may be mentioned three, namely, in the harbour of San Sebastian in
January 1854, in the Gulf of Taranto, in the Mediterranean, in
February 1877, and on the Spanish coast between Guttaria and
Zarauz (Guipuzcoa) in February 1878. The skeletons of these three
whales are preserved in the museums of Copenhagen, Naples and
San Sebastian respectively. On the coast of the United States
several specimens have been taken; and a cargo of whalebone
belonging to this species was received at New Bedford in 1906.
During the latter year six examples were killed by whalers from
Bunevencader, in the island of Harris (see R. C . Haldane, Ann. Scot.
Nat. Hist., 1907, p. 13). In the North Pacific a similar if not identical
whale is regularly hunted by the Japanese, who tow the carcases
ashore for the purpose of flensing and extracting the whalebone.
In the tropical seas, however, right whales are never or rarely seen;
but the southern temperate ocean, especially in the neighbourhood
of the Cape of Good Hope, Kerguelen’s Island, Australia and New
Zealand, is inhabited by “black whales,” once abundant, but now
nearly exterminated through the wanton destruction of the females
as they visit the bays and inlets round the coast, their constant habit
in the breeding time. The range of these whales southward has not
been accurately determined; but no species corresponding with the
Arctic right whale has been met with in the Antarctic seas.
See also Humpback Whale, Rorqual, Sperm-Whale, Beluga, &c. (W. H. F.; R. L.*)
WHALEBONE, the inaccurate name under which the baleen plates of the right whale are popularly known; the trade-name of whale-fin, which the substance receives in commerce, is equally misleading. Whalebone is formed in the palate on the roof of the mouth and is an exaggeration of the ridges, often horny in character, which are found on the roof of the mouth of all mammals. Three kinds are recognized by traders—the Greenland, yielded by the Greenland whale, Balaena mysticetus; the South Sea, the produce of the Antarctic black whale, B. australis; and the Pacific or American, which is obtained from B. japonica. Very many different names have been given to whales of the B. australis group, and it is possible that local races exist, whilst some writers are inclined to regard B. japonica as not specifically distinct from B. australis. Of these the Greenland whalebone is the most valuable. It formed the only staple known in earlier times, when the northern whale fishery was a great and productive industry. This whalebone usually comes into the market trimmed and clean, with the hairy fringe which edges the plates removed. To prepare whalebone for its economic applications, the blades or plates are boiled for about twelve hours, till the substance is quite soft, in which state it is cut either into narrow strips or into small bristle-like filaments, according to the use to which it is to be devoted.
Whalebone possesses a unique combination of properties which render it peculiarly and almost exclusively suitable for several purposes. It is light, flexible, tough and fibrous, and its fibres run parallel to each other without intertwisting. One of its earliest uses, referred to by William le Breton in the 13th century, was to form the plumes on helmets. It has been found practicable to employ flexible steel for several purposes to which whalebone was formerly applied, especially in the umbrella and corset industries, in which steel is now almost exclusively used. Whalebone, is, however, still in large demand among dressmakers and milliners; but it is principally used in the brush trade. In cases where bristles are too soft and weak, and where the available vegetable fibres possess insufficient elasticity and durability, whalebone offers the great advantage of being procurable in strips or filaments, long or short, thick or thin, according to requirement. Hence it is principally used for making brushes for mechanical purposes. The use of whalebone in brush making was originally patented by Samuel Crackles in 1808, and various special machines have been adapted for cutting the material into filaments. When whalebone came into the English market in the 17th century it cost at first about £700 per ton. In the 18th century its price ranged from £350 to £500 per ton, but early in the 19th century it fell as low as £25. Later it varied from £200 to £250; but with the decrease in whaling the article has become very scarce, and upwards of £2000 per ton is now paid for Greenland whalebone.
WHALE-FISHERY, or Whaling, the pursuit and capture of the larger species of cetaceans (see Cetacea and Whale). Man, in all probability, first became acquainted with the value of the products yielded by whales from stranded individuals; but at what time he first ventured to hunt and kill these monsters in the open ocean it is now impossible to ascertain. We know, however, from King Alfred's account of Ohthere’s voyage to the White Sea that the Norwegians were expert whalers at least a thousand years ago; and we also know that from the 10th to the 16th centuries the Basques of Bayonne, Biarritz, St Jean-de-Luz, San Sebastian and certain other French and Spanish ports were carrying on a lucrative trade in the products of a whale-fishery conducted by themselves, which supplied Europe with whalebone and oil. In the latter, and not improbably also in the former case, the species hunted was the Atlantic right-whale, or black whale (Balaena biscayensis) which the Basques seem to have well-nigh exterminated in their own waters; and it was not till a later epoch that the pursuit of its larger-headed cousin, the Greenland right-whale (B. mysticetus), was initiated. Hunting the sperm-whale, or cachalot, in the South Sea was a still later development, while rorqual hunting is quite a modern industry.
Of whaling vessels of the old type, a brief notice will suffice. Those engaged in the British South Sea fishery, which was in its prime about the year 1790, were from 300 to 400 tons burden, and equipped for at least a three-years' voyage. They carried from 28 to 33 officers and men, and six whale-boats. Built sharp at both ends, these boats were about 27 ft. long, and were furnished, in addition to masts and sails, with a couple of 200-fathom whale-lines. When a whale was sighted from the “crow's-nest” at the masthead of the vessel, four boats, each carrying a crew of six men, were lowered and dispatched in pursuit. The crew consisted of a boat-steerer in the bow, four rowers and a headsman in the stem. The boat-steerer carried the harpoons with which the whale was first attacked, and when the boat was once “fast” to a whale by means of the harpoon and line, the attack was carried on by the headsman, who was armed with long slender lances. When several whales were seen, two or more of the boats might make separate attacks; but in other instances they kept together, so that their united lines were available when the whale descended or “sounded.” After the first blow of the harpoon, or at all events after the first effective lancing, the “sounding” was deep and prolonged; but loss of blood eventually caused the victim to keep near the surface, when, if all went well, it was finally dispatched by lance-thrusts behind one of the flippers into the vital parts.
When a sperm-whale was killed, the carcase was made fast to the side of the vessel, and the process of flensing, or “cutting-in,” commenced. On being made fast to the vessel, the whale was enveloped in a framework, and a strip of the blubber cut in a spiral direction. By raising this strip with the aid of proper apparatus, the whale could be turned round and round on its axis, and nearly the whole of the blubber removed in a continuous piece, to be cut, as required, into convenient lengths. Meanwhile the liquid spermaceti, or “head-matter,” was ladled out in buckets from the great cavity in the skull and put in casks, where it solidified, to be carried to port and there refined. The blubber was, however, reduced to oil by “try-works” with which the vessel was provided, and stored in barrels. A large male sperm-whale will yield as much as eighty barrels, or about 3 tons of oil; while the yield of a small female does not exceed 1 or 2 tons. In the old days the cargo of a successful vessel might include the products of a hundred whales, yielding from 150 to 200 tons of boiled sperm-oil in addition to the spermaceti.
In the old days of the Greenland whale-fishery vessels of about 330 tons burden were deemed the most eligible, these being constructed in such a manner as to resist so far as possible the pressure of the ice. The crew was about fifty in number, and the vessel carried six or seven whale-boats of the same length as those used in the South Sea fishery. The vessels left Peterhead and Dundee (the ports for the Greenland fishery, as was London for the South Sea fishery) about the beginning of April, and, after touching at the Shetlands, reached the whaling-grounds before the end of that month. In approaching a whale, which was effected from behind, silence was essential, and the harpoon had to be delivered within a distance of a few yards. The moment the wounded whale disappeared a flag was hoisted in the boat to give notice that assistance was required from the ship. Attention to the line was a matter of the utmost importance, as if it became entangled the boat would be drawn under water by the whale. Sometimes its motion
