166 ALL AFLOAT 



was the motto for every man who joined the 

 chase. Discipline was stern ; and rightly so. 

 A green hand was allowed one show of funk ; 

 but that was all. However, there was very 

 little funking so long as Britishers, Bluenoses, 

 and Yankees could pick their crews from 

 among the most adventurous of their own 

 populations. 



Hardly had the long-drawn clarion of the 

 look-out's B I o w ! sounded aloft than the 

 boats were lowered from the davits and began 

 pulling away towards the likeliest spot for a 

 rise. Two barbed harpoons, always known 

 as ' irons,' were carried on the same line, 

 always called the * warp.' If both could be 

 used, so much the better, especially as they 

 were some distance apart on the warp, the 

 bight of which formed a considerable drag in 

 the water. Other drags, usually called ' drugs,' 

 were bits of wood made fast thwart-wise on 

 the warp, so as to increase the pull on a sound- 

 ing whale. The coiling and management of 

 the warp was of the utmost importance. 

 Many a man has gone to Davy Jones with a 

 strangling loop of rope around him. Every- 

 thing, of course, had to be made shipshape in 

 advance, as there was no time for finishing 

 touches once the cry of B I o w! was 



