AT SEA: ON PASSAGE 119 



exacted such constant attention and required such interminable 

 adjustments and repairs that a sailor's work, like a housewife's, 

 was never done. 



During this early part of a voyage the green hands be- 

 came acquainted also with the ranks and duties of all the 

 persons on shipboard. The captain was given full responsi- 

 bility and supreme authority over every detail of the cruise 

 and every member of the crew. Although answerable for his 

 conduct to courts and owners ashore, he was the most un- 

 bounded of autocrats while at sea. Sometimes he headed a 

 boat in the pursuit of whales: at other times he remained aboard 

 to direct the strategy of the chase more effectively. 



The duties of the three or four mates (according to the size 

 of the vessel) were manifold. When lowering for whales 

 each mate commanded a boat, directed the pursuit, and at- 

 tacked the prey with his lance j and he also performed the tasks 

 requiring the greatest skill and experience in the long, arduous 

 process of converting the carcasses into oil and whalebone. On 

 shipboard these officers were responsible for the maintenance 

 of discipline and efficiency, exercised general supervision over 

 the work of the crew, performed the most skilled and delicate 

 tasks themselves, and stood watches which placed them succes- 

 sively in charge of the deck. The first mate was usually the 

 busiest man on board. For in addition to being foremost in 

 action every time whales were sighted, he was directly re- 

 sponsible for the proper conduct of all routine affairs, as well 

 as for carrying out the captain's orders, keeping the log-book, 

 and directing the navigation of the vessel. 



After the mates, the most important group of men on board 

 consisted of the boatsteerers, or harpooners — one for each 

 boat. These were skilled and experienced whalemen who were 

 given the posts of greatest danger and responsibility in per- 

 forming the actual labor of a cruise. Their alternative names 

 grew out of their two most important functions — those of 

 flinging the harpoon and thereupon going aft to steer the 

 whaleboat while the mate came forward to wield the lance. 

 Together with the steward, and sometimes the cooper or ship- 

 keeper, they lived in separate quarters amidships, known as 

 the steerage. In location as well as in rank, therefore, they 



