mainsail was dropped, and the boat swung up into the wind, laying
"hove to," almost stationary. The centerboard was lowered to stop her
drifting to leeward, although I can not say it made much difference
that ever I saw. _Now_, what's the matter? I thought, when to my
amazement the chief addressing me said, "Wonder why we've hauled up,
don't ye?" "Yes, sir, I do," said I. "Wall," said he, "the fish hev
sounded, an' 'ef we run over 'em, we've seen the last ov 'em. So we
wait awhile till they rise agin, 'n then we'll prob'ly git thar' 'r
thareabouts before they sound agin." With this explanation I had to be
content, although if it be no clearer to my readers than it then was
to me, I shall have to explain myself more fully later on. Silently we
lay, rocking lazily upon the gentle swell, no other word being spoken
by any one. At last Louis, the harpooner, gently breathed "Blo-o-o-w";
and there, sure enough, not half a mile away on the lee beam, was a
little bushy cloud of steam apparently rising from the sea. At almost
the same time as we kept away all the other boats did likewise, and
just then, catching sight of the ship, the reason for this apparently
concerted action was explained. At the mainmast head of the ship was a
square blue flag, and the ensign at the peak was being dipped. These
were signals well understood and promptly acted upon by those in
charge of the boats, who were thus guided from a point of view at
least one hundred feet above the sea.
"Stand up, Louey," the mate murmured softly. I only just stopped
myself in time from turning my head to see why the order was given.
Suddenly there was a bump, at the same moment the mate yelled, "Give't
to him, Louey, give't to him!" and to me, "Haul that main sheet, naow
haul, why don't ye?" I hauled it flat aft, and the boat shot up into
the wind, rubbing sides as she did so with what to my troubled sight
seemed an enormous mass of black India rubber floating. As we
_crawled_ up into the wind, the whale went into convulsions befitting
his size and energy. He raised a gigantic tail on high, thrashing the
water with deafening blows, rolling at the same time from side to side
until the surrounding sea was white with froth. I felt in an agony
lest we should be crushed under one of those fearful strokes, for Mr.
Count appeared to be oblivious of possible danger, although we seemed
to be now drifting back on to the writhing leviathan. In the agitated
condition of the sea it was a task of no ordinary difficulty to unship
the tall mast, which was of course the first thing to be done. After a
desperate struggle, and a narrow escape from falling overboard of one
of the men, we got the long "stick," with the sail bundled around it,
down and "fleeted" aft, where it was secured by the simple means of
sticking the "heel" under the after thwart, two thirds of the mast
extending out over the stern. Meanwhile, we had certainly been in a
position of the greatest danger, our immunity from damage being
unquestionably due to anything but precaution taken to avoid it.
By the time the oars were handled, and the mate had exchanged places
with the harpooner, our friend the enemy had "sounded"--that is, he
had gone below for a change of scene, marveling, no doubt, what
strange thing had befallen him. Agreeably to the accounts which I,
like most boys, had read of the whale-fishery, I looked for the
rushing of the line round the loggerhead (a stout wooden post built
into the boat aft), to raise a cloud of smoke with occasional bursts
of flame; so, as it began to slowly surge round the post, I timidly
asked the harpooner whether I should throw any water on it. "Wot for?"
growled he, as he took a couple more turns with it. Not knowing "what
for," and hardly liking to quote my authorities here, I said no more,
but waited events. "Hold him up, Louey, hold him up, cain't ye?"
shouted the mate, and to my horror, down went the nose of the boat
almost under water, while at the mate's order everybody scrambled aft
into the elevated stern sheets.
The line sang quite a tune as it was grudgingly allowed to surge round
the loggerhead, filling one with admiration at the strength shown by
such a small rope. This sort of thing went on for about twenty
minutes, in which time we quite emptied the large tub and began on the
small one.
Suddenly our boat fell backward from her "slantindicular" position
with a jerk, and the mate immediately shouted, "Haul line, there! look
lively, now! you--so on, etcetera, etcetera" (he seemed to invent new
epithets on every occasion). The line came in hand over hand, and was
coiled in a wide heap in the stern sheets, for, silky as it was, it
could not be expected in its wet state to lie very close. As it came
flying in, the mate kept a close gaze upon the water immediately
beneath us, apparently for the first glimpse of our antagonist. When
the whale broke water, however, he was some distance off, and
apparently as quiet as a lamb. Now, had Mr. Count been a prudent or
less ambitious man, our task would doubtless have been an easy one, or
comparatively so; but, being a little over-grasping, he got us all
into serious trouble. We were hauling up to our whale in order to
lance it, and the mate was standing, lance in hand, only waiting to
get near enough, when up comes a large whale right alongside of our
boat, so close, indeed, that I might have poked my finger in his
little eye, if I had chosen. The sight of that whale at liberty, and
calmly taking stock of us like that, was too much for the mate. He
lifted his lance and hurled it at the visitor, in whose broad flank it
sank, like a knife into butter, right up to the pole-hitches. The
recipient disappeared like a flash, but before one had time to think,
there was an awful crash beneath us, and the mate shot up into the air
like a bomb from a mortar. He came down in a sitting posture on the
mast thwart; but as he fell, the whole framework of the boat collapsed
like a derelict umbrella. Louis quietly chopped the line and severed
our connection with the other whale, while in accordance with our
instructions we drew each man his oar across the boat and lashed it
firmly down with a piece of line spliced to each thwart for the
purpose. This simple operation took but a minute, but before it was
completed we were all up to our necks in the sea--still in the boat,
it is true, and therefore not in such danger of drowning as if we were
quite adrift; but, considering that the boat was reduced to a mere
bundle of loose planks, I, at any rate, was none too comfortable. Now,
had he known it, was the whale's golden opportunity; but he, poor
wretch, had had quite enough of our company, and cleared off without
any delay, wondering, no doubt, what fortunate accident had rid him of
our very unpleasant attentions.
I was assured that we were all as safe as if we were on board the
ship, to which I answered nothing; but, like Jack's parrot, I did some
powerful thinking. Every little wave that came along swept clean over
our heads, sometimes coming so suddenly as to cut a breath in half. If
the wind should increase--but no--I wouldn't face the possibility of
such a disagreeable thing. I was cool enough now in a double sense,
for, although we were in the tropics, we soon got thoroughly chilled.
Help came at last, and we were hauled alongside. Long exposure had
weakened us to such an extent that it was necessary to hoist us on
board, especially the mate, whose "sudden stop," when he returned to
us after his little aërial excursion, had shaken his sturdy frame
considerably, a state of body which the subsequent soaking had by no
means improved. In my innocence I imagined that we should be
commiserated for our misfortunes by Captain Slocum, and certainly be
relieved from further duties until we were a little recovered from the
rough treatment we had just undergone. But I never made a greater
mistake. The skipper cursed us all (except the mate, whose sole fault
the accident undoubtedly was) with a fluency and vigor that was, to
put it mildly, discouraging.
A couple of slings were passed around the boat, by means of which she
was carefully hoisted on board, a mere dilapidated bundle of sticks
and raffle of gear. She was at once removed aft out of the way, the
business of cutting in the whale claiming precedence over everything
else just then. The preliminary proceedings consisted of rigging the
"cutting stage." This was composed of two stout planks a foot wide and
ten feet long, the inner ends of which were suspended by strong ropes
over the ship's side about four feet from the water, while the outer
extremities were upheld by tackles from the main rigging, and a small
crane abreast the try-works.
These planks were about thirty feet apart, their two outer ends being
connected by a massive plank which was securely bolted to them. A
handrail about as high as a man's waist, supported by light iron
stanchions, ran the full length of this plank on the side nearest the
ship, the whole fabric forming an admirable standing place whence the
officers might, standing in comparative comfort, cut and carve at the
great mass below to their hearts' content.
So far the prize had been simply held alongside by the whale line,
which at death had been "rove" through a hole cut in the solid gristle
of the tail; but now it became necessary to secure the carcass to the
ship in some more permanent fashion. Therefore, a massive chain like a
small ship's cable was brought forward, and in a very ingenious way,
by means of a tiny buoy and a hand lead, passed round the body, one
end brought through a ring in the other, and hauled upon until it
fitted tight round the "small" or part of the whale next the broad
spread of the tail. The free end of the fluke chain was then passed in
through a mooring pipe forward, firmly secured to a massive bitt at
the heel of the bowsprit (the fluke-chain bitt), and all was ready.
The first thing to be done was to cut the whale's head off. This
operation, involving the greatest amount of labor in the whole of the
cutting in, was taken in hand by the first and second mates, who,
armed with twelve-foot spades, took their station upon the stage,
leaned over the handrail to steady themselves, and plunged their
weapons vigorously down through the massive neck of the animal--if
neck it could be said to have--following a well-defined crease in the
blubber. At the same time the other officers passed a heavy chain
sling around the long, narrow lower jaw, hooking one of the big
cutting tackles into it, the "fall" of which was then taken to the
windlass and hove tight, turning the whale on her back. A deep cut
was then made on both sides of the rising jaw, the windlass was kept
going, and gradually the whole of the throat was raised high enough
for a hole to be cut through its mass, into which the strap of the
second cutting tackle was inserted and secured by passing a huge
toggle of oak through its eye. The second tackle was then hove taut,
and the jaw, with a large piece of blubber attached, was cut off from
the body with a boarding knife, a tool not unlike a cutlass blade set
into a three-foot-long wooden handle.
Upon being severed the whole piece swung easily inboard and was
lowered on deck. The fast tackle was now hove upon while the third
mate on the stage cut down diagonally into the blubber on the body,
which the purchase ripped off in a broad strip or "blanket" about five
feet wide and a foot thick. Meanwhile the other two officers carved
away vigorously at the head, varying their labors by cutting a hole
right through the snout. This, when completed, received a heavy chain
for the purpose of securing the head. When the blubber had been about
half stripped off the body, a halt was called in order that the work
of cutting off the head might be finished, for it was a task of
incredible difficulty. It was accomplished at last, and the mass
floated astern by a stout rope, after which the windlass pawls
clattered merrily, the "blankets" rose in quick succession, and were
cut off and lowered into the square of the main hatch or "blubber
room." A short time sufficed to strip off the whole of the body
blubber, and when at last the tail was reached, the backbone was cut
through, the huge mass of flesh floating away to feed the innumerable
scavengers of the sea. No sooner was the last of the blubber lowered
into the hold than the hatches were put on and the head hauled up
alongside. Both tackles were secured to it and all hands took to the
windlass levers. This was a small cow whale of about thirty
barrels--that is, yielding that amount of oil--so it was just possible
to lift the entire head on board; but as it weighed as much as three
full-grown elephants, it was indeed a heavy lift for even our united
forces, trying our tackle to the utmost. The weather was very fine,
and the ship rolled but little; even then, the strain upon the mast
was terrific, and right glad was I when at last the immense cube of
fat, flesh, and bone was eased inboard and gently lowered on deck.
As soon as it was secured the work of dividing it began. From the
snout a triangular mass was cut, which was more than half pure
spermaceti. This substance was contained in spongy cells held together
by layers of dense white fiber, exceedingly tough and elastic, and
called by the whalers "white horse." The whole mass, or "junk," as it
is called, was hauled away to the ship's side and firmly lashed to the
bulwarks for the time being, so that it might not "take charge" of the
deck during the rest of the operations.
The upper part of the head was now slit open lengthwise, disclosing an
oblong cistern or "case" full of liquid spermaceti, clear as water.
This was baled out with buckets into a tank, concreting as it cooled
into a waxlike substance, bland and tasteless. There being now nothing
more remaining about the skull of any value, the lashings were loosed,
and the first leeward roll sent the great mass plunging overboard with
a mighty splash. It sank like a stone, eagerly followed by a few small
sharks that were hovering near.
As may be imagined, much oil was running about the deck, for so
saturated was every part of the creature with it that it really gushed
like water during the cutting-up process. None of it was allowed to
run to waste, though, for the scupper holes which drain the deck were
all carefully plugged, and as soon as the "junk" had been dissected
all the oil was carefully "squeegeed" up and poured into the try-pots.
Two men were now told off as "blubber-room men," whose duty it became
to go below and, squeezing themselves in as best they could between
the greasy mass of fat, cut it up into "horse-pieces" about eighteen
inches long and six inches square. Doing this, they became perfectly
saturated with oil, as if they had taken a bath in a tank of it; for
as the vessel rolled it was impossible to maintain a footing, and
every fall was upon blubber running with oil. A machine of wonderful
construction had been erected on deck in a kind of shallow trough
about six feet long by four feet wide and a foot deep. At some remote
period of time it had no doubt been looked upon as a triumph of
ingenuity, a patent mincing machine. Its action was somewhat like that
of a chaff-cutter, except that the knife was not attached to the
wheel, and only rose and fell, since it was not required to cut right
through the "horse-pieces" with which it was fed. It will be readily
understood that, in order to get the oil quickly out of the blubber,
it needs to be sliced as thin as possible, but for convenience in
handling the refuse (which is the only fuel used) it is not chopped up
in small pieces, but every "horse-piece" is very deeply scored as it
were, leaving a thin strip to hold the slices together. This, then,
was the order of work: Two harpooners attended the try-pots,
replenishing them with minced blubber from the hopper at the port
side, and baling out the sufficiently boiled oil into the great
cooling tank on the starboard. One officer superintended the mincing,
another exercised a general supervision over all. So we toiled watch
and watch, six hours on and six off, the work never ceasing for an
instant night or day. Though the work was hard and dirty, and the
discomfort of being so continually wet through with oil great, there
was only one thing dangerous about the whole business. That was the
job of filling and shifting the huge casks of oil. Some of these were
of enormous size, containing three hundred and fifty gallons when
full, and the work of moving them about the greasy deck of a rolling
ship was attended with a terrible amount of risk. For only four men at
most could get fair hold of a cask, and when she took it into her
silly old hull to start rolling, just as we had got one halfway across
the deck, with nothing to grip your feet, and the knowledge that one
stumbling man would mean a sudden slide of the ton and a half weight,
and a little heap of mangled corpses somewhere in the lee
scuppers--well, one always wanted to be very thankful when the
lashings were safely passed.
The whale being a small one, as before noted, the whole business was
over within three days, and the decks scrubbed and rescrubbed until
they had quite regained their normal whiteness. The oil was poured by
means of a funnel and long canvas hose into the casks stowed in the
ground tier at the bottom of the ship, and the gear, all carefully
cleaned and neatly "stopped up," stowed snugly away below again.
FOOTNOTE:
[13] From The Cruise of the Cachalot. By Frank T. Bullen.
(Illustrated.) New York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 379.
SKETCH OF MANLY MILES.
To Dr. Manly Miles belongs the distinction of having been the first
professor of practical agriculture in the United States, as he was
appointed to that then newly instituted position in the Michigan
Agricultural College in 1865.
Professor Miles was born in Homer, Cortland County, New York, July 20,
1826, the son of Manly Miles, a soldier of the Revolution; while his
mother, Mary Cushman, was a lineal descendant of Miles Standish and
Thomas Cushman, whose father, Joshua Cushman, joining the Mayflower
colony at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621, left him there with
Governor Bradford when he returned to England.
When Manly, the son, was eleven years old, the family removed to
Flint, Michigan, where he employed his time in farm work and the
acquisition of knowledge, and later in teaching. He had a
common-school education, and improved all the time he could spare from
his regular occupations in reading and study. It is recorded of him in
those days that he was always successful in whatever he undertook. In
illustration of the skill and thoroughness with which he performed his
tasks, his sister relates an incident of his sowing plaster for the
first time, when his father expressed pleasure at his having
distributed the lime so evenly and so well. It appears that he did not
spare himself in doing the work, for so completely was he covered that
he is said to have looked like a plaster cast, "with only his bright
eyes shining through." A thrashing machine was brought on to the
farm, and Manly and his brother went round thrashing for the
neighbors. Industrious in study as well as in work, the boy never
neglected his more prosaic duties to gratify his thirst for knowledge.
He studied geometry while following the plow, drawing the problems on
a shingle, which he tacked to the plow-beam. Whenever he was missed
and inquiry was made about him, the answer invariably was, "Somewhere
with a book." He was most interested in the natural sciences,
particularly in chemistry in its applications to agriculture, and in
comparative physiology and anatomy, and was a diligent student and
collector of mollusks.
Choosing the profession of medicine, Mr. Miles was graduated M. D.
from Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1850, and practiced till 1859.
In the meantime he became greatly interested in the subject of a
geographical survey of the State, for which an act was passed and
approved in 1858. In the organization of the survey, in 1859, he was
appointed Assistant State Geologist in the department of zoölogy; and
in the next year was appointed professor of zoölogy and animal
physiology in the State Agricultural College at Lansing.
In his work as zoölogist to the State Geological Survey, in 1859,
1860, and 1861, he displayed rare qualities as a naturalist, so that
Mr. Walter R. Barrows, in recording his death in the bulletin of the
Michigan Ornithological Club, expresses regret that many of the years
he afterward devoted to the development of experimental agriculture
"were not spent in unraveling some of the important biological
problems which the State afforded, which his skill and perseverance
would surely have solved." He was a "born collector," Mr. Barrows
adds, "as the phrase is, and his keen eyes, tireless industry, and
mathematical precision led to the accumulation of thousands of
valuable specimens and more valuable observations."
Mr. Bryant Walker, of Detroit, who knew Professor Miles well in later
years, and had opportunity to review his zoölogical work, regards the
part he took during this service in developing the knowledge of the
fauna of the State as having been very prominent. "The catalogues he
published in the report for 1860 have been the basis for all work
since that time." He kept in correspondence with the most eminent
American naturalists of the period, including Cope, Prime, Lea, W. G.
Binney, Baird, and Agassiz, and supplied them with large quantities of
valuable material. From the many letters written by these naturalists
which are in the possession of his friends, we take, as illustrating
the character of the service he rendered and of the trust they reposed
in him, even previous to his going on the survey, one from Agassiz, of
February 4, 1856:
"DEAR SIR: As you have already furnished me with invaluable materials
for the natural history of the fishes of your State, I am emboldened
to ask another favor of you. I am preparing a map of the Geographical
Distribution of the Turtles of North America, and would be greatly
indebted to you for any information respecting the range of those
found in your State, as far as you have noticed them, even if you
should know them only by their common names, my object being simply to
ascertain how far they extend over different parts of the country. If
you could add specimens of them, to identify them with precision, it
would be, of course, so much the better; but as I am almost ready for
the press, I could not for this paper await the return of spring, but
would thank you for what you could furnish me now. I am particularly
interested in ascertaining how far north the different species
inhabiting this continent extend." On the back of this letter was Dr.
Miles's indorsement that a box had been sent.
A number of letters from Professor Baird, of 1860 and 1861, relate to
the identification of specimens collected by Dr. Miles, and to the
fishes of Michigan, and contain inquiries about gulls and eggs. Dr.
Miles likewise supplied Cope with a considerable amount of material
concerning Michigan reptiles and fishes.