Whale Factory

Botanical Garden Capelinhos volcano Horta Scrimshaw Visiting Yachts Whale Factory

Whale Factory

 

model of the sperm whale from which oil was extracted

 

the factory

 

 

The uses of whales have varied since whaling began. In the beginning whales were hunted largely for food. From the 1100s, in addition to meat, whale oil was used for lighting and in the manufacture of wool, leather, and soap. The oil was obtained by cooking, or rendering, whale blubber, the fatty layer below the skin. The skeleton was used for building and decoration. By the 1600s the primary whale products were oil and whalebone. Whalebone was not bone but baleen plates derived from whales belonging to the suborder Mysticeti, or baleen whales, the type of whale that was primarily hunted at that time. Baleen’s flexibility made it useful in a variety of commercial products, including umbrella spokes, bustles, bodices, collars, ruffs, and hoop skirts. But once the manufacture of steel stays for corsets and other products came into fashion, the baleen industry declined.

 


In the 1700s large-scale hunting of sperm whales began. Sperm whale oil was considered of a higher quality than oil obtained from baleen whales and was of particular importance as a lubricant until the 1970s. In addition, spermaceti, a thick liquid from the head of sperm whales, was used to make high quality, smokeless and odorless candles. Ambergris, a substance formed only in the intestines of sperm whales, was extremely valuable and was used in the production of perfumes. The general use of whale oil for lighting began to decline in the mid-1800s after a new method became available that distilled kerosene from petroleum.

 

slope where whale was drug in from the water

The whaling industry experienced a revival at the turn of the 20th century when the process of hydrogenation made it possible to process whale oil into soap and margarine. Whales were used to make these products as well as lubricants, cosmetics, and animal feeds.

Text from Microsoft Encarta

 

the cable which was used to bring the whale up the slope

 

describes the process

 

stripped blubber passed into the upper story

 

and into the boilers

 

the furnace

 

 

 

after heating the oil was separated and stored in tanks

 

enlarged factory to process whale meat

 

whale meat was placed in the hopper and fed to

 

the grinder

 

 

and dried before used as animal feed

 

 

commercial fish of the Azores

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