The international photographer (Jan-Dec 1931)

Ten The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER April, 1931 craft they slipped gracefully underneath and rose on the opposite side, blowing their stinking breath almost in his face. The other whaleboats meanwhile were after the rest of the family. Equipped to Kill Each whaleboat is completely equipped to capture and kill a whale. There are harpoons, long handled lances, tubs of carefully coiled rope, sharp knives and a heavy brass rifle which shoots a large dart into Mr. Whale's department of the interior. If he shows too much fight a bomb is used. This explodes after arriving at its destination. The coiled rope is placed astern and is passed over the tops of the oar handles so that it cannot entangle the feet of the crew and pull them overboard during a battle. Then it is passed through a pulley or an eyelet at the bow of the boat and then fastened to the harpoon. One man it detailed to bail water on this coil of rope after a whale is hit because the rope passes through the eyelet so fast that if the rope is not thoroughly wet the boat would catch fire from friction. The harpooner is stationed in the bow. He carries a razor-sharp knife as well as several harpoons. This is used when a whale insists on taking the whaleboat on a "Nantucket sleighride," which is whaler's lingo for a ride clear out of sight of the main ship, the whale supplying free power. If he succeeds in getting the boat into deep water his trick is to "sound" or dive, thus pulling boat and crew under with him. It is at this stage of the fight that the harpooner cuts the line and the whale is allowed to go free rather than take the risk of swamping the boat with possible casualties. After considerable maneuvering, we finally struck a male and towed him to our main ship, where the work of "cutting in" is done, and the process of "trying out" or getting the oil is handled. If this is not done soon after the death of the whale, the oil quickly spoils and is worthless. Whale Head Oil A whale gives an unbelievable amount of oil from the blubber, which is ripped from the body in large blankets of about a foot in thickness. A large hole is cut in the top of the head and a bucket is lowered inside and a higher grade of oil is found in a sort of well, enough to fill several barrels. This is watch oil and is quite similar to the oil we now use in our cameras. Then there is some wax, and the teeth are ivory. In rare cases ambergris is found in the intestines of a sick whale. This is used in expensive perfumes and is worth many dollars an ounce. The odors of the processing, especially in the tropics, is almost unbearable. New Bedford, as it is today, with its many prosperous cloth mills, has been built up by the money it earned with its old whaling industry. The usual procedure after sighting a whale is to lower the small whaleboats and sail after the whale until within a mile of him. Then the sails are lowered so that he won't catch sight of you. From now on you row or paddle, making as little noise as possible, and approaching him from behind. When within ten feet of him the harpooner throws his iron into him and then the fun begins. The whale dives and whips around you in circles. Then he comes up again and repeats. In fact he does almost everything he can to scare you or sink your ship. Sometimes he comes close enough for the harpooner to lance his heart and bleed him to death. The waters become red with blood. Or his lungs are punctured and he spouts blood at every breath. After a while he expires and is towed alongside. The sharks now begin to hover around. They have scented the blood. I missed one dandy shot for the need of an Akeley camera. A large shark had spotted the fin of the whale, and it looked good to him. He circled our ship a few times and then mustered sufficient courage to seize the fin, which was now projecting above the surface of the water. Shark and Whale It was tough stuff. Vainly the shark struggled on, lashing the water into a fury with his tail. One of the crew, who was standing on the "cuting in" stage board, heard the commotion behind him and turned inquisitively. Seeing at a glance what was going on, he grasped his "cutting-in" spade, a sort of flattened out hoe with a ten-foot handle, and drove it into the shark with all his might. The shark, with a mighty jerk, wrested the spade from the man's grasp and swam off with it sticking in his back. I watched him for two full minutes until he was completely out of my sight, the harpoon still remaining upright above the surface of the water, traveling along like the periscope of a mighty submarine. And to think that I missed that one because my camera wouldn't "pan" fast enough for me. That night when Captain Tilton saw what his men had brought in he laughed them to scorn. It was "only a baby" he guffawed. Thirty-four feet long and "only a baby." I'd hate to meet the folks. But New Bedford must never hear of this or we would be "raspberried" for life. So we had to stay down until we had caught a few more. Finally we hooked a sixty-seven footer, weighing nearly a hundred tons. Some bacon to bring home. But we finally did, as was proved by the miraculous whaling scenes shown in our production, "Down to the Sea in Ships," which caused a sensation everywhere it was shown, a tribute to the courage and art of the cinematographer. Chronic mal de mer had reduced me to a mere shadow of my former self. I swore by all that I held holy that I had made my last whaling trip. Then Roy Klaffki sent me to meet Irvin Willat, who had heard that I had been on a whaling picture. Mr. Willat, too, was making a whaling epic, entitled "All the Brothers Were Valiant." So after we caught the whale for Willat we punctured its lungs and filled them with compressed air and floated it into port. And again I swore I would never again go whaling. But you know I would, don't you, "for art's sake"? Ain't that just like a cameraman? P. S— "All the Brothers Were Valiant." How the Juicers Describe the Tools They Use When Talking Among Themselves Light is their stock-in-trade; they furnish it in any quantity and quality desired. They are the electricians who supply the illumination without which no interior motion picture scene could be taken. Their position on a film set is comparable to that of the construction crew which takes the blueprints of the architects and creates realistic backgrounds from drawings and lines. For the electrician, with light as his material, builds a background of effects from the instructions of the cameraman. To stroll on to a Paramount stage and listen to S. H. Burton, chief electrician, and Jim Tait, his assistant, talk about lighting the set, one would be bewildered by the expressions used. To begin with, Barton is known as the "gaffer" and Tait the "best boy." Their crew are "juicers" and they deal in "juice." They call for light with the term "hit 'em" and extinguish the same with "save 'em." When they finish a set, it is "wrap 'em up," meaning to remove all "iron" (equipment). They speak of "inkies" (incandescent lights), "coopies" (Cooper-Hewitts or hard lights), "broads" (boxlike lights), "G. E.'s" (incandescent light bulbs), "scoops" (hanging broad lamps), "silks" (coverings to soften lights), "spiders" (electrical oscillations), "kliegs" (carbon arc lamps), "sun arcs" (huge carbon lamps), "gobos" (small shield to cut off part of the light), and "18's," "24's" and other similar terms to designate lamps of certain diameters. When a set is "hot" it has an abundance of light. Ail-American Salon to Be Opened June 15 at Museum AN All American Photographic Salon is announced for June 15-30, to be held in the Print Rooms of the Los Angeles Museum. New prints which have never been exhibited in Los Angeles or reproduced before January, 1930, are preferred and no hand-colored prints will be accepted. Mounts of light color, size not more than 20 inches either way, are specified for better harmony of the exhibition. An entry fee of $1 will be charged. Everyone is invited to submit prints. Requests for entry forms and complete information should be directed to the All-American Salon Committee, Los Angeles Museum, Exposition Park, Los Angeles.