THE PRESENT SURVIVAL OF OPEN BOAT WHALING 33 , 



because the whale often reacts to the resistance by sounding further. So the line is freed and surges 

 out again. With perhaps one tub empty and the other partially so, the whale starts to rise so that there 

 is slack line to haul. The men face forward, straddling the thwarts, and labour to bring in the line 

 which passes between their legs and is coiled down, not in the tubs, but on the boatheader platform. 

 It has nevertheless to be coiled neatly, for in a short time the whale probably starts to run, and all this 

 recovered line must fly out again: a foul turn in the coil at this juncture, or a foot carelessly placed at 

 the boatheader's end, can be disastrous. As soon as the whale slackens, the boatheader snubs the line 

 and the boat goes away at an astonishing speed behind the towing whale which now renews its effort. 

 Captain G. A. Covill (in Davis, 1874, P- 39-8) claimed that a Sperm whale could tow a whaleboat at 

 between 20 and 25 knots for a short time. This is little, if at all, overestimated, for my impressions, 

 refreshed and confirmed by the evidence of the cine-film, suggest to me a speed approaching or 

 attaining 20 knots, although only for short bursts, and these very soon or immediately after feeling the 

 iron and the strain on it. Towing behind a running whale, called a ' Nantucket sleigh ride ' in the old 

 days, may continue for some time, but with intermissions and slackenings and renewals of pace, during 

 which turns are repeatedly put on and taken off the loggerhead to snub or to free the line. At times 

 there is a chance to haul slack line, but as like as not this will be taken out and the tow begin again. 

 Whenever the line is running the boat-bucket and the piggin are employed to wet the flakes as they 

 uncoil. 



If the whale looks like taking all the line, then a motor-boat or a nearby ' loose-boat ' is signalled to 

 bring up more line. The motor-boat may run alongside and exchange the empty after-tub for a full 

 one, but a neighbouring loose-boat (one not fast to a whale) passes the end of its whaleline to the 

 harponeer of the fast-boat, who secures it outboard of the chocks by a rolling hitch to what remains 

 of the original line: thereupon the boatheader lets go this line, and the former loose-boat becomes 

 fast, whilst the fast-boat becomes loose. Sometimes in the Azores a whale will take the line of three 

 boats, but not necessarily in a deep sounding, for repeated bursts of furious running can take out all 

 this length of line. 



Lancing. Eventually the whale slackens enough for the boat to approach for the lancing. Sometimes 

 this happens no more than a few minutes after the boat fastens, but this does not necessarily mean 

 a quick kill, for several lance-thrusts are commonly required, and a lanced whale may start again and 

 tow for a long time and with renewed power before the harponeer can get in some thrusts more taxing 

 to its strength, and in the end mortal. 



As the whale slackens the men straddle their thwarts and haul towards him, hand over hand. This 

 can be laborious work when they must fight every inch of the line they win. When fairly near, and if 

 he is now going slowly enough or is by this time stopped, the whalemen can get out oars and pull up 

 to him, often ' wood and blackskin '. But if he is still going pretty strong, the line is brought from the 

 chocks to the bow-cleat, and the boat ' bowed on ' to veer alongside the whale, near enough for a thrust 

 or toss with the lance. 



The chosen spot is a little behind and above the flipper with the lance directed obliquely forwards, 

 and it is the whaleman's skill and experience to find the ' life ' or vital spot in the thoracic viscera. For 

 the whaleman this does not seem to be the heart, perhaps because its thick ventricular walls may tend 

 to close against a cut, sealing for a time the slim wound of the lance-head. The lungs are generally 

 considered as the life, although it is interesting to note that Davis (1874, p. 176) discriminates further, 

 naming the blood reservoir formed by the complexus of blood-vessels lying under the spine and in 

 the neighbourhood of the lungs : these are the thoracic rete mirabile. 



The nearness of approach of the whaleboat determines the method of handling the lance. If the 

 harponeer 'gets a set' wood and blackskin, then he may, standing braced at the thigh board and then 



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