THE FINWHALK IMSHERY ()F FINMAKK. 86!) 



ramrod. A slit is carried for about three feet lengthwise through 

 the shank, in which travels a ring or grummet made of coils of 

 thin iron w'ire, to which the whale-line is attached. Forward of 

 the end of the slit a joint is formed by two large rings. This 

 joint is rendered rigid, however, when ready for firing, by firmly 

 lashing the ring of the anterior part back to the end of the slit. 

 This lashing is broken by the movement of the whale after the 

 harpoon has entered it, allowing the joint to have free play, and 

 at the same time the resistance offered by the lashing before it 

 parts breaks the force of the otherwise sudden strain on the 

 rings. In front of the second ring come the barbs before 

 mentioned, and the shaft terminates in a screw-worm, the fore 

 end being hollow to the depth of about six inches. Into the 

 hollow is fitted a tin cylinder about five inches long, containing 

 a small glass specimen-tube covered with india-rubber piping, 

 which on the fracture of the glass tube comes in contact with 

 fulminating powder, which then explodes. The fracture of the 

 glass tube is brought about by the meeting in the middle line — 

 inside the hollow end of the harpoon — of the inner ends of the 

 larger pair of folding flukes, which are continued inwards beyond 

 their pivots. On to the worm at the hollow end of the shank is 

 screwed a conical iron shell nine inches long, which is filled with 

 gunpowder, and this is exploded by the means just mentioned, 

 assisted by a little powder added as a priming inside the worm. 

 Into the fore end of the shell is screwed a three-side spearhead 

 like a ploughshare, four and a half inches long; an older pattern, 

 as used by Herr Foyn, is shaped like an ordinary spearhead — 

 i. e. flat. 



The explosion takes place when, after the harpoon has entered 

 the whale, sufiicient strain is brought on to the line to cause the 

 lashings by which the flukes were previously held down to break, 

 and allow them to open out ; the inner ends of the larger pair 

 then almost meet in the middle line, and, squeezing the glass 

 tube, break it as before described. 



The harpoon-cannon works on a pivot fixed on the forward 

 end of the forecastle. There is no bowsprit or forestay : a kind 

 of platform projects over the hows on either sid-e, giving room to 

 the harpooner to stand and turn the gun well round to either 

 side. Over the stem jn-ojects a square sheet of iron, lying at a 

 slight angle forwards; on this about twenty fathoms of the 



i«ooL,uGisT.^SKi"ri 1884. -4 F 



