HUNTING THE WHALE
Whale-hunting around Newfoundland was almost abandoned for many years,
but during the last fifteen years it has been prosecuted with such
vigour that its value has increased from $1,581 in 1897 to $168,131 in
1909. According to authentic records, the most commercially valuable
whale, the _Balæna mysticetus_, disappeared from Newfoundland waters
in 1850, and the fin-whales, bottle-noses, blue whales, hump-backs,
and common rorquals were considered of no value for whalebone. Their
yield of oil was not so abundant, and their pursuit in small boats was
hazardous on account of their great activity when attacked.
Until the year 1880 harpoons were the weapons used in hunting the
whale, but in that year a Norwegian sailor named Svend Foyn invented
the harpoon gun, the explosive shells of which kill the whale
instantly. It requires a great deal of skill on the part of the
operator to force home the harpoon at the right time and in the right
place, for the whales display more intelligence than one would expect
from a monster so clumsy. Moreover, they are stalwart sea warriors,
and never surrender until entirely played out. Frequently the hunters
pursue them for miles, and are probably disappointed at last. A school
of whales may be sighted a long distance off, and then the hunters
make a dash for sport. On more than one occasion these sportsmen have
reached the school a few moments too late, for with a splash and a
plunge the whales have gone below, as if conscious that they were
surrounded by an enemy thirsting for their blood.
To the deck of the whaler is fixed a large and powerful windlass, which
answers the same purpose as an angler’s rod and line. When the whale
feels the effect of the shot he darts madly downwards, dragging with
him several lengths of rope. He is then “played” until his strength
appears to be spent. The crew then attach the rope to the windlass,
and begin to haul the monster in. This act calls for very cautious
performance, for the giant prey may suddenly take another spurt,
hauling with him lengths of the rope once more. When he is at last
beaten and lies a panting, puffing mass on the surface of the water, a
small boat is sent out, from which he is given his death-blow by means
of a small steel lance.
From his watery slaughter-house the giant fish is led to the flensing
slip, where the labour of cutting and carving begins. The flensing
slip is a slanting wharf, up which the body of the whale is hauled by
heavy chains and a windlass. The butchers then take their long knives
and cut off the outer coat of blubber, which is from 18 inches to 2
feet wide. Then great joints are cut up and passed through a machine
that strips them into slices as thin as a quarter of an inch. The next
operation is the drawing off of the oil by means of heated vats. When
the oil has been extracted, the remains, instead of being left to rot
in the sun, as formerly, are now manufactured into a guano to scatter
across the cotton plantations of the Southern States of America. The
“teeth” of the whale are washed and dried and packed ready for market.
These “teeth” are the celebrated whalebone, for which there is always a
ready market in all parts of the world.
Although the flesh of the whale is not so marketable as the flesh of
many other fishes, some of the joints are considered as delicate and
tender as an English beefsteak. The people of the Orient think a slice
of the whale’s tail a great delicacy.
What will be the future of the whaling industry of Newfoundland it is
not safe to predict, for the rorquals do not breed so abundantly as
other commercial fishes. Norway has found it a profitable industry for
a great many years, but it may be that the energetic prosecution of
whaling in all the favoured waters of the ocean will tend to diminish
the genus of rorquals. At present, however, there is no apparent
diminution of this profitable and exciting calling in the waters
scoured by the whalers of Newfoundland.