TECHNIQUE 109 



greatest skill and knowledge. (Incidentally, the ranking officer 

 thus escaped the backbreaking labour of many a long pull after 

 the whale.) 



It will be seen that this division of responsibility and labour 

 gave the boat, since the harpooner pulled a starboard oar, 

 three oars to starboard and two to larboard or port. This want 

 of balance was compensated by varying the lengths of the oars. 

 The oarsmen were called, from bow to stem, harpooner, bow 

 oarsman, midship oarsman, tub oarsman, and stroke oarsman. 

 Taking the oars of a particular boat as an example, since the 

 lengths were relative and not arbitrarily fixed, the harpoon and 

 stroke oars were fourteen feet long, the tub and bow oars six- 

 teen feet, and the midship oar eighteen feet. Thus the two 

 shortest and the longest pulled against the two of medium 

 length, and when the harpooner or mate was standing in the 

 bow to strike or lance the whale, the longest and shortest oars 

 pulled against the other two. 



If wind permitted, the boats swept down on whales under 

 sail, lest the sound of oars alarm them. If a dead calm prevailed, 

 paddles were used for the same reason. When oars were used, 

 the sound was muffled as well as might be by mats carefully 

 greased. 



To the different oarsmen fell different responsibilities. Of 

 the four the bow oarsman had most to do, and to choose a man 

 to pull the bow oar was to honour him above his fellows. He 

 took the lances out of their beckets for the boat-header, took the 

 sheaths off the lance-heads, and held the line according to the 

 boat-header's orders, to bring the boat into the best position for 

 lancing. The midship oarsman, having to pull the longest oar, 

 was chosen for size and strength. It devolved upon the tub oars- 

 man to drench the line when the whale was sounding, lest fric- 

 tion set it on fire; and the stroke oarsman, besides setting the 

 stroke, was called upon to help clear the line and coil it down 

 as they hauled it in. 



In the after part of the boat, as the position of the tub oars- 

 man indicates, rested the big tub which held the whale line. 

 It was perhaps a yard in diameter, and the two ends of the line 



