Whale-fishing. Also specktion(e)er, spectioneer, ’speckshioner. [ad. Du. speksnijer, colloquial form of speksnijder, f. spek SPECK sb.4 + snijden to cut. The Du. ij was formerly, and is still locally, pronounced as (ī).] A harpooner, usually the chief harpooner, of a whaler, who directs the operation of flensing the whale or cutting up the blubber.
α. 1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., II. 40. The office of specksioneer, as it is called by the English…. The specksioneer is now considered the principal harpooner. Ibid., 299. The harpooners, directed by the specksioneer, divide the fat into oblong pieces or ‘slips.’
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Spectioneer, a whaling name for the first harpooner.
1863. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia’s Lovers, II. 89. They spoke of the specksioneer, with admiration enough for his powers as a sailor and harpooner.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 641. Specktioneer. The chief harpooner in a Greenland ship.
β. 1836. Uncle Philip’s Convers. Whale Fishery, 87. There is among the harpooners one man called the specktioner, and as he commands, the harpooners cut the fat into long pieces.
1896. Kipling, Seven Seas, 24. Up spake the soul of a gray Gothavn ’speckshioner.
