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Oil from a whale

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But plenty of sperm whales lost the battle, and very cruelly too. The harpoons didn’t usually kill the whale, that was the job of the lance, That had to be thrown accurately and twisted. Descriptions mention the bloody sea all around the dying whale.

Then the whale was towed back to the ship to be cut into pieces. The blubber, which was not soft fat as we imagine but hard, was cut into large pieces called blankets. Then these were cut into squares about one foot by one foot and then minced. These small pieces were boiled in try pots, or kettles, upon the brick stove which looked sort of like a fire pit, called the try works. The oil was boiled out of this and then the remains were thrown into the fire. Descriptions mention the black greasy cloud of smoke that hung over the whale ships for days.

The sperm whales were prized because their heads contained a chamber, called the case, which contained many barrels of oil. The case was cut open and the oil drained.

. The size of the whale did not determine how many barrels of oil were acquired from the whale and the number of barrels was the final determination of a successful trip. One account  described the taking of a smallish whale that still produced 91 barrels of oil.

Whale bone, which was actually taken from the teeth, was also much in demand in this day when women wore corsets. At one time, whale bone was valued at $6.00 per pound, a large sum at that time.

And sometimes whalers found ambergris. It is thought that ambergris was a secretion that formed around a scar or other injury. It t was very valuable as a fixer for perfumes. In those days, the perfume was usually attar of roses. Ambergris is still used sometimes for very expensive perfumes but for most  the scent is fixed with something synthetic.A good thing in my opinion.

The whale industry began dying a rapid death after oil was discovered in Pennsylvania in the mid 1800’s, at least in the U.S. Other countries take whales to this day. What a shame! IMHO these magnificent animals should be left alone.

 

 

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Although no one has actually asked me where I get my ideas, I have gotten plenty of other questions along those lines. The thing is, because writing is so individual, and so unconscious, it is pretty hard to answer any of these questions at all satisfactorily.

The ideas just pop into my head. I don’t know it it’s because of something I’ve read or what. Sometimes, the idea is fully formed. Other times, I need to massage it into something workable.

Then, because I don’t outline, I write scene by scene. Does this mean I have to go back and rework until I’m heartily sick of the entire work? Yes. But, by not outlining, I allow my characters to find their own space. Sometimes, as with Lydia, they become something different than I had intended. They take over, in effect.

Other times, the characters only become fully formed after I’ve rewritten them three or four times.

Although I think the writer who said, and I’m paraphrasing, that writing is easy; you just sit down and open a vein, was definitely overstating the case, it is true that it can be a much more difficult job than anyone would believe. I must have reread A Simple Murder at least 25 times – and that’s after I thought I’d finished it.

One definitely has to be addicted to writing to be able to continue it, especially in the face of rejection.!

Sperm whales and more

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Will Rees #4 will take place in Salem, Ma. The merchant captains from Salem opened up American trade with the Orient which, at that time, included India as well as China.
New Bedford and Nantucket are more well known as whaling centers but Salem also had an active whaling industry. The right whales were the first to be taken. Since they kept close to shore, the Indians paddled out in canoes. When the settlers began whaling, they sailed out in shallops, small schooners. The right whales were soon decimated,
Whaling ships then went either to the Arctic, for the Bowhead whale, or to southern waters for the Sperm whale. Of course, as the whaling industry went on, the herds of these whales were exhausted as well, and soon whaling ships were sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to the Pacific.
Although the sperm whales were fighters, plenty of them lost the battle, and very cruelly too. The harpoons didn’t usually kill the whale, that was the job of the lance. That had to be thrown accurately and twisted. Descriptions mention the bloody sea all around the dying whale.
Then the whale was towed back to the ship to be cut into pieces. The blubber, which was not soft fat as we imagine but hard, was cut into large pieces called blankets. Then these were cut into squares about one foot by one foot and then minced. These small pieces were boiled in try pots, or kettles, upon the brick stove which looked sort of like a fire pit, called the try works. The oil was boiled out of this and then the remains were thrown into the fire. Descriptions mention the black greasy cloud of smoke that hung over the whale ships for days.
The sperm whales were prized because their heads contained a chamber, called the case, which contained many barrels of oil. The case was cut open and the oil drained.
. The size of the whale did not determine how many barrels of oil were acquired from the whale and the number of barrels was the final determination of a successful trip. One account described the taking of a smallish whale that still produced 91 barrels of oil.
Whale bone, which was actually taken from the teeth, was also much in demand in this day when women wore corsets. At one time, whale bone was valued at $6.00 per pound, a large sum at that time.
And sometimes whalers found ambergris. It is thought that ambergris was a secretion that formed around a scar or other injury. It t was very valuable as a fixer for perfumes. In those days, the perfume was usually attar of roses. Ambergris is still used sometimes for very expensive perfumes but for most the scent is fixed with something synthetic. A good thing in my opinion.
The whale industry began dying a rapid death after oil was discovered in Pennsylvania in the mid 1800’s, at least in the U.S. Other countries take whales to this day. What a shame! IMHO these magnificent animals should be left alone.

The Next Big Thing: A Blog Hop

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bloghopbutton (1) What is the working title of your next book? “DEATH OF A DYER” is the final title of the second book.

Where did the idea come from for the book? I had a lot of loose ends to tie up after my first book. Since I am interested in textiles, I thought it would be fun to use dyes and dyeing as a piece of the background. *

What genre does your book fall under? Historical Murder Mystery *

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? Wow, this is tough. I think David Wenham (Faramir in The Lord of the Rings) and Scarlett Johansson.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? Rees returns to his home town, which he fled several years previously, and investigates the death of a childhood friend.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? Minotaur will be publishing this one too.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? The first draft took me about 6 – 9 months but the revisions took several months more.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? I love historical mysteries and I aspire to write as well as Barbara Hambly and Anne Perry.

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Whalemen and whales

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Conditions were rough. If the whalers were hunting in the Arctic, it was cold. But it was worse if the ship was in southern waters. The boiling down of whale blubber went on for days so a fire was burning in the brick fireplace on the deck. The combination of the warm seas and the fire meant that the temperature on board could be over 100 degrees F. Most of the crew slept below decks; it must have been unbearable. If the journey was a long one, the food began to spoil.

Whaling was not for the faint of heart, even before engaging a whale.

Six men set off in a small boat. If they succeeded in harpooning a whale, they could be dragged a good distance. One smack by the whale’s tale could shatter a small boat and many whale men were killed.

But plenty of sperm whales lost the battle, and very cruelly too. The harpoons didn’t usually kill the whale, that was the job of the lance, That had to be thrown accurately and twisted. Descriptions mention the bloody sea all around the dying whale.

Then the whale was towed back to the ship to be cut into pieces.

whalemen

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Most jobs  before the twentieth century were difficult and dangerous. Serving on a whaler was no exception.

Voyages were frequently months, and sometimes years, in length. Once the Right whales and Bowhead whales were diminished, whalers went after the Sperm whale. A creature of the warm waters, hunting the Sperm whale meant longer voyages/ And the Sperm whale was a fighter. He had teeth and a powerful tail.

Crew slept in tight bunks, three high. Mattresses were first invented for the whalers that went after the Bowhead whales; it was too cold for the sailors to sleep without them. Because they were stuffed with straw, the common term for them was ‘Donkey’s Breakfast.’

Even when there were no whales, the work of maintaining the ship was hard. But when whales were spotted, the job immediately became extremely dangerous. Men were killed every trip.

The whale boats were lowered, six men each, and pursued the whale. The harpoon was fired into the whale by hand, which meant that the boat had to be fairly close. Then rope was played out as the whale took off in what became known as the Nantucket Sleigh Ride.

Sometimes the whale escaped. When it didn’t, and was killed, it had to be brought back to the ship. Sometimes the whale boat was so far away, it and the whale were not found.The whale ship usually tried to follow the smaller boat.

Then the work of extracting the oil from the whale began. More to follow.

Shakers and Christmas

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Unlike the Puritans, the Shakers enjoyed the Christmas holiday and celebrated it. This shouldn’t be a surprise. Many fundamentalist groups shun dancing and the Shakers used dancing and singing in their services. When they first began, these forms of worship horrified their neighbors almost as much as their celibacy and pacifism.
But back to the holiday.
Although the Shakers practiced celibacy, they were not monks and men and women were not cloistered from one another. They lived communally, although separated, and met regularly in ‘union meetings’. In these sessions, they sat opposite one another, far enough apart so their knees did not touch, and chatted.
According to several Eldress accounts, during the winters, the Shakers also went sleigh riding and enjoyed other fun pursuits. By 1920, most houses had adopted the Christmas tree and the Shaker communities had as well. They utilized natural ornaments: popcorn strings, nuts, pine cones and so forth.
They also apparently enjoyed what we now call Secret Santa. Everyone selected a name from a bowl, which remained secret, and gave that person a gift.
Food and clothing were offered to the poor at this Season. Again, one of the accounts I read says that everyone was supposed to give something they loved since it was not a true gift if they gave something they no longer used.
I used some of this in my third Will Rees mystery, which is so far called “Cradle to Grave”.

“Thar she Blows”

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In doing research for my fourth Will Rees mystery, I studied the whaling industry of the 1790’s. And I have to say, with all the problems associated with the oil we extract from the ground, taking the whales for their oil is a far less defensible practice.

What a dangerous and bloody job.

Although the Native Americans and early colonists whaled from shore, the right whales that were easily caught in canoes and with simple harpoons were rapidly depleted. But in the early 1700s, a new kind of whale was discovered: the sperm whale. Unlike the peaceable right whale, the sperm whale was a 55 ft hard fighting whale with teeth. But its head was filled with a pure oil called spermaceti that, when exposed to the air and hardened, was prized for candles. Sperm whales were also much faster. The harpoons were fastened to long ropes and the whale, when it ran, pulled the boat after it. In New England, this was called the Nantucket Sleigh Ride.

Sometimes the whale pulled the boat so far away from the mother ship, they could not find it again. Sometimes the whale, in pain, used it’s tail to flip and smash the boat and the sailors were killed.

Even whale hunting in the Atlantic might take several months. The ships were small and most of the crew slept in narrow bunks stacked in threes. If the trip was long enough, the food spoiled and even the water went bad. There were long periods of inactivity in which the crew carved whale bone – scrimshaw or made elaborate rope forms.

But these trips were, of course, much worse for any whale spotted and pursued.

Santa Claus

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Santa Claus has a far lengthier history than we realize. Saint Nicholas was Nicholas of Patara, a Bishop of Myra, during the Fourth Century. His Feast Day is celebrated on Dec 6, the day of his death. This Saint Nicholas appears in paintings from the 1400s on.

Another strand in the creation of the modern Santa, which explains how he became the patron saint of children, rests on a story about an innkeeper who murdered three boys, dismembered them, and put them in a vat to pickle. Saint Nicholas found them, reunited the pieces and restored them to life.

A pagan Father Christmas was a folk figure in Europe, but a much less sweet and ‘jolly old elf’ than the Santa we know.

Dutch settlers brought our Santa Claus to New York in the seventeenth century. By then, many of the familiar parts of the legend had already been established. Good children received gifts, bad children did not and he was already in red robes and white beard.

No discussion of Santa Claus would be complete with  mentions of Clement C. Moore, the author of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and Thomas Nast. Until the nineteenth century, St. Nick had traveled by horse, donkey, or in a chariot pulled by horses that flew through the sky.  The reindeer were certainly an American invention but by whom no one is sure. Moore’s St. Nick was an elfish figure. Nast, a political cartoonist, began a series of Christmas cartoons in which the appearance of St. Nick became the Santa we know today.

Christmas Customs – Early Days

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Early Days

I’d intended to write this post before and during the holidays but was far too busy. So even if this is a little dated, I will do it now. Bear with me, eventually I will reach Christmas customs for the Shakers.

From its early days, Christianity celebrated the Nativity. The giving of presents, the decoration of the houses with evergreens, the suspension of enmity and the proclamation of peace were all features of the festival from the beginning.

Some of the early customs aren’t so familiar to us now. The Lord of Misrule? The switching of masters and servants ? Likewise, some of our most treasured rituals were not invented yet. The Tree, for example, although known in England before Queen Victoria married Prince Albert, did not achieve its popularity until the Queen adopted it. Like so many British customs, this one crossed the Atlantic.