As every instance of remonstrance, whilst failing in producing any improvement, regularly induced unpleasantness of feeling, my Father was at length provoked to put forth a challenge, to which his officers were able to offer no possible objection, except the indication, by look and gesture, that they would derive some recompense for the rebukes passed on them, by certain and signal failure. His adventurous challenge was, that, with the assistance of only one-third part of the available crew, he would go on a fish, and send it in, single-handed, in _half the time_ occupied by the four or six harponeers with the help of all hands! Opportunities for the experiment being at this time abundantly afforded, he forthwith prepared himself for this trial of skill. The available hands—that is, excluding cook, steward, surgeon, etc.—were usually about forty-five or forty-six in number. Out of these he took, not a picked set, but only two boats’ crews, with their supernumeraries, according to their existing classification, comprising about sixteen men. These he appointed to their several stations about the deck; eight to the capstan, four, perhaps, to the “crab” or “winch,” and the rest to manage the “tackle-falls,” to cut up the blubber and heave it into the “flens-gut,” or receptacle for it below. The two boys who were appointed, on the usual plan, to hold the boat in which he was to stand whilst flensing, were, perhaps, extra; but this I forget. Previous to the commencement of the experiment, the preparing of his cutting instruments, viz. a “blubber-spade” and “blubber-knife,” became matter of personal and special attention. The _spade_, (an instrument with the cutting part about eight inches broad, and used in the manner of the “hay-spade,”) was not merely ground to a fine edge and then sharpened with an oil-stone, but the sides (ordinarily left black with varnish, or encrusted with rust,) were reduced by the grindstone to a bright and smooth surface. His blubber-knife (an instrument with a three feet blade and three feet straight handle) was, in like manner, carefully ground, sharpened, and polished; so that these instruments, presenting the least possible resistance, from the adhesion of the metal to the blubber, when in use, the muscular strength of the flenser might, in no respect, be uselessly expended. All things being ready, and the men duly distributed, the time was noted, and my Father, single-handed, as I have said,—except as to a man to put in the straps[G] and attach the tackles, that he might not have occasion to wet or grease his hands,—proceeded to the trial on his apparently presumptuous challenge. The plan he had previously determined on, and which subsequently became very common in the flensing of small fish, was the following:—