Mystery: Mr. Witch and Miss Hunter

Chapter 164 Processing of Whales
"It's okay, didn't you already tell us about this possibility in advance?"

Adele nodded slightly, "Besides, with this whale, your research can have a lot of material."

Wendy sighed depressingly. "I'm a marine biologist, not a chemist. One or two cetacean anatomical materials a year are enough, and there are so many used there..."

"To be honest, what I want to study is their population changes and living habits, rather than the edible value of meat quality and fat content."

Wendy waved her hand, showing a look of unbearable expression: "Next, you'd better not go to the deck anymore, because until we reach the small island with an open-pit coal mine, the sailors will concentrate on the deck to deal with that A whale. To be honest, I didn't like that scene, so I'm going to hide here for a while before they ask me to help too."

At sea, among seafarers, there is little difference in the division of labor between men and women.Even scholars and researchers like Wendy have to join in the daily heavy labor when necessary.So Wendy usually fishes in the engine room or other places, to prevent someone from seeing her idle and pulling her to clean the toilet or clean the deck.

"Sister Wendy, can you tell me how they deal with the whales? Mom won't let me go to the deck to watch..."

Sophie, who was a little depressed because she couldn't see the follow-up scene, immediately ran up to Wendy happily when she heard Wendy's words, tugged at the corner of her skirt, and looked at her pitifully.

Wendy lowered her head, and seeing Sophie's bright red eyes, she felt a chill in her heart, but she didn't dare to show it, so she forced a dry laugh and nodded.

"Let me think about it... I haven't handled similar animals for a long time, and my job is not this, maybe I don't remember clearly..."

She scratched her head, and slowly described according to the scene in her memory:
"Whenever a whaler captures a whale, whether or not they have installed a blast furnace for extracting whale oil, they must dispose of the whale as soon as possible, because the blood from the wound on the whale will quickly kill the shark and the like. would attract predators, and then they would have a lot less to gain."

"There are many ways to deal with whale oil. There are two sets of oil cutting and recovery pulleys designed by me on the 'Little War Horse'-the equipment for handling whale oil has a set of heavy main pulleys, and it is difficult to lift them up by human strength. To get up, you can only rely on the block and block-this equipment is hung on the mainmast, and is fixed like a bunch of grapes to the lower mast, the strongest on the deck."

"When dealing with whales, we put one end of the rope on the winch and fixed it, and then turned the huge pulley of the double tackle over the whale. The sailors would climb down the hanging ladder next to the boat and use the long-handled whaling shovel on the top of the whale. The whale makes a large hole near the top of the fins, and cuts a wide semicircular line around it—"

It seems to be talking about her own professional field. Although she doesn't like the process of processing whales, Wendy still looks elated when she tells how these machines work.

"Sister Wendy, what are those wide lines and holes for?"

Sophie asked cooperatively.Although she was talented and quick to learn, after all, Wendy was talking about things she had never seen before, so it was difficult to understand right away.

"Good question!"

Wendy patted Sophie's head approvingly, as if she had forgotten what happened last night.

"Under the pulley block we mentioned just now, there is a large hook that is heavier than ten of you. Since the whale's fat is wrapped around the whale's body like orange petals, we need to use the rotating method to peel off the orange peel. The sailors would insert the hook into the hole they had just cut, and then use the winch to apply a twisting force to the whale, which would pull the whale's blubber out of the hole."

"Afterwards, when the piece of blubber is no longer wobbling, a dedicated sailor will go forward with a heavy cutting tool, make a big hole under the piece of blubber, and put another set of blubber pulleys for skinning. The hook goes in the hole. Then he'll cut the piece of blubber with a longaxe or something."

"One piece of severed blubber is sent by the second set of tackle to the unadorned 'blubber room', and the other piece is transferred by the sailor from the skinning tackle to the second set of tackle in a similar manner, and the two sets of tackle work alternately. .Meanwhile, the sailors in the blubber room will roll these things together deftly, rolling the blubber into long strips like a carpet."

Wendy took a breath, and took a sip from her water glass at the bedside. "The next step is to extract whale blubber. Not only does it smell bad, but it's also extremely hot. Many sailors even burn boilers in their underwear. I will never go there, so I don't know the specific process."

(Actually, it’s not in the documentaries I watched, it belongs to the blind spot of knowledge)

"As for the use of whale oil, maybe it's because I have been in contact with too much, but I don't know where to start... However, according to the usual practice, since the whale is caught today, there must be no shortage of whale oil products on the table. .At least, I recommend you to try whale oil residue and whale oil fried dry bread. These should be more acceptable than whale steak, which has a strong fishy smell."

After talking about this, Wendy found that Sophie looked at her adoringly, her ruby-like eyes filled with envy.

"Sister Wendy, you can tell stories, much better than Sister Venata. She can only tell stories that sound unpleasant. In the end, the protagonists all died, so pitiful..."

Adele noticed that the corners of Venata's mouth, who was reading a book, twitched slightly.

"What stories did you tell her when you were in Backlund?"

Adele leaned close to Venata's ear and whispered.

"Don't listen to her nonsense. I have good taste in choosing stories. They are all classic tragedies praised by the literary world of Fusac, Ruen and other countries, such as "His Name" by drama master Roykin... "

Venata protested dissatisfied.

"Reading tragedies to children..." Adele rubbed her temples, where there was a pain that had not been there for a long time.

I was wrong, I shouldn't have high expectations for a "provocateur"'s ability to raise children just because of superficial appearances...

"Although you have obtained a bachelor's degree in sociology and a teacher's license from Fusac University, you have obviously failed in how to get along with children..."

Adele sighed helplessly.

The hustle and bustle on the deck is still going on, and there is still a day's voyage away from the temporary stop, the open-pit mine.

(End of this chapter)