TECHNIQUE 111 



whale line, which terminated at the other end in an eye-splice. 

 This line they lightly seized to the wooden handle and made fast 

 to the end of the whale line that led from the tubs. Two irons 

 were secured thus to the single line and laid in the crotch ready 

 for the harpooner, whose intention it was to get fast with both, 

 but who was obliged at all cost to get the second iron overboard 

 in case he failed to drive it home, lest its razor-sharp edge do 

 irreparable damage when the line snapped taut. 



Several spare irons and two or three lances lashed above the 

 thwarts, a knife and hatchet in the bow to cut the line in an 

 emergency, and a boat-spade or fluke-spade and a boat-hook 

 completed the armament of the old-time whaleboat. 



Add to all this equipment a lantern, candles, a compass, hand 

 cloths, bandages, the means for striking fire, waifs, and a drug. 



The whaling lance was a spear without flukes. The oval 

 head was ground to a keen edge, and the long shank and long 

 handle, to which a light warp was secured lest it be lost, fitted 

 it admirably for the purpose of piercing to the ''life" of the 

 whale. 



The boat-spade, or fluke-spade, was of somewhat the size 

 and shape that a man's hand would be if he held it out flat and 

 cut his fingers off at the first joint, but somewhat thinner and 

 larger. It was mounted on a long handle to take the place of 

 the man's arm and was intended to cut by thrusting or pushing. 

 With this weapon, ground to a fine edge, the boat-header would 

 try, if occasion offered, to ''hamstring the whale" by cutting 

 the tendons of its flukes. 



The waifs were pennants to mark the floating bodies of dead 

 whales. The drugs were structures of plank to be made fast 

 to the line and impeded the flight of the whale by dragging like a 

 sea anchor in its wake. 



A whaleman of four boats would usually (there have been, I 

 know, many exceptions to this rule) carry three on the larboard 

 side — the larboard, the waist, and the bow boats — and one — 

 the captain's, or starboard, boat — on the starboard quarter. 



Such was the equipment of the whaling vessel. Each single 

 part of her complicated mechanism was chosen with greatest 



