THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 159 



are coiled three hundred fathoms of hemp Hne, with every 

 possible precaution against kinking in the outrun ; a mast 

 and sprifrsail ; five oars ; the harpoon and after-oar, fourteen 

 feet ; the tub and bow-oar, sixteen feet ; and the midship, 

 eighteen feet long; so placed that the two shortest and one 

 longest pull against the two sixteen-feet oars, which arrange- 

 ment preserves the balance in the encounter when the boat 

 is worked by four oars, the harpoon-oar being apeak. The 

 boat is steered by an oar twenty-two feet long, which works 

 through a grummet on the stern-post. The gear of the boat 

 consists of two live harpoons, or those in use, and two or 

 three span-irons, i. e., harpoons secured to the side of the 

 boat above the thwarts, and two or three lances, secured by 

 cords in like position, the sharp heads of all these being 

 guarded by well-fitted, soft-wood sheaths. The harpoon is 

 a barbed, triangular iron, very sharp on the edges, or it is a 

 long, narrow piece of iron, sharpened only on one end, and 

 affixed on the shank by a rivet, so placed that before use 

 the cutting edge is on a line with the shank, but after pen- 

 etrating the whale, and, on being drawn back, the movable 

 piece drops at right angles to the shank, and forms a square 

 toggle about six inches across the narrow wound caused by 

 its entrance. The porpoise iron is preferred among the 

 Arctic whalemen, as, owing to the softness of their blubber, 

 the fluked harpoon is apt to cut its way out. The upper 

 end of a shank, thirty inches long, terminates in a socket, 

 into which a heavy oak or hickory sapling pole six feet long 

 is introduced. A short piece of whale line with an eye- 

 splice at one end is then wrapped twice around the shank 

 below the socket and close spliced. This line is stretched 

 with great strain, and secured to the pole with a slight seiz- 

 ing of rope-yarn, intended to pay away and loose the pole 

 in a long fight. The tub'line is secured to the eye of the 

 short line after the boat is lowered. The lance is simply 

 an oval-headed instrument, with a cutting edge, a shank five 



