246 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



rienced. This is the method of transportation ou small vessels, the object being to economize 

 space by placing the boats outboard. The manner of carrying a spare boat on a schooner is as 

 follows: Two pieces of timber, or "bearers," bolted to the stern-frame, project outboard perhaps 

 4 or 5 feet. These projections are facetiously termed " tail-feathers." On some vessels the boat 

 merely rests head and stern upon the bearers ; but on others, the keel of the boat rests upon a 

 heavy plank extending athwartships and fastened to the outboard ends of the bearers. The boats 

 are held in position by means of a piece of plank at each end bolted to the bearers.* Spare oars, 

 harpoon poles, and other implements of this kind, are also stowed outboard with the boats. 



THE STEAM CUTTER. Owing to the noise made by the escape of steam, boats propelled by 

 this motor have not, until very recently, been used to advantage in approaching whales. The 

 Norwegians employ steamers in the capture of the whale, heavy guns placed on deck being used 

 to throw the projectiles. Americans have also used steamers entirely decked over, as the White- 

 law and the Rocket, off the San Francisco heads, in the capture of fin-backs, and I am told that 

 the Northwest Whaling Company employed a small steam launch on the south coast of Alaska 

 for fastening on to whales by means of the whaling rocket, a weapon also used by the Califor- 

 nia steamers. It should be borne in mind that the above-mentioned steamers operated near the 

 coast and used pieces of ordnance or rocket- guns, and consequently were enabled at times to prose- 

 cute this branch of the fishery successfully ; but the necessities of open-sea whaling require small 

 boats that may be lowered from the vessels to intercept the whales, as such large objects as ships 

 would galley them. The desideratum of the whaleman is to fasten his whale to the boat by means 

 of the harpoon and line, in order that the animal 7iiay, in a measure, be under control. Having 

 accomplished this object the whale may be dispatched with bomb-lances. The early method 

 adopted for the capture in deep-sea whaling was to approach the. whale in boats propelled by 

 oars, or, whenever the whales evinced the slightest timidity, by the use of paddles. As little noi.se 

 as possible should be made at such times. It soon became evident, however, that speed in " going 

 ou to a whale" was of the utmost importance; and although sails were suggested, it was believed 

 that such conspicuous objects would not only frighten the whales, but probably also be the means 

 of swamping the boat, or otherwise endangering the lives of the crew during the actual capture. But 

 James Beetle, of New Bedford, applied the patent mast-hinge to this kind of craft; sails were set, 

 the boat swiftly approached the whale, and the imist and sail were lower* d together with the 

 greatest ease soon after the harpoouer darted his instrument into the whale. All whales are now 

 struck under canvas, and a whaleman who does not sail on his whale under favorable conditions 

 does not understand his calling. But the whales are becoming educated or getting their eyes 

 open, so to speak, to the present system of warfare waged upon them ; and it now becomes nec- 

 essary to introduce a motor for facilitating the transit of boats to the objects of capture. To this 

 end Prof. Spencer F. Baird, -United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, and Lieut. Z. L. 

 Tanner, United States Navy, Commander United States Fish Commission steamer Albatross, sug- 

 gested the use of one of the Herreshoif steam cutters as an experiment in this fishery. Acting upon 

 the advice of these gentlemen, Messrs. I. H. Bartlett & Sons, of New Bedford, introduced one of the 

 proposed launches in the North Pacific during the year 1882. This launch is 28 feet long, with a 

 beam of 1 feet. It has an upright boiler, uses " arctic coal " as fuel, and is of the same kind as those 

 now employed by some of the steamers of the Navy. It was not intended, however, by the pro- 

 jectors of this scheme that the launch should be used in the actual capture ; its object being solely to 



According to Manby's account (Voyage to Greenland, 79) English \vh;i lei s <"i rrird sjiaro bouts at the stern. " While 

 on the English ship Baffin, the Grepiilandniau Vigilant, of London, homeward hound to that port, was spoken. In 

 the boat hanging over her stern was a coffin containing the remains of one of her boat-steerers who had been killed 

 by a whale." 



