This is the valuable spermaceti from which the finest candles are made.

One whale will sometimes yield fifteen barrels of spermaceti oil from the "case" of its head.

A large fish will produce from eighty to a hundred barrels of oil altogether, sometimes much more; and when whalemen converse with each other about the size of whales, they speak of "eighty-barrel fish", and so on.
Although I have written much about the fighting powers of the sperm whale, it must not be supposed that whales are by nature fond of fighting.

On the contrary, the "right" whale is a timid creature, and never shows fight except in defence of its young.

And the sperm whale generally takes to flight when pursued.