126 VOYAGE INTO 



cause it doth lye across, and that is the reason why they cut 

 it off. Before the tail they fasten a piece of a rope, and the 

 other end at the stern of the last sloop. There is in all four 

 or five sloops fastened to one another behind, and so they 

 row one behind the other to the great ship. When they 

 have brought the whale to the ship, they tye it with ropes 

 fast to the ship ; that part where the tail is cut off they fasten 

 to the forepart of the ship, and the head towards the stern, 

 about the middle, near the great shrouds of the mainmast on 

 the larboard side of the ship. It is seldom that a whale doth 

 reach farther than from the poop to the middle of the ship, 

 except the vessels are very small. 



By the larboard is to be understood that side of the ship 

 that is at your right hand as you go from before towards the 

 stern ; but that side of the ship that is on your right hand as 

 you go from the stern towards the forepart is called the star- 

 board, because you go from the steer forward. 



Whoever of the ships crew sees a dead whale, cries out 

 " Fish m{7ie" and therefore the merchants must pay him a 

 ducat for his care and vigilance. Many of them climb often 

 up into the mast in hopes to have a ducat, but in vain. 



When the dead tvhale is thus fastened to the ship, two 

 sloops hold on the other side of the fish or whale, and in 

 each of them doth stand a man or boy, that has a long hook 

 in his hands, wherewith he doth hold the boat to the ship ; 

 and the harpoonier stands before in the sloop, or upon the 

 whale, with a leathern suit on, and sometimes they have 

 boots on. Underneath the hook are some sharp nails fixed, 

 that they may be able to stand firm, for the whale is very 

 slippery, so that one may easily fall, as upon slippery ice. 

 These two men that cut the fat off have their peculiar wages 

 for it, viz., about four or five rix dollars. First, they cut a 

 lai'ge piece from behind the head, by the eyes, which they 

 call the henter-piece, that is as much as to say the winding- 

 piece; for as they cut all the other fat in rows from the whale 



