The excellent voice narration in this edition also helps bring the tale alive where the language and pacing might otherwise be a little dated for readers of this century. Apr 18, Christina rated it really liked it. I love a good sailing story. Any book that can transform my day by moving me to the South Sea in a whaling ship is never going to get less than 3 stars from me automatically. I liked this book.
Fighting the Whales by Robert Michael Ballantyne, Chapter
It was a fun adventure. I must say that I am not an advocate of whaling but I understand the old necessity for it. I am glad that times have changed. Sep 22, Frank rated it really liked it. This is a good book of the early days of seafaring. It is easy reading and really makes the adventure of sailing in early days come alive.
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It is about a kid who goes to sea for the first time on a whaler. Jan 24, Laura Verret rated it liked it. This is one of the few Ballantynes that is written in first person narrative. This book follows a penniless, fatherless boy as he goes to sea to make money for his mother. It includes several educational parts about the harvesting of oil from whales. Apr 20, Nathan rated it liked it. Life was more than just different a years ago.
William Warsinski rated it it was amazing Jan 10, Sype Corbon rated it liked it Jun 28, Athena rated it liked it Oct 06, Philip Raby rated it really liked it Jan 23, Andrew Goss rated it it was amazing Mar 06, Boris rated it really liked it Nov 22, Luke rated it liked it Jun 14, Olivia rated it liked it Mar 06, Joey rated it liked it Sep 26, Keturah rated it liked it Feb 09, Papias rated it liked it Oct 14, Kerestel rated it really liked it Jan 20, Megan rated it it was ok May 22, Tim rated it it was ok Jan 03, Rees Hovland rated it it was amazing Feb 02, Next moment the flukes came down on the part of the boat he had just left, and cut it clean off; the other part was driven into the waves, and the men were left swimming in the water.
They were all picked up, however, by another boat that was in company, and the harpooner was recovered with the rest.
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His quick dive had been the saving of his life. The first part that came up was the huge lip, fastened to a large iron hook, called the blubber hook. It was lowered into the blubber-room between decks, where a couple of men were stationed to stow the blubber away. Then came the fins, and after them the upper-jaw, with the whalebone attached to it. In place of teeth it has the well-known substance called whalebone, which grows from the roof of its mouth in a number of broad thin plates, extending from the back of the head to the snout.
The lower edges of these plates of whalebone are split into thousands of hairs like bristles, so that the inside roof of a whale's mouth resembles an enormous blacking brush! I have spoken before of these last as being the little creatures that gave out such a beautiful pale-blue light at night. The whale feeds on them. When he desires a meal he opens his great mouth and rushes into the midst of a shoal of medusae; the little things get entangled in thousands among the hairy ends of the whalebone, and when the monster has got a large enough mouthful, he shuts his lower-jaw and swallows what his net has caught.
The wisdom as well as the necessity of this arrangement is very plain. Of course, while dashing through the sea in this fashion, with his mouth agape, the whale must keep his throat closed, else the water would rush down it and choke him. Shutting his throat then, as he does, the water is obliged to flow out of his mouth as fast as it flows in; it is also spouted up through his blow-holes, and this with such violence that many of the little creatures would be swept out along with it but for the hairy-ended whalebone which lets the sea-water out, but keeps the medusae in.
This last was an enormous mass of fat, about as large as an ox, and it weighed fifteen hundred or two thousand pounds. After this was got in, the rest of the work was simple.
The blubber of the body was peeled off in great strips, beginning at the neck and being cut spirally towards the tail. It was hoisted on board by the blocks, the captain and mates cutting, and the men at the windlass hoisting, and the carcass slowly turning round until we got an unbroken piece of blubber, reaching from the water to nearly as high as the mainyard-arm. This mass was nearly a foot thick, and it looked like fat pork. It was cut off close to the deck, and lowered into the blubber-room, where the two men stationed there attacked it with knives, cut it into smaller pieces, and stowed it away.
Then another piece was hoisted on board in the same fashion, and so on we went till every bit of blubber was cut off; and I heard the captain remark to the mate when the work was done, that the fish was a good fat one, and he wouldn't wonder if it turned out to be worth pounds sterling. Now, when this process was going on, a new point of interest arose which I had not thought of before, although my messmate, Tom Lokins, had often spoken of it on the voyage out.
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This was the arrival of great numbers of sea-birds. Tom had often told me of the birds that always keep company with whalers; but I had forgotten all about it until I saw an enormous albatross come sailing majestically through the air towards us. This was the largest bird I ever saw, and no wonder, for it is the largest bird that flies. Soon after that, another arrived, and although we were more than a thousand miles from any shore, we were speedily scented out and surrounded by hosts of gonies, stinkards, haglets, gulls, pigeons, petrels, and other sea-birds, which commenced to feed on pieces of the whale's carcass with the most savage gluttony.
These birds were dreadfully greedy.
They had stuffed themselves so full in the course of a short time, that they flew heavily and with great difficulty. No doubt they would have to take three or four days to digest that meal! Complete Works of R.
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