drinking water, a few biscuits, a lantern, candles and matches, a bucket and piggin for bailing when you are swamped, a flag or wheft to mark a dead whale, a shoulder bomb-gun and ammunition, two knives and two small axes. How can six men work whaling in such a loaded boat? You'll learn.

How to row a whaleboat October 13 Calm weather. Watch employed in ship's duties ... Lowered the Boats to practise the Crews ...

Log of the 'Charles W Morgan', 1841

You and another greenie are two of a crew of six, with your officer and a boatsteerer in charge. When the seas are calm they will learn you to row a whaleboat. You discover what happens when you catch a crab. The officer at the steering oar in the stern, barks orders: Pull ahead, back astern, stern all, avast, hold water, rest oars, out oars. This all takes practice. When you go a-whaling, your life and livelihood depend on your skill with the oars.

How to catch a whale

Thursday July 4 This day comes in with light south wind; at sam raised school of Sperm Whales off our lee bow four miles offj lowered four boats, sailed and paddled, wind died out, calm; took sail in at Samj 9am Larboard boat struckj turned him up, towed him to the ship, arrived 1pm, had dinner, at 2pm started cutting, finished at 7pm, had supper and set watch at Spmj so ends this day.

Log of the 'Charles W Morgan', 1911-13

HOW TO GO A-WHALING 43

The call comes from on high. 'Bl-0-0-0-0-ws! She bl-0-0-0-ows!' 'Where away?' 'Two points on the lee bow.' 'How far?'

'Four miles, heading to leeward. Sperm whales!' 'Lower away all boats.' When the call comes, you move to the ship's rail abreast your

boat. Now comes the 'merry rattle of the block/ as the boats are lowered from the davits, officer and boatsteerer aboard ready to unhook the minute their boat touches water. You scramble down the lines with the other three, fall in, get the boat clear of the hull, oars out and sails set. How a whaleboat does fly across the water, trying to be the first to strike! Approach the whale from behind or head-on. If you approach at right angles, 'on the eye', he will spot you, and you can't dart an iron into a whale's head.

So there you are, in position. The boatsteerer stands. Up go his arms, grasping his iron, body bent back, one foot braced on a cleat, his right leg set against the 'clumsy cleat' at the gunwale. As you come onto the whale, a few feet clear, he darts his iron in, then a second iron straight after.

He's fast. This is a dangerous moment. Watch his tail - a blow from his

flukes can smash the boat to kindling. The whale sounds. The line runs out so fast around the loggerhead that it begins to smoke, and you'll put a bucket of water on it. After about half the length in the tub, sometimes more, the line should start to slow. This means the whale is coming up to spout. I heard tell of a 7oft sperm whale that took 72ooft ofline before he stopped.* You never know: some are quiet and you can just reel them in, some will take you miles before they tire. They can come at you with their jaws wide, roll

t Whale Hunt: The Narrative of a Voyage by Nelson Cole Haley, Harpooner in the Ship 'Charles W Morgan' 1849-1853 1 Mystic Seaport Museum, Ct 2013, p 44. t The Cruise of the Cachalot by Frank Bullen, Smith, Elder and Co, London 1900, p 73.

44 THE MARINE QUARTERLY

over and over, raise their tail, 'that mighty mass of gristle' ten or more feet above you and bang it down. They can stave in your boat. They can kill you.

How to kill a whale

At daylight the weather being calm we Saw several Sperm Whales. lowered three boats for them, chased for a couple of hours and the Bow Boat struck one, and he run quite bad sounded took nearly all the line the Mate bent on run more then ever shot two bombs in him spouted thick blood, sounded heavy and when he came up got the line foul of his flukes and kicked the iron out. Chase him another rising and then lost run of him think he must have died under water ...

Log of the 'Charles W Morgan', 1882

The whale can kill you. Fair's fair, though, because you want to kill the whale. You haul the line inch by inch until his speed slack-ens or he settles and you get up close upon him. The mate hurls his lance into the black body, and here there is danger again, 'Out oars! Pull, two, stern, three!' dodging as the whale rushes at you. When he settles, in you fly again, to get another lance home un-der his fin. Then comes the flurry, a series of massive convulsions, sometimes breaching. Then he falls into the sea and shows the flag, the last bloody spout before he lies still, rolling on one side, fin out.

Now you secure a line to the whale's fluke; then it is smoke-oh, and by goodness you need it. The Captain will have been watch-ing your exertions through his glass. If it can, the ship will slow-ly work up to the whale. Otherwise it is the long hard tow back. When the ship rounds-to, you pass the whale line on board. The whale is hauled alongside, made fast and the tackles got up. Now you may think you have done a day's work, and you and all hands will be sent to dinner. But they will tell you to look sharp over it. There is heavy labour ahead.

HOW TO GO A-WHALING 45

How to cut in and try out Sunday June 22 This day comes in with light East; at 4am called all hands, had coffee, started cutting 4.45am, finished 7.3oam, had breakfast and cleared the heads and started try Works. Finished boiling the heads at 6.3opm, started on the Body. Bark under topsails steering NNW Course since 8am. Mast heads up all day

nothing seen ... Monday June 23 This day comes in with light SE wind ... Crew

employed stowing down oil and boiling ... Tuesday June 24 ... Crew employed boiling blubber, finished at

8am ... Washed decks ... Log of the 'Charles W Morgan', 1911-13

Funny thing about cutting in, or flensing as they call it in some parts. It is dirty work, but it is done by all hands, even the officers. And it is the reason whaling ships have heavy crews. At dawn the call comes: all hands to the windlass. The officers are balanced on the stages which have been lowered into position above the whale, already cutting their strips of blubber, pieces we call them. A boatsteerer is swung down onto the slippery black flank. He must get the heavy hook hanging from the windlass tackle into a hole cut in the blubber - without slipping off, for there are plenty of sharks circling. As the windlass rolls, the cut piece is lifted clear of the carcass. How we do sing at the windlass as one piece after another is peeled off, swung on deck and dropped down into the blubber room. The head, once cut off (not easy), is hoisted on deck

whole. Depending on the size of the fish, it can take all day and some

of the night to get the blubber safely stowed, cut up the head and junks and bucket the oil or spermaceti from the case into try pots.

Next you wash down the decks and try out. The tryworks are lit with wood, and kept burning thereafter with the crunchy remnants of blubber from which the oil has been tried out. For the next few days Bible pieces, chunks of blubber cut and scored like pages hanging off the Good Book's spine, will be added to

46 THE MARINE QUARTERLY

the pots. As a green hand you will cut the pieces in the blubber room and pass them up through the hatch, slipping and sliding and falling into the blubber as the ship rolls. The oil boiled out of the blubber is left to cool, then funnelled down through canvas hoses into the casks, which you will have the pleasure of stowing in the cask hold.

When all is stowed, the cleaning up starts - first the ship, and then yourself. Your clothes are covered in oil, blood and whaleshit, to name but a few - and only seawater to wash with, unless it rains. But all voyage you have been collecting piss to soak the grime out of your clothes. Lucky, eh?

And all the while you wait for the next 'Bl-0-0-0-0-ws! She bl-0-0-0-ows!'

And after three or four years of this, if you survive, you round Cape Horn and head home a whaleman.

Mr-Q '-.!.)

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Tom Cunliffe

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MrQ ._i ,

The MARINE

Quarterly

A JOURNAL OF THE SEA

WINTER 2014

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