62 THE WHALE HUNTERS 



tackles suspended from the main rigging; but with some 

 of the crew working at the windlass and others man- 

 handling her over the side the boat was eventually got 

 into the water. The crew scrambled into their places, 

 Chimoo with his bright coloured headdress seated in the 

 bows, Todd wielding the long steering oar in the stern 

 and Joseph one of the five oarsmen. They pulled clear of 

 the ship and then hoisted sail. With the wind astern and 

 the five oars dipping rhythmically the boat bore down 

 upon the whale which was swimming away from them 

 and spouting at regular intervals. The head of the 

 Greenland right whale was arched at the top and it was 

 this curious feature which caused it to be given the name 

 of 'bowhead'. It sounded before the boat could overtake 

 it but Todd pressed his craft onwards. A mile astern the 

 Pilgrim followed Hke a mother watching her venturesome 

 child. 



In about a quarter of an hour the whale broke surface 

 only a few hundred yards from the boat. 



Now Chimoo shipped his oar, took up his harpoon and 

 stood poised in the bows. The sail was lowered and the 

 oarsmen manoeuvred the boat to approach the bowhead 

 at an angle which would keep them clear of the tail. 

 Then Chimoo's arm swept forward thrusting his harpoon 

 through the air across the few feet that divided him from 

 the whale. Another harpoon followed in quick succession 

 and the whale set off at full speed along the surface, taking 

 with it the line and the wooden drogues designed to check 

 its speed. There was 250 fathom of this hemp line coiled 

 down in the big tub near the stern of the boat and it 

 passed between the larboard and starboard banks of 

 oarsmen, over the looms of their oars and out of the boat 

 through the specially shaped fairlead on the extreme point 

 of the bows. 



Todd the mate now left his steering oar trailing astern 

 and began checking the outward run of the line by passing 



