WHALE FISHERY OF NEW ENGLAND 45 



There were many unprofitable voyages, and many were the ships that 

 came home with barrels filled with salt water instead of oil for ballast. 

 Some vessels, as whalemen say, didn't have enough oil to grease their 

 irons. 



METHODS OF CAPTURE AND "TRYING OUT" 



"Whales has feelin's as well as anybody. They don't, like to be stuck 

 in the gizzards an' hauled alongside, an' cut in, an' tried out in those here 

 boilers no more'n I do!" Barzy Macks 's Biology. 



When the lookout at the masthead shouts out "Thar she blows," 

 or "There she Whitewaters," the whaleboats are gotten out and 

 rowed towards the whale, while signals from the ship show from time 

 to time the whereabouts of the whales and directions for their pursuit. 

 The first man to "raise oil" an expression which means the first to see 

 a whale usually received a plug of tobacco or some other prize, and 

 this made the lookouts more keen. 



In "Moby Dick" Melville says that the crew pulls to the refrain "A 

 Dead Whale or a Stove Boat," which became such well-known by- words 

 among whalemen that when Mr. W. W. Crapo last year presented to 

 New Bedford "The Whaleman" statue, they were inscribed upon it. 

 When rowing in a rough sea the captain cautioned the men to trim the 

 boat and not to "shift their tobacco." 



As they approach the whale the bow oarsman, who is the harpooner, 

 stands up at a signal from the captain of the boat, who is steering, and 

 yells out to "give it to him." The next order is probably to "stern all" 

 in order to avoid the whale. The boat is probably now fast, and either 

 the whale will sound and run out the line at a terrific rate or else he may 

 race away dragging the boat after him, which whalemen call "A Nan- 

 tucket Sleigh-Ride." This kind of sleigh-ride was often at railroad 

 speed and was perhaps one of the most exhilarating and exciting ex- 

 periences in the line of sport. An empty boat would certainly capsize, 

 but a whaleboat had six trained, strong, athletic men sitting on her 

 thwarts, whose skill enabled them to sway their bodies to the motions 

 of the boat so that she would keep an even keel, even though her speed 

 might plough small valleys over the huge swells and across the broad 

 troughs of an angry Pacific, and great billows of foam piled up at her 

 bow while the water rushed past the stern like a mad whirlpool. The 

 greatest care must be taken not to allow the line to get snarled up or to 

 let a turn catch an arm or leg, for it would result in almost immediate 

 death to the person thus entangled. Conan Doyle, who once took a 

 trip on a whaler, tells of a man who was caught by the line and hauled 

 overboard so suddenly that he was hardly seen to disappear. One of 

 the men in the boat grabbed a knife to cut the line, whereupon another 

 seaman shouted out, "Hold your hand, the whale'll be a good present for 

 the widow!" 



There is one case known where a man who had been hauled down by 

 the line had the presence of mind to get out his knife and cut the rope, 



