This account of the
outboard flensing of a whale is taken from:
Villiers, A. J. "Whaling in
the Frozen South" 1925 - An account written by a
journalist of the very first factory ship expedition to
Antarctica by the Sir James Clark Ross in the 1923/24
season.
"But it is a dreadful
job - a bitterly cold, greasy, trying job, calling for
an iron constitution and superhuman qualities of endurance
and patience. Only tried and long experienced whalers can be
flensers. The bodies of the whales heave and bob and jump in
the swell so that it is very difficult for the inexperienced
to even stand on them, without trying to wield skilfully
and with great speed the long keen flensing knives. Big
floes of old pack ice and broken pieces of Barrier ice drift
around and bump into boats and whales. The icy water, so
close, laps the bodies and coats them with ice. The freezing
wind bites through the flensers' heavy clothes and
chills them to the bone.
Their hands are bare. They can not
even wear fingerless mitts, for they must have sure and
steady hold of the greasy knives - one false sweep, one wild
cut, might spell destruction for themselves or their mates.
Frequently they must cease work for a moment, plunge the
knife into the hot flesh, bathe their hands in the warm
blood to bring life back to them, and hit their hands
smartly on their shoulders. Often they swing their arms
across their bodies, Norwegian fashion, to keep their
circulation going.
Sawdust they find of great use in
enabling them to hold onto the blubbery wooden handles.
Despite all attempts to keep their circulation active frost
bites are of frequent occurrence. Fingers are frozen white
many times a day. When the flensers are down at their work
their clothes and faces are encased in ice so that they must
thaw themselves out when the come on deck."
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