226 MARINE MAM3IALS OF THE NORTH-WESTERN COAST. 



ning out. The bomb -gun and lances are for killing the whale at a greater distance 

 than could be done Avith the hand -lance; it does good execution within a range 

 of twenty -five yards. Greener's harpoon -gun is also used by whalers to some 

 e.>'tent, and quite successfully when the sea is smooth. It is similar to a small 

 swivel -gun. The barrel is three feet loug, with a boi'e of one inch and a half; 

 when stocked and complete, it weighs seventy -five pounds. The harpoon, four and 

 a half feet long, is projected with considerable accuracy to any distance under 

 eighty -four yards. It is mounted on the bow of the boat, and was formerly fired 

 by the boat-steerer, who pulls the "harpooner oar." This was the old Scotch 

 plan, the gun being first used by the Scotch whalers ; but at the present time it 

 is more successfully managed by the officer iu charge of the boat, who takes the 

 boat-steerer's place for the time being. 



The whale-boat being properly ec{uipped, the crew take their places as follows: 

 the officer in charge (or boat-lieader ) in the- stern, who steers the boat with the 

 steering-oar, which is usually twenty-two feet long; the boat-steerer, who pulls the 

 oar farthest forward, which is called the harpooner -oar, its length being usually 

 seventeen feet, and who also darts the harpoon, and after the boat is fast changes 

 ends with the boat- header and steers the boat, while the latter attends to killing 

 the whale. The next man is called the "bowman," with an oar seventeen and a 

 half feet in length, and besides his general duties he attends to the line when 

 "bowing-on." The next man is the "midship - oarsman," whose oar is eighteen 

 feet in length; then comes the "tub -oarsman," with an oar the same length as 

 that of the bowman, whose special duty is to see that the line runs clear from the 

 tub. The last is the "after -oarsman," who is the lightest of the crew, and pulls 

 a correspondingly light oar ; his particular duties are to attend the line as it is 

 hauled in and coiled in the stern -sheets, or when it is "paid out," and to bail the 

 boat. The whole outfit of the boat has two general and rather indefinite names, 

 "boat-gear" and "craft;" but the word "craft" applies particularly to the weapons 

 immediately used in the capture. 



When the boat is lowered for the chase, the line (which is nicely coiled in 

 the tub or tubs, as the case may be) is placed between the two after thwarts. 

 The men being seated in their proper places, the line from the tub is taken aft 

 around the loggerhead, then forward over the oars, and a few fathoms of it are 

 coiled in the box of the boat; it is then termed a "box -warp." Two harpoons 

 are placed at the head of the boat, the staves or poles of which rest in the "boat- 

 crotch." The end of the box-warp is made fast to the "first iron;" the "second 

 iron" is connected with the main line by a bowline in the end of a short -warp 



