350 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [62] 
48.—THE MANNER OF FITTING A VESSEL FOR SWORDFISHING. 
The Sword-fish are always harpooned from the end of the bowsprit of 
a sailing-vessel. It is next to impossible to approach them in a small 
boat. All vessels regularly engaged in this fishery are supplied with a 
special apparatus for the support of the harpooner as he stands on the 
bowsprit, and this is almost essential to success, although it 1s possible 
for an active man to harpoon a fish from this station without the aid of 
the ordinary frame-work. Not only the professional swordfishermen 
but many mackerel schooners and packets are supplied in this manner. 
An illustration of the Sword-fish “ pulpit” is given in one of the plates. 
It is constructed as follows: The harpooner stands upon the tip of the 
bowsprit, outside of the jib-stay. Atthis point is fastened a square plate 
of iron as wide as the bowsprit. In the middle of this plate is a mortise 
two inches square and extended three or four inches down into the 
wood, forming a socket for an upright iron bar two inches square and 
three feet high. At the top of this bar is a bow of iron bent backward 
in semicircular form to surround the waist of the harpooner, the ends 
of the bow being separated by a distance of perhaps two feet. In the 
ends of the bow-iron are holes through which are passed irons to hold 
the dart when not in use. Through these same holes are sometimes 
passed ropes, by which is suspended a swinging seat for the use of the 
harpooner when not in action. When not in use the dart is lashed in a 
horizontal position to the top of the “rest”. The lanceis usually allowed 
to rest against the jib-stay, to which it is secured by passing it through 
loops of rope arranged for the purpose. Upon the tip of the bowsprit, 
at the base of the rest, is a platform of wood about two feet sqnare, large 
enough to afford a firm foot-hold to the harpooner. The harpoon-line is 
coiled upon the bow of the vessel, the buoy usually resting upon the 
bulkhead or close at hand. A second harpoon-line, attached to the re- 
serve or second harpoon, is coiled upon the other side. 
The structure above described is usually called a “rest”, though not 
infrequently the “pulpit”. Capt. Benjamin Ashby always called it an 
“oresembo”. I was unable to obtain from him any derivation of this 
remarkable word. He informed me that he had always used this name 
because the thing looked to him as if it ought to be called by that name, 
and that he had never heard any one else call it so except members of 
his own crew, who had learned the word from him. This is a curious 
illustration of the arbitrary manner in which fishermen are accustomed 
to coin names for new articles of apparatus. Although many archaic | 
and provincial terms whose etymology is plainly traceable are in use 
among our sea-faring men, there are numerous others for whose mean- 
ing and origin it would be vain to search. 
I have been unable to learn when and by whom this peculiar piece of 
apparatus was devised. 
