Greasy luck

Chapter 42: LANCING

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About This Book

A richly illustrated sketchbook that documents the techniques, equipment, and daily life of traditional whaling through detailed plates and diagrams. Sequential images and captions depict fitting out, sail handling, whaleboats, harpooning and lancing, the struggle of the chase, cutting-in and rendering blubber, shipboard trades and tools, and shore activities such as gams and recruiting. A foreword frames the material by contrasting the romantic image of sail whaling with mechanized modern whaling, while the artwork emphasizes technical accuracy, danger, and the labor and culture of the whalemen.

LANCING

To kill the whale at a single thrust required the greatest skill, and the boat to be laid on at the right spot.

The mate, awaiting the moment when he could reach the “life,” made repeated thrusts with his lance in order to weaken the victim.

The success of the final stroke was proclaimed by “spouting red”—and the dying whale went into a “flurry,” which consisted of swimming round in a gradually diminishing circle until with a final thrashing of his giant flukes he rolled over on his side “fin out.”