TECHNIQUE 107 



whaling, and struggled home as best they could, after a single 

 voyage. The sailors of the late 18th Century, whose oars had 

 struck foam in seas from Davis Strait to Tierra del Fuego, were 

 the forerunners; and although years of vicissitude were before 

 them, they sprang to their oars and pulled to their last ounce 

 of strength after right whale or sperm, establishing the tradi- 

 tion of "a dead whale or a stove boat" that every subsequent 

 generation of whalemen has striven to maintain. 



Such were the vessels, their outfits, and their personnel. 

 Their boats were in outline trimly proportioned, double-ended 

 craft built of thin cedar planking laid on a light frame of white 

 oak, buoyant enough to weather virtually any sea, strong 

 enough, thanks to the stiffness of gunwales and keel, to swing, 

 loaded, up to the cranes, by tackles at bow and stern, and re- 

 markably light in proportion to their strength. There were 

 thwarts of pine, an inch thick, for five oarsmen and for the 

 steersman, who, as soon as the boat left the ship, was in 

 command. The clean-cut model and decided sheer made the 

 whaleboat quick to answer the steering oar or rudder and ex- 

 ceptionally seaworthy. 



For four feet at the stern and three feet at the bow the typical 

 whaleboat was decked. Under the deck at the stern was the 

 cuddy, through which the loggerhead, a well-braced timber some 

 six inches in diameter on which to snub the running line, passed 

 from the keel to which it was secured, up through the decking, 

 and above it for some eight inches. Next in order, besides the 

 centreboard, came the five thwarts, through the foremost of 

 which was a three-inch hole for stepping a mast. Like the 

 loggerhead, this bow thwart was braced with extra knees. 

 Then came the "clumsy cleat," a notch cut in a heavy pine 

 plank just abaft the forward deck, into which the harpooner 

 set his knee to brace himself for striking. Then on the sunken 

 forward deck was the "bos" for the spare line attached to the 

 harpoons or irons, and in the very stem the deep groove or 

 "chocks," with a bronze roller at the bottom, through which 

 the line was to run. To close the groove and keep the line in 

 place a wooden pin was used; but lest a knife should catch and 



