WHALING 521 



harpoon gun rests. On the port side of the stem a small eye- 

 bolt is screwed, and to this is carried a preventer stay from the 

 crutch of the gun to take some of the recoil of the shot, which, 

 considering that the harpoon and shackle for the attachment of 

 the foregore weighs from eight to twelve pounds, and is driven 

 by from five to six drams of coarse powder, must be very severe. 

 In addition to this, for fear of losing the gun if the crutch 

 and preventer stay give way, there is another line, fastened to 

 the bend of the crutch and carried down through the salvage 

 deck, where it is belayed. This is a very necessary precaution. 

 Crutches do sometimes break, as the writer knows to his own 

 cost. 



The other bollard head is placed about fourteen inches aft 

 of the gun bollard head in the centre of the boat, leaving suffi- 

 cient space to take round it one, two, and sometimes three 

 turns of the line ; so that as much strain as is safe can be 

 brought to bear on the fish. The line cuts deeply into the 

 bollard head, often leaving a mark as if a red-hot iron had 

 been applied ; indeed, to prevent the wood from catching fire, 

 water has to be poured on it. 



On the port side, close to the gun, the foregore tub is bolted. 

 This is simply a wooden tub, about one foot in diameter and six 

 or eight inches in height, containing from ten to twelve fathoms 

 of beautifully made Manila line, which is spliced to the gun har- 

 poon shackle at one end, and either spliced or hitched (according 

 to the ideas of the skipper or harpooneer) to the whale line just 

 outside the score. The bight of the foregore is carefully coiled 

 down Flemish fashion in the tub, so that it will run freely when 

 the harpoon is fired. A whale line measures 120 fathoms, and 

 varies from two and a half to three inches of beautifully made 



put on warm and contracts when it is cold. In the boat which the writer 

 measured when writing this chapter the gun bollard head is placed a little on 

 the port side, i ft. 3 in. from outside the score. Boats vary, it is right to say. 



3 X 



