Text Leveling System

Whaling Days

RDQ:	1650	Max Word/Sent	36	Total Words	1915		Diff Words	715
Lex	850	Ave Word/.Sent	12	Hi Freq occurs	1171	61.1%	Hi freq	229	32%
AR	4.5	Long Sentences	12.1	Low Freq occurs	170	8.9%	Low freq	126	17.6%

Since ancient times people have stood in awe of the whale the largest
creature that ever lived. They have also made use of the whale to help
provide them with the necessities of life.]]
Whales found stranded on the beach were used for food. Sometimes the
smaller species were hunted from boats. Shouting and making a great deal of
noise people drove the whales into shallow water where they could stab them
with many spears or arrows.
By the twelfth century Basque fishermen were selling whale meat in Europe.
But it wasn't until the seventeenth century when whale oil was in great
demand in Europe that whaling became an industry. At that time the Dutch
and the English began competing for whales in the northern seas.]]
Whales have a thick layer of fat under their skin called blubber that keeps 
them warm. Dutch and English whale hunters cooked oil out of this blubber
and shipped it back to Europe in barrels. There it was burned in lamps and
used for making soap and candles.]]
When the pilgrims came to America in 1620 Cape Cod Bay was full of 
whales. The early settlers where not whalemen and at first they killed only
beached whales. Then by watching Native Americans the settlers learned
how to hunt whales. 
When a whale was sighted offshore the Native Americans paddled out in
their canoes to stab it with harpoons. A chunk of wood called a drogue was]]
attached to the end of a strong vine on each harpoon. The drogues slowed
down the escaping whale so that the hunters could follow and kill it with
their lances.]]
After the whale died from loss of blood the hunters cut a hole in its jaw
fastened a strong line through it and towed the floating carcass to shore
where they cut it up for food. When the colonists began to hunt whales skilled
Native Americans made up half of the whaling crews.
Around 1645 settlers from Southampton in New York's Long Island began
to hunt whales along the coast. The crews sailed for two or three weeks at a
time camping on the beach at night.
Once they killed a whale the crewman cut its blubber into chunks and
hauled them aboard their boats. Onshore the chunks were cooked in big
iron try-pots releasing valuable oil by the barrelful. This process was called
trying-out.]]
As more settlers came to America whaling spread with them to Connecticut
Rhode Island and the island of Martha's Vineyard.
In 1690 settlers on Nantucket Island Massachusetts brought renowned
whaler Ichabod Paddock from Cape Cod to teach them whaling. Paddock
divided the ocean side of the island into four sections. Each section had a 
lookout post so the islanders could scan the horizon for whales.
A whale has to come to the surface to breathe air through its blowhole. Its
spout of misty breath can be seen from a mile away. When the lookout saw a
spout he shouted "Whale off!" and hoisted a signal flag. Then all the Nantucket
crews launched their boats from the beach.]]
Early whalers hunted the right whale a good source of oil and whalebone. It 
was gentle it swam close to shore and it floated after it was killed so it was
easy to tow. For these reasons whalers considered it the "right" one to catch.
Fifty-foot fifty-ton right whales have no teeth. They strain their food out of
seawater by forcing the water through baleen bony slats in the upper jaw.
Whalebone another name for baleen is both lightweight and strong. This made
it useful for many things - fishing rods carriage springs umbrellas fans hoops
and ladies' corsets.
Pursued by whalers of many nations right whales became scarce. By the
early 1700s a hundred years after offshore whaling began in the American
colonies the Atlantic right whales had almost disappeared.]]
Meanwhile in 1712 a Nantucket ship first reported killing a different
whale - the sperm whale. It is a hard-fighting fifty-five-foot whale with teeth.
The sperm whale prowls the deep ocean living on octopus and giant squid.
It can swallow chunks of food half the size of a twenty-seven-foot whaleboat.]]
Inside the sperm whale's enormous head is a hollow filled with a pure
clean oil called spermaceti. The oil gave the whale its name. When exposed
to the air. spermaceti hardened into a waxy substance that was prized for
making candles.
When a right whale was harpooned it was allowed to run pulling the
drogues till it tired. But a sperm whale was faster. In order to keep the whale
in sight whalers attached the harpoon line to the boat itself so the fleeing
whale pulled the boat after it.
As more whalers successfully pursued sperm whales whaling became an
important business in the American colonies. By the mid-1700s New England
was producing more oil and whalebone than it needed. These products were
sent back to England which forbade the colonies to send them to any other]]
country. At the same time the British taxed these imports to support their own
failing whale industry.
The American whaling fleet of 360 ships was nearly destroyed by the British
during the Revolution and the War of 1812. Sailors were often kidnapped and
forced to serve in the English navy. But the United States was growing and
rose to 735 ships. New Bedford Massachusetts with its deep harbor became
the whaling capital of the world.
Sperm whales grew scarce in the Atlantic so bigger ships were built to sail
past the tips of Africa and South America. Large crews were needed to man
these ships and to hunt down whales in the Indian Pacific and Arctic oceans.
During the three or four years it might take to fill all the barrels in a ship's hold
the whalemen lived on board ship.]]
Life was hard on these long trips. The captain was master and men were
severely punished if they disobeyed his orders. Many sailors drowned or died
in accidents or from disease. Some froze to death; others were killed by whales.]]
The captain and from one to four mates each had his own cabin. Little room
was left for the crew of twenty-five to forty-five men.  Those with special jobs
like barrel maker carpenter sail maker blacksmith and cook slept in bunk-
rooms. The rest crowded into one dark room under the forward deck. They
slept in double sometimes triple rows of short narrow bunks.]]
To leave space for the barrels of precious whale oil there were only enough
bunks for half the crew. So half of the men worked - washing decks setting 
sails sharpening tools and steering - while the other half slept.
Each man kept his possessions in a small chest which was also used as a seat.
Light came from a single lantern. The only air in the close smelly crew's room
came through the hatch door overhead which had to be closed in foul
weather. There were no toilets and the sailors used salty seawater for washing.]]
The officers ate together in the main cabin and were served by a cabin boy.
The crew ate on deck and their food was usually the same every day - salted
meat beans and a dry biscuit called hardtack. For a special treat the cook
might make a dessert from dried apples and raisins. On long voyages the bread
got moldy the meat spoiled and even the drinking water turned bad.]]
Either the captain or his first mate kept a log - a record of the voyage and
the whales that were sighted lost or killed.
Sometimes the sailors would not sight a whale for many weeks. To pass the
time they made scrimshaw carvings from a sperm whale's tooth or from a
piece of its lower jaw. They shaped the tooth or bone into presents for their
loved ones - clothespins knitting needles pretty boxes - and decorated the
gifts by scratching pictures into their polished surfaces.
Once in a while two ships met at sea and held a gam. This was a sociable
time lasting a day or so when the captain and his crew could visit the men on
the other ship. A gam gave the sailors a chance to exchange news and send 
letters back with a ship that was going home.]]
Each of the hands took his turn in the crow's nest a perch high in the tallest
mast to watch for whales. When he spied a whale in the distance the man sang
out "Blows! She blows!"
The crew scrambled to their places. Three or four small boats were let down
over the side. Each one held oars a mast and sail two tubs containing hundreds
of feet of rope drogues and a bucket to bail out the boat. There were also
harpoons lances and fresh water and a compass in case the boat was separated
from the ship.]]
The whalemen leaped in. Five men rowed each boat pulling hard against
their oars in a race that might take hours. The captain or one of his mates
stood facing forward to steer with his long oar.
At last they could hear the whale breathe - feel its breath on their backs. But 
the men never turned never broke their stroke.
"Steady." The mate spoke softly. He did not want to alarm the whale.
The harpooner put down his oar and rose to his feet in the bow. Carefully
he aimed a harpoon then hurtled it deep into the whale's side.
"Hit him again!" called the mate. "Hit him with all you've got!"
The harpooner sank another one into the whale's back.
Shocked by pain the whale leaped and thrashed.
Sometimes it got away. Sometimes it turned and attacked.
One blow from its powerful tail and the lightweight boat would be
shattered.]]
The whale dove deep.
Whiz! Whiz! Both harpoons were attached to a long rope which uncoiled so
fast that it hummed and smoked. The rope might have to be cut. If the line
ran out the boat could be pulled under.]]
At last the rope stopped moving. Ten minutes passed. Fifteen. The sea turned
calm and the men waited. The whale could stay down as long as an hour. 
The rope went slack.
Suddenly the whale shot up. Then it sped away dragging the boat
on what sailors called a Nantucket sleigh ride. The men held on in a
shower of spray while their boat slammed the waves for miles. The
boat could be pulled so far away that their mother ship might
never find them.]]
Finally the whale tired.
"Haul in!" shouted the mate.
The men pulled in the rope moving the boat closer to the whale.
Now by tradition the mate took the harpooneer's place. His lance was razor-
sharp. Plunging it into the whale's lung he churned it with all his might.
"Cut loose!" he ordered and the men cut the rope that attached the whale to
the boat.
The mist from the whale's blowhole turned pink and then red.
"Stern all!" the mate shouted.
The boat backed clear of the thrashing tail as mad with pain the whale beat
the sea.
Then the whale went into its final struggle which whalemen call the flurry.
Blood gushed from the creature's blowhole as it swam in furious circles.
A moan rose from deep within the giant.
An hour after the lance had struck the huge carcass rolled on its side fin up.
The whale was dead.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Vocabulary: Many difficult words

Language: Many descriptive words

Sentences: Some Long/Complex

Text structure: Formal

Inferences: Some implications

Concepts: Abstract/Complex Environmental

Glossary

Index

Features

Integral Setting - Historical

Topic

Whales

Searching/Hunting

Undersea Life

Nature

*Animals

Ocean

*Economics

Low Frequency Words

aboard	awe	bail	beached	biscuit
canoes	carcass	carriage	churned	colonies
colonists	compass	competing	corsets	creature's
crew's	crewman	disease	disobeyed	drogue
drogues	drowned	dutch	escaping	exposed
fastened	fleet	flurry	forbade	foul
furious	gam	gushed	harbor	hardened
hardtack	harpoon	harpooned	harpooneer's	harpooner
harpoons	hoisted	hollow	horizon	hurtled
ichabod	imports	industry	kidnapped	knitting
ladies	lances	lantern	lightweight	massachusetts
mast	meanwhile	nantucket	navy	necessities
northern	onshore	pacific	paddled	paddock
perch	pilgrims	plunging	possessions	precious
prized	process	producing	products	prowls
pure	pursued	raisins	razor	reasons
renowned	revolution	rowed	sailors	scarce
scrambled	scrimshaw	seawater	section	sections
separated	seventeenth	severely	shallow	shower
slack	sleigh	sociable	source	southampton
sperm	spermaceti	spied	spout	stern
stranded	substance	surfaces	swallow	thrashed
thrashing	tow	towed	tradition	twelfth
uncoiled	valuable	vineyard	voyage	voyages
whaleboat	whalebone	whalemen	whaler	whalers
whiz