| The operation started with the dead whales being towed by boat from the whale chasers to the station, and winched on to the slipway. As soon as possible they were winched on to the flensing deck generally known as the lower deck. Here, the whale was partly flensed, the head was cut off, blubber cut into big strips, and major body sections made. Any ambergris found in a whale was removed and sent to Scotland for refining.
Next, the large sections of whale were winched up onto the top (upper) deck where the lower jaws, containing the teeth, were cut off and put into a steam bath and the teeth were boiled out. These were exported for use by craftsmen who carved the teeth into artwork, known as scrimshaw.
All the bone, meat and blubber were cut down to size to fit into the doors of the cookers, or digesters. As each cooker was filled, the inside shell of perforated steel was sent into a revolving motion and under 27.2k (60lb) of steam pressure, for three and a half hours, the whole of the mixed contents in the cooker was rendered down to a huge stew causing all the oil to float to the surface. This oil was "tapped" off and "blown" into the Schiller tanks by the steam pressure in the cookers.
The remaining substance in the cookers comprised of "gluewater" and meat and bone, the bone having been pulverised down to almost the size of pepper under the steam pressure, cooking process. This substance was then "blown" out into Grax tanks ready to be pumped through the high-revving centrifuges, to separate the water from the meat. The water going to the gluewater tank at the end of the nest of centrifuges, and the meat going through the Hammer Mill machine to pulverise any small pieces of bone etc., before conveying the meat into the revolving whalemeal dryer.
The gluewater in the tank near the centrifuges was then pumped up to the gluewater tanks and gravity fed down into the gluewater separators where the last of the oil was separated to allow the gluewater to be pumped up to the evaporator. The meat passed through the meal dryer and then out through the huge Hammer Mill before passing through the mixing bins and out to the hopper ready for bagging. Whale meal was approximately 65% protein and was used extensively in the production of animal fodder as a mix to boost protein quality. (It was also a very good fertiliser for the garden but was not sold as this.)
Gluewater: After having separated all the oil through the separators it was pumped up to holding tanks near the Evaporator and put through into the Condensed Gluewater tanks where it was sprayed onto hot steam roller dryers. Here it immediately dried and sharp blades were used to scrape it from the roller surfaces, which came off looking like a “brown cloth" material, the thickness of potato chips. This was put through a hammer mill and elevated to the shed next door into a storage hopper then bagged off into polythene lined hessian bags. This was to keep it airtight to prevent air moisture from causing it to coagulate.
This "Whale Soluble" material was used the same as Whalemeal but being 80 - 90% protein less quantity was required in their feed mixes. If fed to animals too strongly of course, it could become toxic with such a high percentage of protein.
After the oil had been processed through the separators and "polished" to eradicate all impurities, it was then pumped out to the huge storage tanks ready for overseas shipment. Every part of the whale was utilised leaving no waste material whatsoever.
An average Sperm Whale of 43ft. yielded the following:
- Approximately 7112.32Kg (7 tons) of oil.
- 2906Kg (2.86 tons) of solubles
- 1686.6Kg (1.66 tons) of whale meal
- Around 1686.6Kg (14lb) of teeth
- An occasional whale yields ambergris.
Below is a collection of photos related to 'Processing a Whale';
**WARNING - SOME OF THESE PHOTOS MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN**
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Processing a Whale
