We were now near the whale and, just as a boat was lowered, Kreelman said to me, “That poor fellow is about gone, and it’ll be an easy job to kill him. See the shape of him; he ain’t so long as a sperm, but he’s bigger round and plumper, has thicker and richer blubber and makes more oil, even if it don’t bring so much. But let me tell you this, Fancy Chest, them killers don’t fool much with sperm whales. A sailor told me once of a sight he see. He said two killers and a swordfish tackled a big bull sperm. The killers come on in front and went for the bull’s jaw, and the swordfish come up from below to go for the bull with his sword. He said the bull grabbed one of them killers and made mince meat of him and the other left. One prick of the sword was all the whale needed. He rushed ahead a little and then brought them flukes of his down with tremendous force, and there wasn’t no part of the swordfish left. Better let a sperm whale alone.” When the boat reached the bowhead, he was nearly dead, and it was an easy matter to despatch him and tow him to the ship. The cutting-in and trying-out were nearly the same as in the case of the sperm whale. The only difference was in handling the head. The great strips of bone were cut out, hoisted on deck, carefully cleaned and stowed away. When the carcass was set adrift, there were no ravenous sharks or noisy birds to be seen; and I thought how much more fitting it would have been, if the great creature had met death in a battle with man rather than fall an ignoble prey to the assaults of what are called the “wolves of the sea.” Epicures prefer fish just out of the water. I wonder what they would say of meat just out of the water. There is nothing to show that the meat of sperm whales was ever served to the men, but that of the bowhead was a common article of food. Of this I was ignorant until Kreelman told me and he added, “We’ll have somethin’ for supper that’ll make your mouth water. Generally the cabin gets the best, the steerage next and the forecastle the scrapings. But the poor old bowhead has so much meat that all will be treated alike.” I had a chat with my old friend, the cook. He told me that the best cuts come from alongside the backbone or the afterpart of the whale, that the flesh looks more like beef liver smeared with blood than any other kind of meat, and that the usual method of cooking the flesh is in meat balls, although stews and steaks are very good. The cook went to the place where the chunks were suspended under the boathouse and came back with one. “Now watch me, Fancy Chest,” he said.