Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 81—Whale Meat and Tradition

Every winter, Captain Altroni drives the Shark of Red Sea ocean fishing boat to whale and return to Whitestag town for a rare carnival. Although only students take annual leave, for most townspeople, this is also the day of cat winter. Snowy weather, it is difficult to find a job, let alone a distant door, so basically people who have nothing to do like to stay in the pub to drink and brag a day…

Therefore, the Shark of Red Sea ocean fishing boat whales returned to become the favorite watching activities for the audience. It was the same as the Niros giant crocodile that Claude hunted. The road on the quayside was full of people. Clever hawkers push their small carts in the crowd to sell melon seeds, rum, or something…

Claude and Welikro struggled into the front of the dock and almost squeezed out the sweat. Fortunately, Uncle Peg, who was guarding the gate, was in front of the door and saw the two of them coming to open the door and let them enter the dock.

The ocean fishing boat Shark of Red Sea is also parked next to the ice on the lakeside, about a hundred yards from the pier. Several people in the ice are holding a shovel in their hands and pounding the ice.

"What are they doing? Do you have to cut the ice and let the boat sail to the dock? ”Claude asked Uncle Pegg.

At the winter holiday last year, the original owner of the body, Claude, and his three companions were drilling holes in the ice on the lake, and accidentally slipped the water. Fortunately, the three partners even grabbed his clothes in time and pulled him up. But Claude was sick for half a year and was taken away by the transmigrator…

"No, winter fishing boats cannot be parked at the docks. It will freeze the fishing boats because the lake is frozen, which is very harmful to the fishing boats."Uncle Peg replied: "The fishing boat can only be parked outside the ice and move to the center of the lake as the ice expands to prevent it from being frozen. Now they are testing the thickness of the ice layer to see if they can bear the weight of a whale. ”

WhaleClaude turned to look at the two whales dragged behind the Shark of Red Sea. If you don't say anything, the part of the light that comes out of the water can be seen. The bodies of these two whales seem to be longer than the ocean fishing boats. It is conceivable how big the two whales are. In addition, Claude found that it seems that the world's whales are different from the whales they saw in previous lives. Although they all look gray-blue, the two whales seem to have a long horn on their heads, and the head is protruding a large piece, but the long horn has been taken away, and there is only one big left in the head. hole.

The narwhal, Claude, remembered the picture of the whale depicted on the biology textbook. The textbook depicts seventeen types of whale species that have been found, both large and small. The narwhal is not too big compared to other whales. Compared with the ocean blue whale, it is more like a young child next to a strong man. But the painting on the book is far less shocking than the one you saw in reality. It is conceivable that the largest ocean blue whale in the book is so huge…

"With these two narwhals, the Eriksson family is a bumper harvest this year…"Welikro next to it said something envious.

The description of the narwhal in the biology textbook is very detailed. Compared with other different kinds of whales, the narwhal is one of the more common edible whales. It is said that in the dark years, magicians led fishermen to hunt for whales to obtain alchemical test materials, and by the way, whale meat was used to make up for the famine caused by natural disasters in the fief…

Legend has it that the unicorn of the head of the narwhal is the magic material that the magician needed for the alchemy test. Although there is no book to prove, but in the Magic Division was driven out of the Freia continent now, the folk has been circulating the Unicorn's unicorn can let men revive the rumors, even the Unicorn's unicorn has become the market's hot rare herbs, Every captain of a whale hunting boat that captures a narwhal can make a fortune out of this one-horned whale.

"Uncle Peg, you just said that those people are testing the thickness of the ice layer, are they going to drag the two narwhals to the shore?"Claude asked.

Uncle Peg shook his head: "No, it is prepared to disassemble the two whales directly on the ice. It is not necessary to draw so much force to the shore. There was only one head in previous years. I had a good luck this year and I caught two of them. Those who watched the fun were blessed. They could buy a few pounds of whale meat at a very cheap price and go back to taste fresh. ”

Oh, the original Eriksson family still has such a tradition. His father, Captain Altroni, brings back one or two captured whales to kill directly on the dock every year, providing the onlookers with very cheap fresh whale meat. One of the benefits of the audience. It's no wonder that there are so many people watching the lively. The original Claude is still a bit strange. Why do a lot of people around the audience bring an empty basket, and the situation is that they will be used for whale meat…

"Welikro, Claude…"Eriksson appeared on the fishing boat. He saw Claude and Welikro. They were very excited to take off their leather hats and waved at them. They also shouted the names of the two.

Claude and Welikro also waved at him, meaning to hear, no need to yell like this. Then the two saw Eriksson grabbing a cable that fell down the boat, and as the agile monkey slid to the ice, he stood up and patted his butt and ran to the shore.

"Hey, Claude, Welikro, I want to die."Eriksson rushed to give Claude and Welikro a tight hug, then looked around and was a little disappointed: "Boa didn't come?"

"He can't come."Claude said, then told him that Borkal went to his aunt's house for the New Year this year and would not return to Whitestag in January.

Welikro carefully looked at him carefully, and finally gave him a sigh of relief and gave him a hug: "Congratulations on your safe return, there is nothing less to congratulate on your body…"

This is the truth. It is very dangerous to hunt whales in the winter. It is normal for a novice to go to the sea for the first time. This is a cold weather, not paying attention to warmth and freezing. Second, it is a dangerous work to climb the mast and rope net when the ship is operating or chasing the whale. If you accidentally get frozen, these cables are hard to be injured. To. In fact, it is not a big deal to break the roots. The serious thing is that when you come back to the sea, you have lost your arm or broken your legs…

Eriksson knocked Welikro's chest with his fist: "What are you talking about, you are too young to me, and don't want to think about who I am, Whitestag town's greatest captain of the future, Eriksson!"

"Right, Claude, Welikro, I told you that I really opened my eyes to the sea this time. You must not have imagined that the stormy waters of the winter will be so calm. The morning sun leaps from the sea level in the east, and the whole sea is golden. If it is not all around, I wonder if I am sailing on the Beringa Lake. To be honest, that moment is really beautiful, very spectacular…"

Eriksson talked to Claude and Verizon about his thrilling story of wandering and hunting for whales in the sea for more than a month. From an hour ago, Claude handed him a glass of water before he stopped. .

"Thank you, I am thirsty…"Eriksson took the water out of his cup and found out that he didn't know when he followed Claude and Welikro into Uncle Peg's hut, and Claude handed him a drink cup from Uncle Peg.

"Of course you will be thirsty," Claude looked at him helplessly: "You have sprayed me and Welikro's saliva. From the disembarkation to the present, I really doubt if you are on the boat and no one is dumb. say something……"

"Oh, this, I don't see you happy, so I said a few more words…"Eriksson smirked and explained.

At this time, a whale had been dragged on the ice. Several sailors were holding a big axe and a large saw for sawing trees, and the whales were being smashed. Some people carried a large piece of whale meat on the sled and dragged them to the dock. Uncle Peg and Eriksson's father, Captain Altroni, and several other sailors have already placed a few old wooden tables on the dock door, and the table is a piece of split whale meat.

The spectators outside the gate of the pier also lined up the queue in a very orderly manner. They threw the money into a large wooden box on the original wooden table, and then took a piece of whale meat back from the table.

"How do you sell this whale meat?"Asked Claude.

"This is cheap, a sunar five pounds."Eriksson replied.

It is indeed cheap, two fennie a pound, that is, two cents a pound, one yuan five pounds. Recently, Claude was at home, and her mother often told him to go to the open-air market to buy food. He knew the price of Whitestag very well.

The beef is now a sunar four fennie a pound, the lamb is a sunar a pound, the lamb meat is a sunar eight fennie a pound, the pork is five fennie a pound, the wild pork is eight fennie a pound. The long-tailed sword fish is six fennie a pound, and other lake fish are not expensive, basically four fennie to eight fennie a pound or so.

This kind of price is enough for Mr. Morssen's salary every day, as long as five or six sunars can make the family eat three meals a day. But for the townspeople who earned one or two silver thales in January, it is good to eat one or two beef and mutton a week. They choose to buy cheaper lake fish.

According to experts, the meat quality of the narwhal is comparable to beef, whether it is nutrition or taste. So buying a pound of whale meat at only two fennie prices is very cost-effective for Whitestag residents. Even the poorest people, as long as they are willing to earn two fennie, it is very simple, so it is not difficult to eat whale meat.

Eriksson's father, Captain Altroni, has personally dismantled a piece of whale meat on the original wooden table in front of the dock gate. Uncle Peg stood next to him, simply weighing the whale meat and handing it over to those who paid for it.

Many people threw a sunar in a large wooden box, then smashed a five-pound whale meat and said a few words of compliment to Captain Altroni.

Captain Altroni smiled and listened to the words of thank you, while quickly splitting a piece of whale meat with a short knife in his hand.

Welikro pushed Claude and pointed to the whale meat split under the Captain Altroni knife. Claude noticed that Eriksson's father's whale meat pieces were almost the same size, and Uncle Peg reported the same weight: "Five pounds or two, you take it…"

Eriksson is not surprised at this: "What is amazing about this is that it has been a good time to practice on the boat for twenty years. I will be so good in the future…"

"Why is your father cutting a piece of five pounds, and those who buy it will take one, will they not buy more?"Claude is a bit strange. Now that the weather is cold and snowy, these whale meat pieces can be bought back for a while. How do you buy a person who does not ask for more? Especially so cheap…

"They don't dare…"Eriksson said proudly. It turns out that this annual winter capture of whales dragged back to the meat is the old tradition of the Otto Rooney family. Originally Eriksson's grandfather, and the old captain of a whaling ship, there was no Shark of Red Sea, but a smaller whaling ship. Every time you go to sea, whaling is like a life-and-death adventure. There are not a few sailors in order to catch whales.

Every time Eriksson's grandfather dragged a whale back, all he wanted was to give the whale meat to the families of the dead and injured sailors so that they could live a good year. Only the extra whale meat will be sold to the poor in the town, and the price is very low.

When I arrived at Eriksson's father, with the Shark of Red Sea ocean fishing boat, whaling is no longer so dangerous. The family members of the older generation who died and injured sailors have also grown up. If they are given free of charge to their whale meat, they become like pity. Some self-respecting people refuse to accept it. They would rather pay for it than other poor people.

So the old tradition of the Eriksson family has also changed, and the free meat has become a cheap meat. No one wants to buy more, and some want to wholesale whale meat for profit, but all have been rejected by Captain Altroni. A family can only buy five pounds, which is quantitative. The old sailors at the entrance of the dock are very clear, who bought the family and did not buy it at a glance, so no one will think about the cheapness of the Otulani family tradition at this time.