322 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



that the Yankee Sperm whalemen of the late nineteenth century might sometimes switch to Northern 

 Right or Bowhead whaling in certain seasons : in the latter fishery a great length of line is desirable 

 because the Sperm whale, despite its reputation as a deep diver, is said not usually to sound as deep 

 as a Bowhead when it is struck and first feels the dart (Gray, 1939). One can make no general rule 

 about the reaction of Sperm whales to the harpoon, but from what I have seen I would say that a 

 typical response is to sound and take out between 150 and 200 fm. of line (or maybe no more than 

 100 fm.) and then surface and start to run: or occasionally a whale may start to run with scarcely any 

 sounding. 



The fibre used for whaleline in the Azores is nearly always hemp. This is a small but striking 

 difference from the old days, because manilla fibre was already ousting hemp from American whale- 

 boats in the 1840's, and was universally employed throughout the second half of the century. The 

 return to hemp, or its retention in the Azores, is superior practice because the best Italian hemp is 

 stronger than manilla and in the whaleboat makes a more pliable rope, coiling easily into the tubs and 

 springing freely from them. Manilla is cheaper than the best hemp, so the strength and pliability of 

 the latter must make it more economical in the long run, unless it is that hemp is more readily available 

 to the Azores. On the other hand I now hear that the islanders sometimes use sisal, which is cheaper 

 than either manilla or hemp but is an unreliable fibre under strain. 



The lines are carefully maintained. When the boats return after a day at sea, the lines are laid out 

 to dry upon the rocks. Coiling them afterwards into the tubs requires care and skill, for men's lives 

 may be endangered and a whale lost if the line does not run freely and easily from the tub. The line is 

 coiled down in Flemish flakes, and each flake is put down from the outside inwards, the line being led 

 back along a radius to the periphery to start the next flake. One end, which is the initial end when 

 coiling down, is brought up to project from the rim of the tub, and finished with an eyesplice. Canvas 

 covers, painted to make them waterproof, are placed over the full tubs. When the tubs are back in 

 position and the boat is at sea for whales, the covers are removed and the end from the waist-tub is 

 bent to the eyesplice of the after-tub with a double becket hitch. (In the whaleship days the tubs were 

 not placed in the boat until it was about to be lowered, and usually the covers were removed before 

 the tubs were stowed aboard.) The after-tub, of course, is the first to empty when the line is running. 

 It is convenient to mention here that the whaleline is at no time secured to any part of the boat. It is 

 checked by round turns at the loggerhead only. If the line were made fast somewhere, then a whale 

 suddenly taking all the line might capsize the boat and drag it under before there was time to cut. 



The American whaleboats carried two accessories for the line which are not used today in the 

 Azores. These were the drug and the blackfish poke. Both were devices to impede and exhaust the 

 whale. They were survivals from primitive whaling, for the Red Indians employed the drug, and the 

 Esquimaux employed inflated seal skins. The American drug or drogue was a heavy piece of board, 

 sometimes two boards nailed together in a cross, but usually a square or octagon about 15 or 18 in. in 

 breadth : occasionally a small wooden tub was used. The blackfish poke was the stomach of a Blackfish, 

 or sometimes a seal skin, which could be inflated in the boat. When a drug or poke was to be used in 

 a fast-boat (that is, a boat fastened to a whale), the appliance was secured by a rolling hitch to the whale- 

 line outboard of the chocks, and afterwards the line was let go, clear of the boat. Later the wounded 

 whale might be recovered, being encumbered to exhaustion by the drug or poke. In Melville's whaling 

 experience the appliances were usually employed among schools when there was opportunity of taking 

 more whales than a vessel's whaleboats could manage if dealing with them one at a time. J. T. Brown 

 said the drug was also fastened to a calf, 'to attract the mother or other sympathising cows' (1887, 

 p. 268). In the late years of the fishery the drug or poke came to be employed only as a last resort, to 

 try and save a whale which was taking out all the line. Although the drug is now obsolete in the Azores, 



