122 THE WHALE HUNTERS 



Irish or Scottish descent. The unusual breadth of his 

 body made him look even shorter than his five feet three 

 inches. Against the other three harpooners, one of 

 whom was an African negro several inches over six feet, he 

 looked shorter than ever. Perhaps, thought Thomas as 

 he regarded the squat figure with the long muscular ape- 

 like arms, this Jamie is the new style in harpooners, 

 for after all, it must be much easier to balance a body 

 with such a low centre of gravity than a tall and lanky 

 one. 



Together they climbed into the boat and began their 

 inspection. 



The American whaleboat had reached by now the peak 

 of its perfection. Every plank, timber and nail along its 

 twenty-eight-foot length had evolved to the point where it 

 gave the maximum strength with the minimum weight. 

 There was a brass roller where the whale-line ran out of 

 the bows and, fitted to the gunwale just astern of the bow 

 platform, a plank with a semi-circular section cut out to 

 take the thigh of the harpooner and known as the 'clumsy 

 cleat'. In addition to the five oars and the steering oar 

 there were five paddles lashed to the undersides of the 

 thwarts in readiness for the calm weather occasions when 

 the noises caused by the oars might frighten or 'galley' the 

 whale from the surface. The third means of propulsion 

 was the sail which could be raised by fitting the mast into 

 the hole in the second thwart or lowered and laid flat 

 according to the state of the wind. 



So efficient had the American boat proved itself that 

 its design had been adopted by all the European countries 

 then engaged in the whaling industry. 



The harpoons and lances rested in their crotches but 

 the whale-line, now of flaxen-coloured manilla instead of 

 the brown hemp of Jonathan's time, was not in the boat. 

 The tub containing its two hundred and twenty fathoms, 

 so meticulously coiled in concentric layers by Jameson, 



