Cutting in was always done on the starboard side of the ship, and if possible, to windward, so that wind pressure on the sails tended to lift the side of the vessel and sustain the great weight of blubber coming aboard. The sketch shows the cutting stage rigged out, the huge tackle made fast to the jaw, and the mates on the stage disjointing it with their spades. The jaw had no commercial value whatever. When a particularly large one was taken, stripped, and dried, it made a picturesque gateway for the captain’s garden at home, and the great teeth were used by the crew for their “scrimshaw” work. [Illustration] _THE JUNK_ The jaw having been removed, the junk was then taken off and brought on deck to be cut up and tried out. The junk was very rich in spermaceti--used by the manufacturers of cosmetics and spermaceti candles. While the whale lay alongside, the neighbouring waters were infested with a multitude of voracious sharks, which, if the cutting in were not done without delay tore the blubber to shreds. During cutting in the men on the stage made periodical onslaughts on these robbers with their spades, taking a characteristically seamanlike satisfaction in seeing the wounded sharks instantly set upon and devoured by their fellows. [Illustration] _CUTTING IN_ The captain with the first and second mate, usually was on the stage, taking an active part in cutting in. The windlass crew were forward, heaving on the tackle which was suspended from the cap of the lower mainmast. As they hove the blanket rose higher and higher, the cutters plied their spades, and the whale rolled over and over. [Illustration] _THE BLANKET PIECE COMING ABOARD_ When the tackle was “block and block,” the third mate or one of the boatsteerers, with his “boarding knife,” made a hole for the second tackle. A heavy blubber hook, or the eye in the long strop of the block in the foreground was pushed through and secured on the outside by a heavy wooden pin or toggle. The second tackle was hove taut to take up the weight and the upper piece sliced off. [Illustration] _LOWERING INTO THE HOLD_ As each piece was cut off, it was lowered down the main hatch into the blubber room and there cut into “horse pieces,” three or four feet long and six or eight inches wide. [Illustration] _MINCING_ The horse pieces were tossed back on deck, where they were placed on a long plank set on tubs and “minced” into “books” or “bible pieces” with large two-handled knives. The term “books” arose from the fact that the blubber was not cut quite through, and a minced piece bore a rough resemblance to the leaves of a book. [Illustration] _TRYING OUT_ Day and night the try works were kept going, until all the blubber had been rendered. Dense black smoke by day, and illuminated sails and rigging at night disclosed to passing ships the proximity of a whaler. Merchant sailors claimed they could smell a “spouter” over the horizon.