The
blubber that was stripped from a whale was used for the fat it
contained. To obtain this fat it needed to be boiled to break
down the tissue and fat cells. After flensing, the blubber is cut up into
smaller and smaller pieces, in the first picture a piece is about
to be passed below decks through a hole to make the whole process
more efficient. The men who do this job are called the
"blubber boys".
First of all the blubber will be further sliced
by rotating knives and then it will pass into the cookers
directly. This kind of direct processing made the factory ship
with its continual processing much efficient than the old style
whaling ships with their batch processing which was also far more
dependent on manipulation of the blubber by the whalers.
Also seen in the first picture is a whalers
"blubber hook" almost as useful as a third hand.
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