Once a whale was killed and its blubber was cut up and hauled aboard the ship for processing, the chunks of flesh were moved around the slippery vessel with long-handled, two-tined blubber forks. These forks were used to pitch the pieces of minced blubber into the hot try-pots to boil it down into oil. The long handles prevented sore backs from too much bending over and protected the men from getting too close to the boiling oil.
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