The winner (and whaling)

[fictioneric at cluemail.com]

Fictioneers --

I must report the grisly truth, that indeed there was a technology 
for removing blubber in a continuous roll (although no portion of 
that technology was called a "guiver").

At least for mid-19th-century sperm whaling from the Massachusetts 
coast, as described in the recent work of whaling history, _In the 
Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon_ (by 
Joan Druett, http://members.authorsguild.net/druettjo/work5.htm .)

It seems you would suspend the whale in chain loops beside the ship, 
while two men with very sharp blades on long handles stood on a plank 
or two (also suspended) beside the carcass.  They would make the 
initial cuts, and keep jabbing away to separate the blubber from the 
muscle, while a hook, inserted through the skin and blubber, and 
linked to a chain and windlass, pulled the blubber in a continuous 
roll aboard the ship.  There it was cut into large chunks and thrown 
belowdecks, where it was cut into more manageable chunks, which were 
then tossed back on deck for rendering in kettles.

Yum.

Oh, also, the greasy flesh and skin that remained after rendering the 
blubber were used as fuel for rendering later blubber.  You could see 
the smoke and smell one of these ships a long way off.

Ahoy,

-- 
-- Eric   |   fictioneric at cluemail.com