Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

the water's edge the gunner shot it in the head, the killing shot usually striking
obliquely behind the eyes, but sometimes from the side, in front, or from directly
behind. Bulls were never shot through the palate, as the old books record, and
one bullet was usually sufficient. When the bull slumped down with a dying roar,
the eyes, by relaxation of the pupils, turned a brilliant emerald green as the
reflective tapetum was exposed.
The flensers would then immediately start cutting off the blubber. First, to
make sure that the animal was dead, a knife was thrust into the thorax, piercing
the heart, to encourage bleeding. A series of cuts was made in the skin. Thus, the
skin round the base of each fore flipper was freed with three strokes, so that the
flipper could later be pulled through inside the skin. Transverse cuts were next
made behind the eyes and in front of the tail and finally a median dorsal cut
connected the transverse cuts. Using the small hooks, the flensers stripped the
blubber off one side. Using their longer hooks, the haulers then pulled the foreflipper
on that side upwards through the hole made previously, and the whole
flipper, including the scapula, was cut off by one of the flensers and thrown away.
The fore-flipper thus severed was on the side towards which the carcass was to be
rolled. The haulers pulled the other fore-flipper inside the skin and, digging the
larger 3 ft long hooks firmly in, hauled the whole carcass over. At the same time
the flensers freed the blubber with deft sweeps of their knives, using the short
hook as an extension of their hand to grip the blubber. The gunner and beater
helped to haul the carcass over if it was exceptionally large, for a large seal might
weigh up to 4 tons. Alternatively, the flensers severed the backbone and each half
of the carcass was flensed separately, although the skin came off in one piece.
The whole process took on average three to four minutes. If several seals had
been killed, one or two skilled flensers went ahead, making the initial cuts and
freeing the blubber from the back and sides, while a third followed with the three
haulers and completed the flensing. In this case the most expert completed the
first part of the operation. The thickness of the blubber might vary between one
and six inches. While all this was going on, I had to obtain, opportunistically, the
scientific material I required for my research. In this way the blubber and skin (the
sole objective of the commercial operation), were removed in one piece, which
was roughly circular with two holes where the fore-flippers had been removed.
The haulers put a strop through one of these holes on each piece, and, if several
seals were killed close together, the pieces were dragged into the sea and the spekk
line was threaded through the loops in the strops. The pram came in as close as
possible and the spekk line was thrown to it and made fast. The pram was then
rowed out to the waiting motor-boat which towed the skins to the parent vessel
where they were hoisted aboard with the winch and stowed away.
If many seals were killed in a small area, a wire cable with a number of smaller
wires spliced into it, each about 6 ft. long and fitted with a 9 in. wooden toggle,
was brought ashore and the toggles were attached to the strops already fixed to
the blubber. A long rope line was taken aboard the pram, and one end was made
fast to the parent vessel. As the pram was rowed towards the shore the line was
paid out and, on reaching the shore, the end was made fast to the wire cable, and
the winch on the ship then hauled the load out to the vessel. Earlier, in the 1920s,
according to Harrison Matthews, this method was always used, the blubber being
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