the ship.

A whale's body is covered with a great mass of fat called blubber.
When the dead whale was lying alongside the ship, the whalemen would
fasten a hook in the blubber. They then cut the blubber into a long
strip running round the whale. As they pulled on the hook with ropes,
the strip of blubber came off the whale, the whale rolling over and
over. The men unwound the blubber from his body in this way, pulling
it up on board the ship, and cutting it into pieces.

If it was a sperm whale, they would cut a hole in his head, to reach a
place where there was a great quantity of oil. This oil they dipped
out. Sometimes forty barrels of oil were dipped out of the head of a
whale. From the fat of some very large whales more than two hundred
barrels of oil could be secured.

The men on the whaling ships were gone from home for years at a time.
When there were no whales in sight, they had to find ways of amusing
themselves. Many of them carried sharp pocket knives, and passed their
time in whittling. By long practice they became very skillful with
their knives. Some of them carved pretty figures in wood, and made
pieces of furniture. Others carved shells into beautiful shapes. After
years at sea, they would bring these things home with them, to give to
their wives or sweethearts. Such work done on shipboard is called
scrimshaw work.

Some of the whaleships met with very curious accidents. In 1807 a ship
named "The Union" was sailing along very quietly. All at once she
struck something which jarred her from end to end. It was found that
she had run right on a whale. Casks of water were thrown out of the
ship to make her lighter, but the bottom of the ship was badly
injured. The men on board had to get out the boats at once. They took
food and water with them, and compasses to sail by. Soon after the
boats got clear of the ship she filled with water, and upset.

The men now found themselves in open boats in the ocean. The land
nearest to them was Newfoundland, but, as the wind was blowing
straight from that land at that season of the year, they knew that
they could not reach it. So they set out in the direction toward which
the wind blew, sailing for the islands called the Azores. These were
hundreds of miles away. They made a sail for each boat.

One day they saw a schooner, but they could not make the schooner see
them. The next day they had fine sailing, but at night a fearful wind
arose. There were violent squal