After happily receiving whale meat from the crew of the Whaling Carrier 1, the residents of Baleen Whale Harbor went back to cook it and were immediately disappointed. The taste was just like that, and it wasn't even necessarily better than the mutton they used to eat, so it was just fresh, so they quickly lost interest in these white whale meats.

While the residents were cooking whale meat, a group of sailors were still steaming in a small space filled with strange smells in the processing workshop on the lower deck of the Whaling Ship "Hunter 1" moored in the docks. This time it's not blubber, it's whalebone. According to data issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, the weight of a whale's skeleton is about 10% of its body weight. Zhang Yun thinks that this figure is not reliable, according to their rough weighing, the whalebone of the sperm whale caught this time weighs about 10 tons, accounting for about 16% of the body weight.

Whalebone is also a good thing that should not be discarded at will! Sailors sawed the whalebone into small sections with a saw, and then put it into the steamer, which was also steamed at a high temperature by hot steam, which can also squeeze a lot of whale oil! The sailors were bored while passing the time while pouring in steam.

"Whale oil is very useful when it is pulled back." Boatswain Ricardo sat in the corner of the processing shop, chewing some shredded tobacco in his mouth and began to brag to everyone. In fact, he didn't know much about this, and a lot of things were just hearsay, but these sailors were even less knowledgeable, so it was really no pressure to brag to them.

"It can be used as lubricant, as a lamp, as an edible product, as a soap, and even as a cream. How, is it useful? Ricardo said with a smile. This time this sperm whale is so big. Either way, we're making a lot of money. Look. Whale oil, whale meat, whale bones, whale skin, whale tail fins, whale liver and other internal organs, well... It's a pity that there are no baleen and so many things can be used. Think of the Dutch, British, French, Norwegians, and Germans who used to hunt whales in the waters off Svalbard, killing a whale and removing the blubber at sea, leaving almost the rest in the sea. What a waste! ”

"Boss, we caught such a big-headed whale this time, how much reward will we be paid when we go back?" Some sailors asked the question that everyone was most concerned about.

"No less than three thousand five hundred dollars!" Without hesitation, Boatswain Ricardo gave a number, then thought for a moment and said, "Maybe even more." Because this sperm whale is so big. But the money will have to be divided among the 60 men on our ship, and the gunners will probably get less. There are 36 of us left to share the prize money, which may be more than three thousand dollars, rejoice, gentlemen! That's a huge fortune! ”

The dozen or so sailors present whistled loudly, and their faces beamed with joy, and anyone who heard that they were about to receive a large pile of silver and glittering coins would be delighted.

"I'm going to catch a fin whale next time!" Ricardo was a little excited, and he frothed at the mouth, and said, "I heard an official of the Ministry of Agriculture tell me when he was drunk, that many aristocratic ladies are interested in bras, skirts, or tights made of whale baleen, and that they are willing to pay a high price for them—ah, all for the beautiful ladies." It's as cute as a yellow gold coin. ”

"Hahaha." The sailors present burst into an even more enthusiastic laugh and looked like they were talking about the ladies. The men are always extra excited.

The crowd laughed and rested for a while, and then Sergeant Ricardo counted the time and felt that it was almost over. Then he beckoned the sailors to open the small pipe under the steamer, so that the whale oil from the steamer flowed into the barrel below. There is not a lot of whale oil squeezed from the whalebone, but the accumulation is definitely not a small amount, which shows the extent of the defeat of the European whalers.

After squeezing the whale oil, the bone residue should also be taken out, and after cooling, it is pounded into powder to make whalebone powder, which is the best phosphate fertilizer. In addition, whale bones also fix a part of the nitrogen during high-temperature cooking, so it is really a very good fertilizer, and the amount is quite large, accounting for about 6-7% of the whale's body weight. The sperm whale is estimated to weigh close to 60 tons, which gives it about four tons of fertilizer. Nowadays, the domestic agriculture is developing, the demand for all kinds of fertilizers is very high, and the phosphorus and nitrogen compound fertilizer made of whalebone powder is soluble in water and easy to absorb, which is very suitable for the growth of domestic crops, especially all kinds of fruit trees.

In addition to the whalebone, the whale liver, as well as some internal organs, must also be disposed of as soon as possible. Among them, whale liver is prepared to make cod liver oil, and some offal can also be made into cod liver oil, but others can only be cooked into food. The internal organs of whales are very rich in vitamin A and vitamin D, and the cod liver oil preparation can be used as a nutritional supplement or even medicine, and the value is very great for young children who need to supplement these vitamins. Some special parts of whale internal organs, such as thymus, pituitary gland, thyroid, etc., can be used for medicine, because more than 20 kinds of hormones can be extracted from them. However, now it seems that this is really too high-end for the East Coast people at this time, so they have no choice but to give up.

And in the kitchen next to the steamer, several chefs are also working on whaletail fins. Whale tail fin is a precious dish in later generations, the meat is delicious, and some local crossers are naturally good at this bite, and there are some instructions in this regard before departure. At this time, the chefs were working on the huge whale tail fin, which they cut into strips, and then stacked it with refined salt, ready to take it back to the mainland.

After these tail fins are brought back to the mainland, they are cut into thin strips according to the texture of the flesh, and then soaked in blanching water several times, and then cooled and then added with some spices to make a cold dish. Not only is it delicious, but it's also very nutritious, and if nothing else, it should become a famous dish in the country.

In this way, the use of whales by the people of the East Coast has really reached an outrageous level, and it is many times better than the European practice of extracting only blubber fat. It can be said that with the exception of those whale skins, almost everything that the people on the east coast can handle can be disposed of on the ship or in the harbor of baleen whales. The whale skin is not able to be processed for the time being due to the need for some chemical products such as soda ash, sulfuric acid and other substances, which makes the captain of the "Hunter No. 1" Zhang Yun slightly depressed.

However, the mayor of Baleen Whale Harbor, Matthias, has once again become Zhang Yun's savior. After listening to his complaints, Matthias said that since the island often tanned some cow and sheep skins, seal skins and so on, there were a lot of materials and many good people who were good at tanning animal skins, so they could try to tann whale skins.

Zhang Yun, who was overjoyed, immediately decided to let them give it a try, there is not much soda ash in Baleen Whale Harbor, but it can be used with lime water. In addition, there is a certain amount of sulfuric acid, alum and other essential goods stored in the island's warehouse, so the conditions for tanning whale skins are almost complete.

In fact, there is no mystery in tanning whaleskin. It is nothing more than several steps, one is soaking, that is, soaking the salt skin in water to restore it to the state of fresh skin. The water is generally 15 degrees Celsius, and the time of immersion depends on the time when the salt dries, generally about 12 hours, in short, to make it soft. Since the skin of this sperm whale caught by the East Coast has only been salted for a few days, and most of the skin has not had time to be salted and is still fresh, the process is very simple.

The second step is to put the whale skin into alkaline water (soda ash is added to the water) for saponification and degreasing reaction, that is, the oil reacts with alkali to produce soap, and at the same time, by the way, use a knife to scrape off the remaining fat, residual flesh and other substances on the surface of the inner layer of the skin. This is a technical work, and the people of the East Coast have also explored for a long time to stipulate the ratio of various chemical components required for degreasing. At this time, the amount of soda ash is not much, so it is not impossible to replace it with lime water, and it is a big deal to degreasing it a few times.

After the degreasing skin is washed, pressed with oil, scraped, and then soaked in a solution of sulfuric acid and salt. After soaking for 24 hours, it is then removed and put into the chromium solution (potassium dichromate taken out of the dye factory) for 48 hours, then taken out and smoothed, pressed with oil, and then washed with water. Of course, if there is no potassium dichromate, you can also replace it with items such as alum.

In short, it is a long process, and it is not a particularly technical job. In the 17th century, Europeans and Chinese knew how to tann animal skins, and the East Coasters simply provided some chemicals to make the finished product in the process higher quality and shorter time. The thickness of the tanned whale skin is about two or three millimeters, and it can be used to make clothes, shoes and even leather armor. Rain boots made of whale skin are highly waterproof and will not deform and break in the cold of winter, making them a high-quality leather. The skin of a whale can make one or two thousand pairs of rain boots, and even the skin of a big guy like a sperm whale can make two or three thousand pairs of shoes.

It's really full of treasures! Zhang Yun also sighed a little, this adult sperm whale weighing less than 60 tons is expected to eventually provide more than 2,000 pairs of high-grade rain boots, about 13 tons of whale oil, 4 tons of compound fertilizer (whalebone powder), more than 11 tons of spiced whale jerky, more than 200 kilograms of cod liver oil, a large number of waterproof raincoat water bladders (whale intestine production) and other utensils, delicious tail fin meat, handicrafts made of whale teeth, ambergris and other valuable spices. The value of these products Zhang Yun can't even be calculated, but he feels that tens of thousands of yuan or even hundreds of thousands of yuan are possible, which is really amazing! He really despised his fellow European whaling men now, who did not have the same excellent processing methods and knowledge as the East Coasters, who only extracted blubber and abandoned everything else in the sea. They didn't know what they had thrown into the sea, it was a terrible thing! (To be continued......)