64 The Story of the New England Whalers 



And those barefooted boys worked their way 

 aft to the berths of mates and captains with the 

 rapidity, and with the ease and certainty, with 

 which they climbed on a stormy night to the 

 weather-topsail yard-arm when sail was to be 

 shortened. "Bill" Phipps, the backwoods orphan 

 boy, went to sea before the mast and in time came 

 to be known as Sir William. Every ship's deck 

 was then a pathway to honorable distinction, but 

 in no other ship could an ambitious green hand 

 gain rank so quickly as on a whaler; for the 

 whaler carried more officers than any other ship, 

 and the necessities of the work compelled the 

 officers to give much attention to the training of 

 the inexperienced. 



The whale ship not only carried a captain and 

 at least two mates, as other ships did, but it carried 

 also a harpooner for every boat on the davits. 

 And it was no small distinction to rank as har- 

 pooner on a successful whaler. In the work of 

 killing a whale the harpooner stood up in the bow 

 of the boat, as it danced and plunged over the 

 waves; poised aloft the harpoon, and then hurled 

 the weapon through the air with a might that drove 



