instead of dying at the surface of the water, the whale descends, and does not rise again, so that it is lost to the whaler. The carcass of the whale is towed by the boats to the ship, and made fast to the ship's chains. Should the prize prove to be a right whale, the process of ‘flensing’ is then commenced. Some of the crew, having their boots armed with iron spikes, to prevent them from slipping, descend upon the carcass, and cut into the blubber with ‘blubber-spades,’ removing a broad strip or ‘blanket’ of skin, 20 or 30 feet long, which is hoisted to the deck by means of a hook and tackle. Great cubical pieces of blubber, of half a ton or a ton in weight, are then cut out and hoisted on deck. In this way the process is carried on, the whale being turned over and over, that every part may be reached; till in three or four hours the whole mass of blubber is removed from it—probably amounting to 20 or 30 tons. Meanwhile others of the crew have descended into the mouth of the whale and removed the baleen. The remainder of the carcass is then flung adrift, and sometimes sinks, but often floats, in consequence of incipient putrefaction. The blubber, after being hoisted on deck, is cut into smaller cubical pieces, and subjected at leisure to a process by which the cellular tissue is separated from it. This is called ‘making off’ or ‘trying out;’ and to accomplish it, the blubber is heated in a large pot, and afterwards strained, the scraps or cracknels from one pot serving as fuel for another, and the ship being made filthy with smoke, soot, and grease. The product is finally stored in casks, to be conveyed home and boiled for oil. A ton of blubber yields nearly 200 gallons of oil. A single whale has often furnished blubber and whalebone to the value of $3500 or $4000.
The pursuit and capture of sperm whales is not essentially different from that of the right whale. But after their capture the carcass is handled somewhat differently, as the head is the most valuable part. The whale is first secured by the head and then the whole ‘case’ with the attached blubber is cut away and hauled up beside the vessel and made fast. The contents of the ‘case’ are then bailed out with a bucket and the spermaceti separated from the oil by cooling. The blanket-strips are then removed from the body and the blubber is tried out as in the right whale.
Bibliography. The most recent general work is Beddard's A Book of Whales (London and New York, 1900); it contains all necessary references to other authorities on the natural history of the group. Consult also Goode, Fishery Industries, sec. i. (Washington, 1884); Scammon, Marine Mammals (San Francisco, 1874). For the whale fishery, consult the exhaustive treatise of Temple Brown in the Annual Report of the United States Fish Commission for 1883; also Bullen, Cruise of the Cachalot (New York, 1900).
See Colored Plate of Mammals; and Plate of Whales.
WHALEBACK. The name applied to a type of freight steamer developed on the Great Lakes and largely used on them. The sides of a ‘whaleback’ are curved in to meet a narrow flat deck several feet above the water line. Circular hatchways rise above this deck and support small deck-houses and (in some instances) a flying fore-and-aft bridge. The whaleback is well suited to the lake trade, but the poor accommodations for the crew on long voyages have prevented its general adoption in ocean traffic. The first whaleback to cross the Atlantic was the Charles W. Wetmore, of 3000 tons, which made the voyage to Liverpool in 1891. The shape of the ‘whaleback’ makes it particularly steady at sea, and it is possible that vessels of this type may have increased use in carrying ore and similar heavy cargoes. A modification of the type, called the ‘turret-deck,’ has been brought out in England. The sides are curved inward as in the ‘whaleback,’ but at about one-fourth the beam from the side they are curved up again to form a narrow superstructure, which extends from stem to stern. A typical lake ‘whaleback’ passing through the lock at the Sault Sainte Marie Canal is shown on the Plate accompanying the article Canal.
WHALEBOAT. A rather narrow boat, sharp at both ends and with considerable sheer (i.e. the ends rise considerably above the middle part), which was much used in the whale fishery. These boats are now carried by many vessels in all trades and by men-of-war. They are suitable for nearly all uses at sea and are very generally fitted as life-boats. The shape of the stern adapts them to use as surf boats or in rough seas, in which case they are steered with a heavy car working in a crutch on the sternpost. See Boat.
WHALEBONE. The baleen-plates which take the place of teeth in the mouths of the baleen whales (see Whale) constitute the whalebone of commerce. They vary in length from a few inches up to 10, and even in rare instances 12 feet. Chemically they consist of albumen hardened by a small proportion of phosphate of lime. Their color is usually of a bluish black, but in some species they are striped longitudinally with bands of a whitish color; and they terminate at the point in a number of coarse black fibres of the baleen, which fibres are also found more or less down both sides of the blade. These fibres are used by brush-makers. Whalebone before being fit for use is first trimmed—that is, all the hairs are removed from the point and edges of each blade; and generally the surface of each flat side is scraped. The blades are then boiled in water or heated in steam for several hours, until they become soft enough to be cut with a common knife. The workman then cuts them into lengths fitted for the purposes to which they are to be applied. They were formerly extensively used in thin strips, such as stay-bones and umbrella-ribs, but within recent years steel rods have been largely substituted in these manufactures.
WHALLEY, hwŏl′ĭ, Edward (?-c.1678). An English regicide, born in Nottinghamshire. He fought with distinction under his cousin, Oliver Cromwell, in the Civil War, and afterwards acted as custodian to the King. He served in the Second Civil War under Fairfax; was one of those who signed the King's death warrant; and was wounded in the battle of Dunbar. Afterwards he assisted Lambert in defeating Ker at Hamilton, and also participated in the battle of Worcester. On August 13, 1652, he presented to
